So, there it goes. The job apps have been mailed. Yeah, did you notice the plural? Me too. Last we talked on this subject, I was only going to be applying at UofMyDreams. However, once my advisor came back from his summer sojourn, he suddenly had some newfound interest in my career and proceeded to [...]
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Last night we watched the Cannes version of 2046. DMan, as always, was the one who made the viewing possible. I have mentioned earlier how insanely psyched I am to see this movie. 2046 essentially takes place over the course of two and a half years in the late 60s. It does travel back in [...]
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News today that Pakistan has banned the Nov. 22 issue of Newsweek. The cause is an article imaginatively titled, “Clash of Civilization” [btw, can we put a moratarium on the use of that phrase in weeklies and dailies for, like, a year?]. The article is standard enough coverage of Theo Van Gogh’s murder and the [...]
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I told my mother that I was going to Ohio for Thanksgiving and I hear an exasperated, yeh, kiya roz tum nai tehwaar banatay ho?. So, to convince me mum that I did not make up Thanksgiving and that it does exist even though no one outside of N. America cares: There is very little [...]
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One obvious effect of 9/11 has been the drop in foreign student enrollments in the US. Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that from the ’93-’94 academic year, the drop has been 2.4%. The drop is 6% in graduate students. India is one of the countries with a largest drop in graduate enrollment. I [...]
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One thing I cannot appreciate is a historian (or journalist or whoever) who writes up a thesis than goes out in the wilderness looking for “evidence” – if it fits, it is in; if it doesn’t, just toss it and hope no one notices. David Cannadine is a solid historian who wrote a book a [...]
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Aimee‘s book reading kicked off a most excellent weekend. She was great and I am looking forward to reading the short stories. Sunday, we went to see Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists play at a church in the north-western suburbs. This being the second weekend in a row that we were surrounded by hundreds [...]
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Nothing better to wrap up my busiest week (how in carnation did I post all week?? I really need to take stock of my priorities) than with South Asian historians fighting it out old skool. South Siiiiide! Representin’ da West Side is William Dalrymple – a gora sahib who has published some [great] travelogues on [...]
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A couple of nights ago, at a gathering of friends, I did what most tree-hugging hippies do: imagine. I said, wouldn’t it have been nice, if after Afghanistan instead of invading Iraq, The Chosen One had made a grand gesture and said, “Here is 5 billion dollars on the table. I will fund a school [...]
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Historians usually study the past. Or the immediate past. They sometimes peek out of their professional masks to say something about current events (or maintain a blog). Rarely, though, do they make history. Of course, let me be a geek historian here and name check Juvaini, Rashid ud Din Ibn Rushd, Abu Fazl, Herodotus, etc. [...]
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JEDDAH, 15 November 2004 â Police in Bahrain arrested a woman on Friday for disguising herself as a man and trying to deliver the Friday sermon at one of the largest mosques in the island state, Asharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday. ìThe 40-year-old woman, who had put on an artificial beard and mustache and was wearing [...]
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This week will officially be the end of me. Don’t even ask. Reading Bahr al-Fava’id [Sea of Virtues] – a 12th century mirror for princes. The history of such texts – written for the education and training of kings and princes – is quite fascinating. Think, for example of Machiavelli’s Prince. We can trace this [...]
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Eid ul Fitr (The Feast at the End of Fasting) is my favorite holiday. You get new clothes. You got eidi – cash, from all the adults and you strut about from house to house, awash in the smell of new threads and new greens, giving hugs to each and every person. Funny thing is [...]
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They both came to lead their people in the late 60s. They were one of the most beloved figures to emerge after the glow had faded on 50s Arab nationalist heroes. The Falconer and the Old Man. One created an international commercial oasis in the middle of the desert – a glass city of arches [...]
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Some follow up. The docu/movie that got Theo Van Gogh killed can be seen on iFilm. Via Dutchblog Israel, I learned of a blog that seems dedicated to following this pretty closely. Looks like the Dutch police have finally taken more suspects in. MWU! has an entry that condemns the killing as well as the [...]
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In NYT today is an article on digital archiving. Let me admit that I have long made fun of the Grey Lady’s forays into technical writing (if their damn archives weren’t off-google, I would link here to their articles on the “information superhighway”, “email” and, more recently, “web logs”). That said, this is not a [...]
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This is the most pathetic question plus price. And this. And this pissed me off (do read the NB at the end – god, I will have to teach such cretins for the rest of my life!). Google Answers is the new google. Thank you Mark for providing a new source of entertainment!
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My favorite wedding reception memory: Sohail’s uncle’s valima was at Avari Hotel in Lahore. There were about 4-500 guests and lots of food. Huge trays piled sky-high with roast chickens and biryanis and that sweet almond chutney so popular at wedding banquets. We were about 15 or 16 and were just standing in the corner [...]
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Yesterday and today were probably two of the most beautiful days we will have until April. Glorious blue sky. Warm winter sun. Luckily, I was able to enjoy both days outside, even though many, many tasks demanded I remain couped in a room in front of an LCD screen (theory of pedagogy, my behind). In [...]
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I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about “Where do we go from here?” that we must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. (Yes) There are forty million poor people here, and one [...]
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