Dhokha and Being a Muslim in India

Mukesh Bhatt’s Muzammil Ibrahim starred ‘Dhokha’ or ‘Betrayal’ is the Bollywood’s latest offering that raises several questions about Muslims and their identity in India.

London’s Knife-Crime Epidemic:

Such is the horror in Britain at this new phenomenon, that the Police have declared tackling knife-crime to be their new number one target surpassing even that of terrorism.

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.

Delayed Justice

Centre’s decision to award a compensation package totaling Rs 330 crores to the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots can at best be described as a pre-election effort at applying a healing touch.

Confessions of a Religious Fundamentalist

I just want you to understand that never mind the beautiful facades of different ISMS, at the base of it all we are all religious and all fundamentalists.

The Wrong Mix

Refusing to ally with capitalist-democracies of the West and cautious about openly supporting the USSR/communism Islamic Socialists attempted to come up with a "third way."

Mohajirs Are People Too

It was quite obvious that unlike Punjabis and Pushtoons, mohajirs have figured out that if there is chaos in the airport it is not because of Allah’s will.

Europe and the Film Culture

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

Mosquito Music

That’s one form of music
That makes me quite sick,
whose notes are malaria,
dengue or filaria.

Targeted Taxi Drivers

Day passes and night creeps up over the city,
Suddenly the TV chatters “taxi drivers targeted in Mumbai”

Fight Against The Emergeny Continues

If we are stressed, if we are constantly worried, then I believe it is a sign of great optimism. The struggle for a better Pakistan has just begun.

Pakistan's Universities - Problems and Solutions

300% jump in research publications, nine new engineering universities with European faculty, 3000 Pakistani students sent overseas for higher-degrees...self-serving lies, half-truths and deceit.

Leaders, Heroes and Mountains

He (Sir Admund Hillary) was not a sahib who came, conquered and left having had his adventure in the hills. He established and sustained a lasting bond with the Sherpa people of the Himalayas.

Movie Review: The Kite Runner

Khalid Hosseini, like many Afghan’s is a poet at heart. Here with the assistance of screenwriter David Benioff, the essence of The Kite Runner remains intact

Islam as a political weapon in Pakistan

Manipulative Politics through the Bhutto and Zia Regimes

Fundamentalism and Violence

Human beings are conditioned by their families and communities and violent cultures produce violent people.

6th December 1992

A turning point in Hindu Muslim relations in the post independence Indian history. It was a moment when all truths about religious coexistence suddenly proved false.

Mukhtar Mai's December 11th Fundraiser in Sacramento

This effort is not about dwelling on what already happened but what's possible; to change the future of some girls and women in Southern Punjab.

Talk with Shandana Minhas author of Tunnel Vision

Why would I sell to western readers? My loyalty is to the story. As a storyteller you don’t choose the story, the story chooses you.

Go Jamiat Go

The students have announced loud and clear that they no longer want the Jamiat over their head.

Foreign Factor in our Higher Education

Our whole system of education is working in such a way to produce good high-tech workforce for European and American markets. Irony is we do this at our own expense.

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.

Error Prone : Misleading Lines in the Media

When the Nobel Peace prize was announced, many Indian papers announced in bold headlines that it went to Dr. Pachauri and Al Gore.

Indian Exceptionalism: Colonial Stereotypes and Postcolonial Realities

Indian exceptionalism manifests itself as nationalist, chauvinist, and fundamentalist sentiment, often mingling unhealthily with other kinds of closed-minded imperatives.

Communists and the Making of Pakistan

History of the last years of Punjab under the Raj

The Arrest of Nuon Chea- Terror is an Old Hat

The arrest of Nuon Chea, a now obscure but once powerful symbol of terror re-minds us that the war against terror is not a new one.

Confronting Ahmadinejad in U.S.

University authorities failed to draw clear-cut distinction between criticism and insult. Free society does have few limits too.

The Transformation of the Punjabi Man: Pashtunization or Militarization?

Khalid Ahmed has opened the door for a serious debate and his words on this subject are and must not be the last.

Ultimate Fate of the Universe

Observations of the supernova carried out by two groups in 1999, showed clearly that the universe was not only expanding but undergoing in a wild accelerated expansion.

The Power of Ideas and the Modern University

Ideas rule the world, drive our actions, inform our beliefs, and unleash mighty revolutions. How must Pakistan’s higher education system change for it to succeed?

Violence, the Indian Media, and 'Non-Violent' Indian Society

Coverage of violence appears to be motivated by the profit margin, and often veers on the sensationalist. Issues are also prioritized based on their populist appeal.

Book Review: Killer Tune by Dreda Say Mitchell

What is race? Is it the colour of our skins, or the faith of an individual, or is it the rebel within?

He and She

She ran after him and they looked like two small kids playing in the water.

30 Days in Afghanistan - Climbing Qassaba

On the way up, we pass kids herding goats along narrow passes. I’m in unfamiliar territory, and enjoying the mind body journey, they are at home, easily walking and climbing ahead of me.

Blue Line

They have seen right through my nonchalance as I picked up the pregnancy test at the airport, kept my shaking hands at bay, and walked with assumed confidence through the hotel doors.

Militant Liberalism

Do we have liberals amongst us that are willing to carry a Kalashnikov in the name of values of Egalitarianism and Social Justice?

Fake Killings: People as Trophies

The manner in which the fake killing(s) have snowballed into a major embarassment for the ’invincible looking’ Modi regime is for everyone to see.

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.

Dead End

When Faraz Ehmad, a student of Karachi University, killed himself by jumping off one of the highest buildings in the city, his friends, though deeply saddened, were not surprised. They all knew, in fact had known for a long time, that Faraz was suicidal a

Notes from the Sunderbans

Same place, different times. And now we are told that they may vanish below the surface of the Bay of Bengal in the next few years.

War Clouds Over Iran

If not stopped by the Congress, under one pretext or the other, the Bush administration is geared to go beyond just imposing UNSC sanctions against Iran.

Pakistans Permanent Revolution

The tradition of judicial spinelessness continued in Pakistan facilitating three martial laws and the judicial murder of atleast one prime minister till last week when it was brought to a crashing halt by the actions of one brave justice, Chief Justice of

Let’s not Barter Away Our Food Security for GM Crops

What does all this mean for the Pakistani farmer? On the one hand, GM seeds and crops promise an increased yield. But the catch is that the farmer cannot re-use the seed. This makes the farmer a client of the biotech company for life.

Punjab: The Land of Five Rivers

Its waters have seen life being quenched since centuries. Its trees have embraced the wind that was fragrant by the immortal stories like Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal and Mirza Sahiban

Reclaiming the Middle Ground

No matter how we try to dissociate ourselves from our Muslim identity, it comes back to us in unexpected ways.

Untouchability and Sex

No one practices untouchability when it comes to sex.

Killing Darwin

“The Cold War ended 15 years ago. Young people do not shun capitalism and religion anymore to become communists!”

Recognising Student Unions

Prohibiting political parties on campus is in actuality curbing students’ rights. That is why there are clashes and conflicts as well as demonstrations and strikes by these so-called ‘banned’ or rather, half-functional student parties.

The Great Wrong

Whenever in Pakistan some political leaders or political party comes forward with the suggestion to divide Punjab for the larger good of Pakistan, then the reaction seen among certain politicians, intellectuals and literary men of Punjab is of total hosti

Who is Responsible

Animism and Mythology

A complete uneducated human mind, just like that of a small child, tends to believe that external world events are dependents on one’s own feelings and emotions. Through out early history to even the present modern times, humans have always tried to

Why Vice Chancellors should belong to Academia

If law and order situation is that bad in universities in Pakistan, I suggest that retired army officers should be appointed as chief security officers so that they can enforce law and order at university campuses. Appointing them as vice chancellors kil

Don’t Cry for me Rawalpindi

They each carry a sports bag and wore crisp new white shirts with the letters “Under 19” engraved on the left side.

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

Sehra

Sehra ki bheegi ret meN, maine likha aawaargi.... I was puzzled. The words made no sense to me. Sehra always meant to me a flowery veil that an Indian bridegroom wears therefore the song made no sense. When a friend told that it also means desert

Facing the Inevitable (Part I)

How different are China and the US anyway?

An Interview with Shashi Tharoor

'We do have, at the moment, a credible field of qualified Asians and I think the world is looking to Asia to produce the next Secretary-General.'

Quit India: Hindutva Goons!

Bombay, the city that never sleeps, can be said to be a new barometer of the mood of the broad masses of the Indian people.

‘Our Liberals’ and Minority Psyche

Although they enjoy all the benefits of the society, they are the people who do not identify themselves with the majority of the people dwelling the country.

Reservaion: Interest of Urban-Upper halves

When Mr. Arjun Singh came with some comprehensive plans to implement the reservation, the upper and urban echelon of the society have come up with the protest not for the loss of the standard and efficiency but a sheer fear of losing their monopoly and he

A Cup of Tea

That day, I decided I would remind my granny of a lesson about equality our Gurus gave us. I was going to serve Akko the tea in a glass from our kitchen.

A Rant Against Reservations

Facts on education in Pre-British India leads to the conclusion that Backward Classes (OBCs) are responsible for their own backwardness and for not transferring to the schools that the British opened in India like the Upper Castes did who had the most to

World View and Expectations from Pakistani Universities

Taj a Mirage

I saw a group of young artisans. They looked timid and frightened, their head bent down trying to concentrate on their work, but at the same time wanting to communicate with the onlookers

Celebrity Courts and Kangaroo Justice

I protest against this abuse of a cause by people like Aamir Khan, for it is gimmicky and counter-productive. News channels are behaving like nautch girls and social butterflies as the nawabs of vigilance. Page 3 justice is the latest fad

Celebrating the Khalsa

On Vaisakhi Day, Guru Gobind Singh ji stood before the Sikh congregation and requested the ultimate sacrifice of his disciples. Five Sikhs volunteered to lay down their lives for God and the Guru

Muslim Profanities

I look at pictures of the ravaged Al-Askariyya dome, and I want to know: what is the religion of a mosque-destroyer? Does a bomber say Fatiha over the people he’s killed?

AMU at the Crossroads

On January 5, the Allahabad High Court took away the minority tag from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The court upheld its judgment in October last year terming as “unconstitutional” the grant of minority status to AMU

Counterfeit Medicines: A Public Health Policy Failure

The responsibility to tackle this problem does not only lie with the government. All stakeholders must be involved and should join forces against this menace

The Violent Face of South Asia

All of South Asia is violent. Murder and mayhem may strike terror in the hearts of the few, but the great middle class will always have the final word

Cycling With The Sikh

They were in the habit of having a little fun at the expense of Sikhs. Bastards! I had been fuming with anger

Withdrawing from Iraq: A Disaster Waiting to Happen?

The anti-US public opinion will be quickly mobilized by the terrorists to weaken or overthrow the government

Why Doesn’t the World Care?

Instead of blaming the world for short changing us in our hour of need, we should seek to understand the reasons beneath this global apathy.

Shades of Grey

There is something about Faiz that still evokes controversy long after his death. For some he was a great poet, for others a great teacher and a revolutionary ... the problem arises when people confuse Faiz the poet with Faiz the thinker and revolutionary

The State of the World and other ruminations

Earthquake Relief Efforts

The organizers told viewers that they had received enough clothing; what they needed now was medicine and volunteers to come help sort out the items.

Growing Up Red

My maternal grandfather, ‘Nana’ to us kids, who I later found out was one of the root causes of my ’trouble’ was mostly absent. He had been in self imposed exile since being imprisoned in 1951 when he had spent 4 years in jail for

Existential Dilemma

On the third and top floor is a shabby, smelly room crammed with pamphlets, underground literature, Mao’s and Lu Shun’s portraits, faded red flags, threadbare kurtas and cloth bags — paraphernalia which were supposed to ensure a red revo

The Ultimate Rush

Every time I think of the time when I overcame my fear and jumped I am ready to face any challenge.

Close Encounter

Jamil had come to the US as a teenager and had graduated in atmospheric sciences from University of Colorado at Fort Collins. A shy reclusive student, he had changed into a rambunctious young man in the intervening years: not averse to enjoying life and w

See RSS, Think Al Queda!

Within a span of a few months this is the third time in a row that the Parivar and its men have received rebukes either at the hands of the US establishment itself or through those institutions/peoples who are working closely with it.

Ayodhya: The Aftermath of the Terrorist Attack

Tired of emotive issues which affect their own lives and feeling cheated at the hands of these self-proclaimed upholders of Hindutva, people just did not care when the saffron brigade gave a call for agitation over insult to ‘Hindu identity.’

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

A Moses on his Harley Davidson

In an act of symbolic irony, in September, precisely three months before communal riots erupted on December 6th 1992 in Bombay, the Dawood gang or D company as it was called, had accomplished its last secular killing.

London’s Hour of Reckoning

A surreal silence and eerie calm haunts Europe. Yet Londoners display steely resilience in the eye of the terror tiger.

Dance of the wolves

No part of the temple has been damaged. But the red alert has been sounded. To protect temples and other religious places. Not human beings.

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...

Union Strike One

Something out of the ordinary has happened over the past 3 weeks. The PTCL workers Union has pulled off a successful strike and has managed to get the privatization of the company postponed indefinitely.

Conversation with a Jahil

When asked by a politician of his age, he responded by saying that he was born on 14th August 1947.

Involuntary Closure

I have been scarred and disillusioned by this whole process and I think I will need therapy when I get back home.

Do riot children smell fear in parent’s sweat?

And yet, they go back to their insular neighbourhoods. Will the school triumph over the whispered prejudices of their neighbourhoods?

Frameless Heads on Nameless Walls

In a communal riot, people are often shot by the mere mention of their name. Point blank. Your biggest asset turns into your biggest disadvantage.

The SAT Scam

Cheating is going on in the SAT.. and everyone seems blind to it.

Ride Across the River

For one long instant, I have the feeling that I’ve been transported back to that day. That any second now, as we drive past, the bicycle will explode and send sharp bits of metal slicing into my flesh. As it once did to 38-year-old Major Abhimanyu S

’Dangerous like my English teacher’

Surekha’s home, which was half arborium. Three years ago that house was an unkempt one. She managed to keep it exactly like that three years thence.The house had a personality, a confident casual rakishness that hated grooming. A reflection of its o

NPT Is As Good As Dead

The member nuclear states need to set example by retrenching their nuclear arsenals and abandoning their plans for developing further nuclear weapons before they can seriously hope to rein-in the other member states aspiring to go nuclear.

’Our Shiv Sena’

Is it a case of the Stockholm syndrome working late? As a young wife and mother she was a victim, ever fearful, of the terror of the Shiv Sena in Bombay. And the real fear of physical attacks. Thirty years later, she called the Sena “ours.”

Outside the Military Hospital

The sun is equally unkind to them all
And God is equally forgiving. And that’s the way it’s always been
Despite fifty years and as many leaders in between.

UNhappy times?

“We are outgunned. We are outmanned. We need help from outside groups. We need to be able to organize outsiders to work with us to write to papers, to appear on television.”

First Letter To Uncle Sam

I had long wanted to translate these letters into English ... What we have here is vintage Manto.

A Personal Connection

“Please save my baby. He is all I have got. I lost my seven-year-old son to the sea and my baby is dying in front of my eyes. Please, sir, save my baby.” Her plea was impassioned. There were no tears in her eyes, just despair and a faint ho

The Monsoons are Coming

Bitch sessions consist of relief workers sitting around, exchanging one frustration after another. The average time is that of three cigarettes and one Lion Beer per frustration.

Sense and Sensibility

At Delhi's Pragati Maidan, a lady asked me whether I could depict Krishna and Radha in forms and actions other than what I had ever done. I said yes. And she said to depict Krishna bowling to Radha, while Radha was batting. Bhaskar was blushing...

Volunteer Sri Lanka

An Iranian Exile in Sambhalpur

The VHP issue had taken a more serious turn, filling Sister Miriam Morris, the Christian nun who headed St Joseph, with panic.What had happened was really macabre. One of the children attending the medical camp was given a tonic, which was past its expiry

Report on the Tsunami: Cuddalore

I thought all India needed was ten Anu Georges in each district to modernize it. Right now, altruism, however politically motivated, has met the idealistic civil servant and that had made the relief efforts possible.

Manto Strikes

The smoke had reached an alarming proportion, and the whole chawl would be up in a minute, since chawls have a habit of being burnt down before one can say “damn your blouse.”

EMACE

It has been two days since I arrived in Sri Lanka as a volunteer for the post-tsunami rebuilding efforts.

Rantings of an Aid Worker

I am of course, in this mindset that once D and I leave and the structures that we will set up will collapse. How the fuck did I get so colonial? What is the middle ground here for me?

If Godhra did not happen…

Has the possibility of the kar sevaks being a suicide squad not occurred to anyone? Could they not have been terrorists out to create trouble?

Strangers in California

It’s one thing to come out to your wife and another to come out to your entire family

Report on the Tsunami: Kanchipuram District

Part I of a first-hand report on the tsunami in South India

Aftermath

Home for the holidays, the last thing I expected was to be greeted by an earthquake that hit 9 on the Richter scale.

The Tsunami Disaster

If the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials are unable to protect their own men and machines from a natural disaster, how on the Earth are they going to protect us, evacuate us, rehabilitate us and safeguard our safety and security from possible at

Reforming Pakistan’s Universities -- II

Three years ago the first serious effort to deal with Pakistan’s chronically ill universities was finally initiated. Unfortunately, this effort by the Higher Education Commission has now become mired in an intense, growing controversy.

Reforming Pakistan’s Universties -- I

In this article I will look at the problems in our higher education system and why the HEC reforms are set to make a bad situation worse rather than better.

Tsunami

Let us then pray for those who are lost, and those who are suffering, and contribute what one can.

When the Sea Swallowed a City Whole

Where the river Kaveri drains into the Bay of Bengal, there once was a city that was the setting for two famous ancient Tamil epic poems, Silappadigaram (“The Anklet Story”) and Manimekalai.

Bhatti’s “Behzti (Dishonor)” hurts Sikh Sensitivities

But then the play wouldn’t have created a (publicity) storm; it would probably not have attracted much attention. One of the facts of modern

Would 30 January Elections Make or Break Iraq?

Like Pakistani military did not allow a Bengali to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Iraq’s Sunni leadership, with enough funds and experienced and trained men at its command is not going to give up its long established right of being the rulin

Demining Starts Healing War-torn Northern Sri Lanka

The ongoing efforts in Sri Lanka have lessons for both India and Pakistan. The borders of the two countries have seen huge swathes of territory being rendered useless and dangerous by landmines -- India alongwith the US, China, Russia and Pakistan is not

Sughraa

Sitting in the faded lamplight, Sughraa mends her soul, the imaginary needle piercing in and out of the tarnished fabric.

Wise Chancellors

Since the rapid ‘generalization’ of our society, the function of ‘vice’ Chancellors too has been “generalised’. It is now possible to have a good ‘vice’ chancellor who was once good at say commanding a plat

Sunset

There is a beginning
after the end!

The Deadline

'Ah! You mean that deadline' I replied as I frantically racked my brain for excuses to offer. Hmm the dog ate my article, but I probably need to buy a dog first to corroborate that one. Or how about...

The NGO Trap

No one seems to question the fundamental concept of NGO and how it often plays the role of quasi bureaucracy un-intentionally legitimizing corrupt leaders, oppressive governments, and imperialist structure.

A Wedding Night in Boston...

As I watched the blonde and brunette Pakistani girls gyrating and bobbing to bhangra, I wanted to kneel before God once again.

One Day At a Time

For As’r prayers they do not thrust their staff in the ground like they used to in the days of Muhammed (saw). Today they look at the calculated chart and then look at their wrist watches. This is a simple but effective use of reasoning that

You Failed Us Mr. President

In the words of great Martin Luther King Jr.: “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice' and justice we demand from you sir.

The Commonality of ’Fundamentalisms’

Lalit Vachani documentary will resonate in Pakistan -- and other societies traumatized by ideologically-motivated violence -- due to the insight it gives into the minds of those involved in organizations that contribute to such violence.

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...

Letter to Prime Minister of India

Insightful words from a radical

“Final” solution?

Review of Rakesh Sharma’s documentary, Final Solution: It is a study of the politics of hate in India, examining the Hindu Extremist movement, a look at their ideology and methodology, and the genocide they conducted in Gujarat.

One More Day Before Debu’s Death

Debu suddenly became very philosophical and scratching his crotch asked Ali, 'Hey Ali, my left eye ball is dancing since this morning. You know all this shit. Isn’t this a good omen. Doesn’t it mean I will succeed in my dhanda today? Or i

The Doll’s House

How can Hindus dare to point fingers at Muslim regressiveness when they have not been able to improve the lot of their own people?How can they talk disparagingly about Muslim ghettos when India is divided along regional, culinary, caste, status lines?

Musharraf: Excerpts from an Interview in NYT

President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said in an interview on Monday that his leadership was freeing his country from the menace of extremism and that this national 'renaissance' might be lost if he kept his pledge to step down as army chief at the end of thi

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

Trailing End of the Middle Class at Shaadi Online

The Shaadi Online phenomena can revolutionize our society.....

Lahore ka Jughraphiah

..The elders have described the essence of all this research in these curt and expressive words: Lahore is Lahore. If you cannot find Lahore from this descrption, it only proves that your education is defective and inteeligence questionable...

Burning Dreams

This poem is based on the misery of young children starving in Somalia, a country already destroyed by years of civil war and anarchy.

A Visit to My Hometown Kakori in Lucknow

Situated barely fifteen kilometers from Lucknow, the town is as much known for its fine variety of mangoes and kebabs as for the anciently grand mosques and havelis that dot it and the hordes of litterateurs and writers it has produced.

Dev - The Anatomy of A Communal Carnage

... if Gujarat is not to be repeated, it must never be forgotten!

The Rock Star and the Mullahs

Salman Ahmed is a man on a mission: to challenge Pakistan’s hardline mullahs on why they believe music is not allowed in Islam.

Living in Fear

I remember, a few years back, after a majlis, one of my relatives took out a white dupatta from her bag and wore it before leaving. “They can tell you’re Shia if you wear black in Muharram”

Virtual Courses

This is a young man’s journey to gather information about and to communicate with someone about admissions in the Virtual university. The university is offering courses in INFORMATION technology and mass COMMUNICATIONS.

A Mesopotamian Summer

The United States cannot avoid the usage of military force, as it does not trust the Iraqis enough to transfer political power to them.

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.

Dreams

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

The Girl from Napoli

Al Ghazzali said that it is impossible to describe the pleasures of orgasm to an impotent man no matter how much one tries.

Charnaamat

Prithvi Raj Chauhan fought Ghori at close by Thanesar. Shaikh Chilli’s maqbara that smelled like a pesticide and fertilizer shop was impressive

Talk to Your Wife

the love may have gone out of your life...

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

Ashura: Atonement, Mourning and Return

Someone’s holy work is death, I register. And someone else’s is reporting that 150-word story for the AP. And someone else’s yet again is that bold typeface. This is it. This is grief for the electronic age.

Cosmetic Surgery

Karachi University Students must now wear black gowns while they’re inside the campus ...the decision was taken so that teachers could be distinguished from students, and not get beaten up during the occasional clashes between political groups.

Moving Beyond Talk: A Roadmap for Quality Education

This proposal provides a pragmatic mechanism aligned with the role of HEC (Higher Education Commission) as a supportive watchdog - providing reason, resources, and recognition for quality higher education in Pakistan.

Branding on Pakistan

A study was carried out by AC Nielsen in Australia emphasizing brand quality and patriotism as the two most important factors in determining purchase decisions, ahead to price.

On Tolerance

Everyone cannot kill a human being. But do you support the people who say that Shiites are not Muslims?

Junoon Ltd.

Who knows, maybe Junoon will release some better music soon. Hopefully the cola hasn’t gone to their heads. They might even prove me wrong with a good english language album.

Broken Stones

I had forgotten that my mother was a Hindu. They had changed her name from Savita Damle to Salma Khan. To me it did not matter…Yet, I wondered whether that stone was for me or them.

Punjabi Heroes that History Forgot

Not only great men but the Punjabi folk lore has strong willed women who dominated their beloveds – in the tales of Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punnu, Mirza Sahiban and Sohni Mahiwal.

Learning in Saffron: RSS Schools Orissa

At the intersections of globalisation and hyper nationalism, Hindutva intervenes, unravelling the fragile fabric of democracy.

Orissa: A Gujarat in the making

With little resistance to its aggressive onslaught, the sangh parivar looks well set to meet its 2006 deadline for reshaping Orissa into the next ’laboratory for Hindutva’.

How to waste a day

After breakfast the day is peppered with many sub-meals like breakfast reinterpreted, brunch, lunch, lunch in close collaboration with tea-time.

The In-Security Council: Dump it or Grow it?

Is the UN Charter just a piece of paper to be stored on a musty shelf, or is it supposed to safeguard the “rights of men and women and of nations, large and small” to discursive, negotiated settlement of disputes and equality of all member st

Fake Encounters

Once Charlie Chaplin went to a fancy dress party where the invitees had to come dressed as Chaplin. Chaplin got the third prize, beaten by two other fake Chaplins. Recently, famous Indian painter, M F Hussain, mistook three copies of his works as original

Shalom or Salaam

Ariel Sharon can be my guest. As Indians, we are renowned for our hospitality. The West has not yet certified him a terrorist, so he can do just as he pleases. In fact, he can even announce, “We control America”.

Carnage and Casuality

Mustering up my most objective, nonjudgmental demeanour, I asked him what difference it made, since those who lost their lives were innocents. He said that they may not have been criminals but they were kafirs.

Hey Ram, What Have You Done to My Religion?

The way I saw it, it all started with Ram. Back in the 1980s, when the official Doordarshan TV channel was the only game in town, it telecast an immensely popular serial on Ramayan. The serial was so popular that all businesses and social visits came to a

Terrorism, Sectarianism and the Military

It is idiotic to expect respect for the law from ordinary mortals when the Messiahs are at the helm only due to their firepower.

Loitering with Intent in Ayodhya

My basic contention is that Indian Muslims never had a claim to the Babri mosque...

Husain Haqqani at UC Berkeley

Pakistan has to revisit its relationship with India

Sobho: the struggle continues

I still believe in the revolution, in a society that provides justice for all

The Hindu Right

Advani’s yathra in an air-conditioned Toyota left a trail of blood in its wake

Of Violent Birth and Peaceful Death

I have a dream for South Asia

Taliban : An Analysis

an ideal Islamic society.

The Passion of The Pacifist

An interview with Asgharali Engineer

The Winds of Change

When the world’s only superpower changes direction, smaller states, especially those located on the periphery of potential conflict, have to be nimble in adjusting their policies.

Water Shortage -- A Way Out

the shortage affects mainly the poor

What a Day !

I lay my first steps into the ’educated world’...

Save India

A martial law administration has to take over the country

A Matter of Principle

Anatomy of the governments vendetta against a leading newspaper in Pakistan

The Weakest Link

An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand...

India

India I still haven’t told you what you did to Manto when he did not
leave for Pakistan in ’47.

Giving Way to Intolerance

During the last many years, religious intolerance and sectarian fanaticism have created a war-like situation in Pakistan

The Rape of Khairpur University

Why have we collectively lost the will to protest crimes against people and institutions?

Bebee Phool Nahin Lo

Can this poor, raped, ravaged, depleted, sick earth take the burden of industrializing China, India, Pakistan and other third world countries?

My Crimson Reality

In which the poet, in the best traditions of Meer, Dard, Ghalib, seems to prefer reality in an intoxicating red shade.

Death of the Raj: Subcontinent in the Third Millennium

The second of two articles outlining a new definition of Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent. Ready your pens for aggressive interaction.

Islamic Calendar Development for North America

In the third and last article of our series on moon sighting, the author discusses the history and motivation for lunar calendar development.

Moon Sighting and the Islamic Calendar

The second article in our series on moon sighting. A discussion of the Islamic and scientific principles of an Islamic Calendar based on the moon.

A Reply to ’Should We Still Have a Lunar Calendar?’

The lunar orbit’s periodicity can, in a sense, be sabotaged by natural events...

Should We Still have a Lunar Calendar?

A thousand years ago, with primitive scientific tools at our disposal, periodicity in the lunar or solar phenomena was state of the art. Today, using the lunar orbital motion as a clock does not seem justifiable.

The Science of Moon Sighting

Many of us have taken Sister Moon to be our guide, especially in matters religious, but few of us know where its leading us. First of a series on moon sighting and some common misconceptions.