Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik creates a sand sculpture of Pakistani  leader Benazir Bhutto, following her assassination, at a beach in Puri, (more…)

From the DAWN:

AMIT Baruah is one of those Indians who have a soft corner for Pakistan and are thus genuinely interested in the improvement of relations between the two countries. He served in Islamabad from April 1997 to June 2000 as The Hindu’s special correspondent; his wife Minu is also a journalist but was not allowed to work as one from Pakistan. To this day Amit proudly tells everyone that one of his children, Antara, was born in Islamabad. At their home in New Delhi a non-stop party appears to be going on all the time as it is virtually an open house and miniature press club, where the conversation invariably touches upon developments in Pakistan. (more…)

Decades of imperialism have left Afghanistan and its people devastated. But the fall of the Taliban, and the much touted “liberation” of Afghanistan, has produced a new spate of novels, films and other artistic media dealing with the “Afghan victim.”

And when I say “Afghan victim,” I mean a nauseating overdose of burqa-oppression, Taliban brutality and other “Oriental” tragedies. Not only are these subjects sexy – they tie into the global imperatives of terror and Islamism – but they also artfully exonerate the “aggressor,” whether it is the Soviets, US imperialism or NATO. As such, the bulk of this new subgenre of fiction addresses the Western, English-speaking world; writing about reluctant and not-so-reluctant fundamentalists sells “Over There.” Meanwhile, literature is turning into a grand extravaganza of marketing, prizes, commoditization and short-lived shelf lives.

Feryal Ali Gauhar’s second novel, No Space for Further Burials, attempts to break free of many of these stereotypes. A trained economist, filmmaker and former UN Goodwill Ambassador, Gauhar opts to publish her book in India , not a Western outlet. More importantly, No Space inverts the oft-hackneyed themes of displacement, war, America and the suffering Afghans, ultimately treating these grim motifs by focusing on the sanity – and insanity – implicit within personal narrative. (more…)

I had written this piece for Shirazi Saheb’s wonderful blog - The Light Within. I am cross-posting it here. There is just one omission from the list below and that is the unique, powerful blog of Ali Eteraz. One of the reasons for this calculated omission is that this is not a Pakistani blog in my view but a global platform and a loud voice of reason. You can disagree with Eteraz but you cannot discount the force of his writing.

I have to admit that selecting Top Ten from Pakistan blogsphere was a difficult task. I used an arbitrary criteria: quality, diversity, regularity; and value-addition to Pakistani blogosphere. As you can tell this is a pretty subjective criteria and I apologise if I have missed out the good blogs (I write these lines stuck in a traffic jam with no internet access).

The list is not ranked – there is no way that one can do such a thing… (more…)

by Shreekant Gupta

During a recent visit to Delhi I mentioned to my aunt that I planned to visit Rawalpindi next week for a wedding. Her expression changed to one of worried concern. “But beta is it safe to go there?” she asked. I assured her that if there was one country in the world where I could blend and not feel out of place and where I was welcomed with open arms it was Pakistan. Having been there on four previous occasions once with a group of students from the Delhi School of Economics traversing the country for two weeks, I had ample experience of the legendary Pakistani hospitality and warmth to assuage her fears. But her comment set me thinking. Why is Pakistan attracting such bad press these days? It is often dubbed as the most dangerous place in the world. Certainly there are parts of the country that are seriously troubled and occasionally the violence spills over into the major cities. (more…)

When I breathe, I feel guilty

Guilty because she can breathe no more

When I think, I feel guilty

Guilty because she can think no more (more…)

by Tanvir Ahmad Khan

The terrors of the living need not trouble you, Bibi, any more. You overcame all misgivings, calumnies and flaws inherent in mortal human beings by sacrificing your life. Rest in peace and may God’s angel of mercy keep guard on you (more…)

This blogger has been travelling since the last two weeks: visiting the various Sufi shrines in India and meeting up old and new friends. And, after years of silence, my inner music found a voice. But the gods had other plans.

Since the 27th of that wretched December, everything has been overshadowed by the ghastly murder of Pakistan’s best known and perhaps the only national leader. (more…)

The common stories about Islam or Muslims have to do with the chopping of arms and killing of infidels. We are told that Muslims had a great empire, after many conquests and subjugation of the “infidels.” And what have we learned in the textbooks: Ali (AS) was a brave general with a legendary sword? Have we heard this:

Do not close your eyes from glaring malpractice of officers, miscarriage of justice and misuse of rights, because you will be held responsible for the wrong thus done to others. In the near future, your wrong practices and maladministration will be exposed, and you will be held responsible and punished for the wrong done to the helpless and oppressed people. (more…)

Thanks to Beena Sarwar’s updates, I read this moving account, THE OTHER HALF in ‘Srinagar diary’ by Kalpana Sharma.

… the Indo-Pak peace process, the people to people exchanges, the opening up of meeting points along the Line of Control have
raised some hope that permanent peace is possible. Apart from the larger questions, what concerns the ordinary person is finding ways to increase communication between divided families and communities straddling the LoC. This was the question that engaged a group of almost 50 women from both sides of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Fourteen women from the Pakistan side of Kashmir crossed the Wagah border in mid-November, travelled by road to Jammu and then flew in to Srinagar to meet their counterparts on this side of the border.

This was the first time such a meeting was held between women from the two sides.The result was unusual and memorable. For the women from the Pakistan side, it was a deeply emotional moment. Many of them came with preconceptions. They had heard of the sufferings of people on this side of the border. They were upset at seeing the soldiers on the street. They were even more perturbed that they could not call their families and inform them of their safe arrival.

In an article entitled On Raja Paurava and Alexander, Salman Rashid writes:

We do not celebrate Paurava; we name no roads after him and do not teach our children of his lofty character because he shines in our pre-Islamic darkness. But can we today name even one leader possessed of just a shadow of the integrity and character shown by Raja Paurava?

I lament that we in Pakistan, those of us whose ancestors converted to Islam, insist on denying our pre-conversion history. For us, it simply does not exist. We invent tales of imaginary ancestors having arrived in the subcontinent duly converted to the ‘one and only true faith’ from some place in Iran or Central Asia. Pride of place of course goes to all those who subscribe to the yarn of their ancestors’ heroic overland trek direct from Mecca. I know of families who possess genealogical charts connecting them to prophets of yore and, in one case, even to Adam himself! (more…)

“To look at one of Ali Kazim’s paintings is not only to look at something wonderful, something remarkable. It is also to look at something deeply intriguing. Kazim is a fine and highly skilled and accomplished painter, but he is also a deeply compelling and accomplished teller of mysterious and wondrous stories..” (Eddie Chambers in Secret Lives) (more…)

 I am a child whose teacher is love.
surely my master won’t let me grow
to be a fool* (more…)