Archive for October, 2009
Uneasy rider
While driving to my office the other day, I almost crashed head-on into a motorcycle. The burly man riding the bike was coming in from the wrong way on a one-way street. After braking, I gestured to him as to what on earth was he up to.
The motorcyclist gestured back and then shouted: ‘Are you [...]
Filed under: DAWN, Images on Sunday, Smoker's Corner | 15 Comments
The great caving in
Only a few days ago, while channel surfing on a slow-moving evening, I came across a show where an ‘alim’ and his ‘scholar’ guest were discussing the Islamic edicts on the issue of wife-beating.
As the ‘scholar’ insisted that the husband could use whatever degree of violence on a ‘disrespectful wife,’ the host, who usually applauds [...]
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A fast draw
‘Why do all the restaurants close down in Ramazan?’ I asked a young journalist at the Karachi Press Club.
‘Silly question,’ She said.
‘What’s so silly about it?’
‘It’s Ramazan, for heaven’s sake. People fast.’
‘But isn’t fasting supposed to be about exhibiting endurance and tolerance?’
‘Yes, but it’s also about respecting the sanctity of the month.’
‘If so, then how [...]
Filed under: DAWN, Images on Sunday, Smoker's Corner | 3 Comments
Bogey nation
Recently the monthly Herald published the results of an elaborate survey that it undertook to determine the extent of anti-Americanism in Pakistan. The findings suggest nothing that we do not already know. The percentages in this case hold only an academic interest.
Though anti-Americanism during the Cold War (1949-89) was mostly the ideological vocation of pro-Soviet [...]
Filed under: DAWN, DAWN DOTCOM, Images on Sunday, Smoker's Corner | 18 Comments
The curious case of Karachi
It would be an obvious thing to proclaim that no place and no one’s safe from the brutality of terrorism in Pakistan. There are no safe havens here where the faith-charged barbarians can’t and won’t strike. However, and ironically, over the last couple of years, what was once one of the most edgy and troubled [...]
Filed under: DAWN, DAWN DOTCOM | 7 Comments
Pride & prejudice
There’s a telling photograph accompanying columnist Salman Masood’s article on the Kerry-Lugar Bill in the October 8 issue of New York Times. The piece is on how Pakistanis have been reacting to the supposedly controversial aid bill.
There was nothing new about the reactions that Masood gathered, with most of the respondents dishing out the usual [...]
Filed under: DAWN, Images on Sunday, Smoker's Corner | 5 Comments
Country profile: Pakistan
History
The state of Pakistan occupies an area which was home to some of the earliest Neanderthal settlements, some of whose decedents can still be found hiding in caves in the mountains of North Pakistan. The only difference is, in the Stone Ages, these Neanderthals were armed with clubs and stones, and today they are armed [...]
Filed under: DAWN, DAWN DOTCOM | 5 Comments
The great denial
In Pakistan, the audacious has become the norm. The terrorist attack in Lahore today – along with the many that have taken place in the last many years in this unfortunate country – may seem something out of ordinary anywhere else in the world, but not in Pakistan.
Pakistan it seems stopped being part of the [...]
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Beards: a trim history
In his biography, Mirror to the Blind, Abdul Sattar Edhi complains how he detests being called a ‘maulana’.
‘Mine was never a religious beard,’ he says. ‘It was always a revolutionary beard,’ he explains – perhaps inspired by Karl Marx, whom Edhi identifies as an inspiration during his youth. In the book he is quoted [...]
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