The Psyche of Al-Qaeda

To have a better understanding of the psyche of Al-Qaeda we need to understand the ideology, personality and political strategy of the organization’s leaders as well as the followers.

Love at Shara Zawia

Muneer and Emily had gone to Tangiers to register their marriage, as many foreigners who marry in Libya do.
Emily does not like to talk about these things.

Fathers and Daughters

When Abu liked to talk of the moon, sitting by the sea, he was quite the man. He would tell me complicated things about life, and how to live it as a running clock with no hands. To feel its essential present.

Living Gandhi and King Today: Unbroken Historic Continuity

In the current hopeless global situation, Gandhian way has a promise for a better world. It promotes consciousness of peace and harmony, the foundation to build a peaceful society

The God Delusion

In protest of all religio-zealots, I am bringing to attention of all, the work of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion".

An Ode Called Amritsar

On hearing that I was about to visit her ancestral city, my mother gave me instructions to reach her childhood home from the railway station...

The Gin Game

Despite being a small group, The Gate Theater surely managed to touch an emotional yet witty story through a brilliantly written piece of literature.

Happy Mother's Day

Today, 11th May is Mother’s Day. It is almost absurdly romantic that a country like Pakistan would celebrate a day like to honor mothers!

The Psychology of Mothering

It is interesting that as our culture is changing and many women are reluctant to take on motherly duties, more men are becoming motherly and nurturing.

Hypnotherapy: Mind-Body Interactions

Imagine thinking yourself to better health. Dating back from 2600 BC this concept of inducing oneself to an alternative state of mind, has evolved through many stages.

Theatricality in Painting

Both meaningful genres depict emotions related to life, most of the time, emotions of tragedy, and in between cheerful emotions of joy, for a change!

Men's Liberation...Better Late Than Never

It is ironic that those men who become caring towards their wives are sometimes called sissy, wimp and 'zan mureed'

US Conspiracy to Destablize Pakistan?

First it was Ms Bhutto who was conspiring along with the US to destabilise and denuclearise Pakistan. And the CIA eliminated her. Israeli agency, Mossad, was also involved...

The Conspiracy Theory

Even today I come across many adults who essentially think of the world in such simplistic terms: interconnected; controlled and run by a single source of intelligence.

The Guava Woman’s Crèche

Remembering sweet-tartness, salivating,
People taste them with their eyes.
A matronly woman stoops and buys.

Communists and the Making of Pakistan

History of the last years of Punjab under the Raj

Catharsis

This house was her mother’s. This house was killing her slowly but surely. She could feel mother’s presence everywhere in every nook and corner of this house…

Young and Old

When I see her motionless, swollen hands with disfigured nails and twisted fingers, I remember that those same hands gently soothed me as a child when I had asthma attacks.

Periyar An Iconoclast and a Reformer

Dr. Ambedkar found his answers (to caste problem) in Buddhism, Periyar felt the answer lay in humanism and he became progressively an atheist and a rationalist.

The Muslim Brotherhood – A Force Not to be Underestimated

If nothing else, the fact that the various despotic regimes in the Arab world hate the Muslim Brotherhood itself is a plus point in their favour.

Mother Teresa’s Moment of Truth

Soon afterwards the doubts and skepticism, not about her missionary work but her faith, began to assail her mind and lasted until her death.

Letter to My Unborn Son

I always joke that “every parent gets an opportunity to screw up their kids in their own particular way”

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.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

It is said that Archimedes knew all the mathematics that was developed up to his time and some more. The same is said of Newton and Carl Gauss.

Guard of Honour

The outcome of the match between Eaton FC and with Weymouth FC did not evince too much of interest amongst the English football enthusiasts but for the fact that the world was to watch a ‘footballing genius’ one last time.

Thirty Six Murders in Search of a Resignation

The perpetrators of May 12th may lie, but dead bodies don’t.

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

If religion is to follow the scientific lead, it then becomes falsifiable like science. When a religion becomes falsifiable, it loses its divine base and its God ceases to be as mighty as we conventionally believe It is.

Johannes Kepler – A Mysterious Cosmographist

He lived his life in poverty and misery but he immortalized himself by formulating his three laws of cosmology. He was a humble person who said, “there was nothing I could state that I could not also contradict.”

The Princess and the Alley Cats

Shilpa Shetty - A clash of cultures or simple racism?

Phantom of the Opera

A quintessentially tear-jerking performance, reminded us that when a Phantom is killed, we cry at the inevitable sadness of obsession.

A Humanistic Approach Towards Mental Illness

We need to see a day when people with mental illness can live respectfully and peacefully and do not fear to be persecuted and penalized because of their emotional problems.

Who is Responsible

One Man’s Religion as Another Man’s Belly Laugh

The funny side of the Pope’s comments - why can’t people laugh anymore?

Conspiracy Theories: From the Mind to the Media

Many have come up trumps discovering a massive market hungry for the latest conspiracy theory. The result being, the tremendous commercial growth witnessed by FOX News Network, Al-jazeera and a number of Pakistani news channels and newspapers.

Killing Fields No More - One Week in Angkor, Cambodia

Siem Reap (pronounced “See-em Ree-ep”) in Northern Cambodia is roughly a 50-minute plane ride from Bangkok, but a journey into a different world, a small sleepy town near Angkor, a UNESCO world heritage city of literally 100s of temples.

Theatre in Karachi

Picture this. A reclaimed warehouse turned into an art gallery cum venue for artists and writers to meet and perform, is hosting a “recital” by an unknown group of people with a title that has people’s tongues rolling and to add to the a

Dreaming/Nightmaring in a Perfectly 3+1 Dimensional World

I was born and raised in Tehsil 786, the only place in modern-day Pakistan that was never colonized by the ‘takers’ from Britain. I’m a cow, a living organism just as you are

Another Life in Danger in Pakistan

I am writing these lines to draw your attention to the case of political activist Dr Safdar Sarki who has been arrested by security agencies in Karachi. Eyewitnesses have said that he was taken away blind-folded to an unknown location

Internet Relationships – Blessing or Curse?

As a student of human psychology I feel that the mystery of internet relationships stimulates people’s imagination and they start the relationships where reality merges with fantasy

Finally, I Am Becoming Stupider No More

What made Paul Erdos the man he was? Who would, in his right state of mind, give up all worldly pleasures and even necessities to pursue an almost fictitious life of chasing numbers?

Heidi Fleiss and Shahrukh Khan – Spot the Difference!

Will Heidi’s male brothel empower women? In Shahrukh’s film why does the woman submit to a ghost only when he transforms into a look-alike of her husband? Why has it now become our overarching ambition to reveal liberalism mostly through the l

Protecting your ICT Software Rights

Are all of us thieves?

Dreams Swindle

He saw himself and Sana, with collected stones in their hands, flying through the clouds. The dream went on. He never would like to wake up!

Do Corn Pops Really Determine the Future?

I am normal. My other half is not. To answer your next question, yes I do prefer a venti white chocolate mocha with no shot of raspberry over a tall white chocolate mocha with a shot of raspberry

Falling In

Did you bring a lamb? An apron?
A scythe? Something to cut out
life with, something to smooth
the corners of your ditheistic crime?

So Long Farewell

It was her mother’s funeral. The woman residing within her had cast a demonic, necromantic spell upon her. Like Mephistopheles having lost his soul, she, the daughter, sat frozen and immobile bereft of any sense of loss or grief – one insurmou

The Weight of Water

“Women are like water,” her father used to say, “they are gentle and patient and they take the shape of whatever situation into which they are poured.”

Vanity is My Favorite Sin

I still had to tell them how rich we were but the party was almost over. O well, maybe next time. Goodbye humility.

Poems: There is No Way & After the Rain

And around me,
silently
life packs up
and leaves.

Pakistan Travelogue I

This is the first ever visit to the land of my forefathers that anyone in my extended family has taken after the 1947 migration.

Half a Confession III

Strangely, yaara, I am happy even now -- except for this incessant pain that is eating me up -- even though it is taking me eternally longer to key in these words -- but this is still lightning speed compared with Stephen Hawking’s

Of Brane New World!

It has been the most cherished dream of man ever since he evolved into homosapien to comprehend the world in which he lived...

Dracula: A Toothless Tirade

A review of the currently running drama at the NIC Building Islamabad - Dracula

Mathematics for All University Students

The role of mathematics in science, and society generally, is misunderstood by common folk. Such lack of understanding is also prevalent in educational policy makers

Cactus Gas

Rajan. That’s what my alcoholic father used to scream every time the pathetic man wanted his trembling drags tensely inhaled from dry Gold Leaf fags.

Monsoon arrives

I suppose had I been anyone other than the beloved daughter of Babliseth, my husband would have left me long back. After all, there has to be someone to enjoy the enormous Caculo wealth. Under the beady eyes of my father though he had no hope of marrying

Prophecy and the Mullah: Hotel Mohenjodaro

Saving Pakistan from the Mullahs

Malka Pukhraj

She was Durga in her fearless strength and ferocious courage as a woman, and Sarasvati in her fine sensibilities and aesthetics and her desire for learning

Mother

Soul of man developed gradually
Exemplary man rose from this soul
and put to rest death once again
nobody eulogises Death anymore

Naila

She looked the same as she did before at her funeral. That was my first Namaz e janaza. I looked at the crowd: 30 people maybe. Most of them didn’t know her well either. 800 at the wedding and 30 at the funeral.

A Weapon to Wipe Out the Arts

The proposed Public Performances Act will be nothing more than a tool of censorship.

Baby’s Room

She got up then, and laughed out aloud, her laughter drowning out the baby’s cries. As the baby heard the alien sound of laughter from his mother’s familiar voice, his cries dwindled to a whimper.

Our Mother

And together we stand as one before our mother. Our mother, who at times didn’t give enough and at other times gave too much, until she ran out of herself.

Memory and other Poems

My mother says
if women did not forget,
they would have just that one child.

I am the result of her forgetfulness.

Barriers: A Review

It is about five individuals (four from the Abbas family and Roger) who are trying to deal either directly or indirectly with the fallout of 9-11

Qaum Aur Mulk

Pakistan has to be essentially secular in order to survive.

And the Oscar Goes to....Hell

a theater banquet for a small, pricey college

My Ode to Rishtay

I-think-I’m-in-a-bad-Indian-movie-with-Amitabachan

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

Have you ever tried to find a suitable match for a 33 year old desi? Now I know why they’re asking for help!

In Defence of Desi Pun

An affectionate look at what it means to be a Desi.