Freud and Jung and Their Secret Affairs

Of all of Freud’s admirers and critics, the most complex, complicated and troubled relationship was of Carl Jung. He started as an admirer and ended as a critic.

Europe and the Film Culture

Despite the speculated aggressive reactions, the film “Fitna” was released on the Internet on March 27, 2008.

At Last...Nationalism at Last

Socialism, the destroyer of the civilisations, took the world under its claws after the Second World War. This (Kosovo) win might be the beginning of the end of the anti-nationalist hegemony all round the world.

Pakistan's Flawed and Feudal Princess

It's wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat, says this acclaimed south Asia expert. Her legacy is far murkier and more complex.

Courage in a Time of Chaos

The enemies of our country are vast and they are clever; they would like nothing better than to see us sink into lawlessness and despair.

Benazir Bhutto: A Sad Farewell

After 9/11 it was Benazir Bhutto that took up the banner of democratic hope in Pakistan, stressing the need for cross-cultural exchanges, religious harmony and how to make peace.

Mourning Benazir Bhutto

The country is on the brink of disaster. Banks are burning, government buildings are on fire, emotionally charged political workers are streaming on streets across Pakistan.

Calling Chanda

In her early twenties Haryalee, like Chanda, was a eunuch or more commonly known as the hirja or the third sex member of another hijra community residing in Nagin Chowk.

The Muffled Rage

These fragmented sentences and paragraphs are like those human parts and our character as a nation dispersed all over these streets of Karachi.

The Durrani Family Saga

The poor in Pakistan must be given an alternate to the clergy to take them out from the spiral of ignobility in which they are caught.

The Keys

Invite me back
My home and mountains
Let me remain sane
So I can converse again

Bernard Lewis and the Neocon view of Islam

Lewis has had such a profound influence that according to the Wall Street Journal, “the Lewis doctrine, in effect, had become US policy”.

Inside Story of Nawaz's Cooked Up Return to Pakistan

What actually happened on September 10th, when Nawaz Sharif decided to come back to Pakistan after eight years in exile.

A Friend of Feudalism

The very reasons that make the west love Benazir Bhutto are the same that leave many Pakistanis with second thoughts.

No Choice But This

A Three Act Play ... what does a father do for a son paralysed neck down...

We are family

Ellada: 3 Weeks in Northeastern Aegean Islands

We alternate our summer vacations between Pakistan and Greece, visiting places of history and intrigue. '07 was a Greece year.

Sunshine, Smiles and Flowers

A small rectangular album fell in my lap as I pulled out the dusty box resting in the innermost corner of my cupboard. This brown box labeled “Viking Dinner Set” contained possessions from my college days.

In Memory of my dear Friend

Almost a week after the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJ), I felt concerned about Hamad’s safety so immediately I punched in an email inquiring about how was he doing?

A Weekend in Vienna

I was joined in this ancient bibliothek by a trio of Russian ladies, all splendidly over-dressed

Revathy Gopal: RIP

When I was informed about her demise this evening, I went online to read her column on Chowk and wondered….does one really live on through one’s work? Possibly so, because I now seem to see her essays, specially the ones on religion, in a new

The Dispatches On War: Part X

Metternich And the European Politics of Power: 1815-1850

Medicalising Pakistan

A recent visit to Pakistan was the eye opening one. There was one pharmacy in my neighborhood a few years ago, but now the small street is sprawling with five pharmacies and all are doing “wonderful business”.

Meeting the Pakistani-Swiss

By a Burger King, I saw a group of Eastern European men playing chess with giant wooden pieces. Next to them, was a clique of South Asian men in their forties and fifties smoking cigarrettes and talking animatedly in Punjabi.

Muslims ‘Unveiled’

Muslims should be willing to adapt to the host culture as much as possible

Children of a Lesser God

Last week, a number of eunuchs holding placards gathered in front of the parliament building to protest against the excesses of their leader, Bobby Guru. They also made it a point to support the debate on the Hudood laws in parliament, thereby maki

Whose Life is it Anyway?

The killing of another human being on the grounds that there is no quality of life is not accepted by the legal system and is repugnant to morality. But things are beginning to get complicated.

Meaningful Giants in ‘Eurasian Balkan’

When the world is getting hoarse on the sight of ‘pressure cooker’, unfortunately no platform at the Eurasian Balkan level is being evolved for the dialogue among the Titans.

Writers Writers Everywhere, Not A Teenager Around?

We are supposed to be acting adults, showing our worth to not only our country, but also to the world.

String them up

Jeet lo dil ?

Thoughts on Life Before Death

...the invading marauders, the exploitive landlords and the apathetic rulers were a threat to the family unit

My Harvard Reunion

There were people of all different colors and races in the Yard. This year South Americans had topped the list of foreign students, it used to be Chinese followed by Indians or Japaneese but now, Brazilians and Chilians...

On the Inside

This essay is meant to bust a few myths and communicate a few home truths about “feudalism” in this country, which many people in the urban centers of the country believe to be the reason for why things in Pakistan are so amiss.

2005 UK General Elections

The knives that did in Thatcher are being polished again.

Chandni Bar

There’s no sex, there’s no physical interaction, there’s no stripping or lap dances. Just a few girls wearing skirts and flimsy blouses dancing away and staring at you... What reason could there be for 40-something men to waste their tim

Stuck in Stone Age

Akbar Bugti was quite successful in steering the misdirected anger of his people for the sake of his personal gains.

Is There Space for Middle Class?

Our cities are designed to be suburbia without a middle class.

Understanding Innovation & Its Sources

It is a mean by which entrepreneur creates a new wealth producing resources or ends existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth.

Feudals and Us

From the time of King Akbar onward, mostly lower castes were converted to Islam in the second phase while tribal based conversions were mostly to Sikhism. The conversion to Islam based on tribal basis made it the majority religion in the region now compri

OPEN’s New Beginnings

He said, “If somebody tells you that it can’t be done, prove them wrong.”

Dreams

What are dreams? How can you explain the unlimited diversities with which the human mind dreams?

One Night in Romania

True story of a Pakistani’s ordeal while backpacking in the hinterlands of Europe

In Search of Birth Places

He had left it when he was only one year old. Sure enough, as we make the final mountain turn, there is Kusik on the hilltop, visible from miles. The locals talk of it as Devi ka Mandar or Kusik fort. A 50-60-house village is located next to

The obstacle in social mobility in Pakistan

Implement true Land Reforms in Pakistan, no more the facade of democracy.

In Search of Greener Pastures

It is time we drop the rhetoric and bring an end to Pakistan’s feudalism

Origins of the Modern World Capitalist Economy

Changing The Thana Culture

as time passes land holdings of Feudals continue to decrease through an ongoing evolutionary process

A Reason For Change

What is really interesting about Marianne Pearl’s interview with CNN is not what she said

Why An Interim Civilian Government will Fail

Putting up a front government will achieve simply nothing

Nuclear powers can count too!

Can we implement a new census at the dawn of the new millenium?

Crying Buddha

Three tears fell to wet the Indian desert on
This grim and horrifying day in May as ...