This week Lahore celebrates Jashan-e Baharan – Spring Celebration – or more popularly known as Basant – the Kite festival. Now “kites” may bring to your mind grassy hills, warm breezes, little children running with plastic strings and boxed contraptions in the sky. Or it may bring to your mind fantastically shaped dragons and demon [...]
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Kottke had a link up this morning about amazon’s new addition to their a9 engine – Yellow Pages. Intrigued, I clicked over. They display little pictures of the businesses in the search results. Massively cool. Their how-we-did-it video [qt] tells us that they mounted cameras on lots of SUVs and then drove around the major [...]
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Via moorish girl, comes another gripe about the literary quality of Indians writing in English about India – again on their “authenticity”. I covered earlier the historian’s spat around the same issue of who has the right to write about India – only pure-bred and indian-raised and indian-living Indians or these westernized diaspora hacks who [...]
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No fun being a fan of Pakistani cricket lately. Of course, I have risen above such petty nationalisms a long time ago. I am now an objective connoisseur of the tao of cricket. But for those that care, Pakistan has taken a beating far surpassing their usual flameouts. Consider this: First Test – Australia wins [...]
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Not a good week to come. There is an email burning holes in my inbox waiting to be answered. A lot of work is on the docket for the week and I am not feeling too peachy about any of it. It snowed this weekend. Not a whole lot but more than the past few [...]
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Happy Eid to all. This being the “bigger” Eid culminating the holy pilgrimage. I had meant to write up a post on the Hajj but, uh, never got around to it. Instead, here is a decent write up of the ritual [and a visual one]. This Eid isn’t all fun and games like the first [...]
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Many friends have forwarded emails asking not to spend a dime today or turn my back or stand upside my head. Lot of hoopla over the $40 million tag, lot about the corporation money flowing into the ceremonies, lot on the lameness of the celebrities. Here on campus, there are elaborate counter-Inauguration talks and happening. [...]
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Let’s talk about wonderful phrases, today. Just before the election there was a flurry of declarations on reality-based and faith-based worlds or somesuch. There is room at the table for another one, I think. Future-based. As I was getting ready this morning, Barbara Boxer had Rice pinned on Iraq. Why couldn’t you have dealt with [...]
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My humble thanks to all those who voted for me in the Brass Crescent Awards as deserving of wider recognition. I can only say that while fame will inevitably bring the coke, the hookers and the Behind the Blog retrospective, I will never forget those that have sustained me in my humble beginnings. Commentators like [...]
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Maha was in the first grade and I picked her up from school and we went to Raynulds Club for lunch. As we were waiting in line for our pizza, she looked up at me and said, “Daddy, am I white or black?”. Slightly startled, I looked down and said, Uh, light brown? Why do [...]
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In Brooklyn, a brouhaha is brewing about bare breasts amongst burqas. I am so lame but it is friday, so forgive me. A Polish magazine, The Forum, put up a cover story called “Ile jest Kamasutry w‚ĆKoranie?” which I am guessing means “Is it the KamaSutra or the Koran?” [my polish friend isn't answering the [...]
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So, what is going on in Baluchistan? Baluchistan is one of the 4 states/provinces of Pakistan. It constitutes roughly 40-43% of the land mass with only 5%-7% share in the population. It has the richest mineral and natural resources in the country, yet, is the most improvished area of Pakistan with the lowest literacy, health [...]
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I don’t get to watch much t.v., except for Comedy Central and Cartoon Network. Couple of years ago, we got hooked on 24 in its second season. I thought it was wonderful Camp (dead serious, extravagent, predictable for its infantile fixation on “twists”). I didn’t see the last season but we taped and watched the [...]
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The tagline says “Where Pakistan Meets America” and judging from the magazine’s title*, Chowrangi, the place where this meeting happens would be a central traffic intersection where various (at least 4) major roads intersect. The first issue of this glossy, out of NJ, is well thought-out and well executed. The editorial statement describes the goal [...]
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I cannot speak as authoritatively about politics in America as farangi did about religion in America. My interest in politics here – and my experience of it – is barely 10 years old. Sure, I have read my share of 19th and 20th century American political history but that is just that. Still, I claimed [...]
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“I haven’t had an orthodox blog, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!” With heartfelt thanks to those who voted and with apologies to [...]
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Slate is having the yearly movie club that I enjoy tremendously. Everyone’s top ten is coming out in anticipation of award season. I didn’t get to the movies much this past year. Netflix was a heavenly savior. The best movie I saw was made in 2003 and won’t be released in America until later in [...]
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[sepoy notes: Gentle readers, here it is. The coup de gráce. I will have my thoughts on the series next week. Specifically, I want to see what a secular populist response to this would look like. After all, if the world doesn't end as predicted, we should have Plan B. In his conclusion, farangi also [...]
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[sepoy notes: Fundamentalism, a term now associated with Islam - though largely supplanted by Islamofascists among the freepers, originated in the 19th century America to describe those who maintained the inerrancy of the Bible. In 1895, the five points of fundamentalism were agreed upon in Niagra: Literal inerrancy of the Bible, the divinity of Jesus [...]
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[sepoy notes: On the inerrancy of text, see Holy Writ in the latest Economist (thanks, moacir). The piece focuses on Christian and Muslim traditions and has some excellent quotes and nice overview of the tension between textual literalists and textual critics. On the end times in Muslim eschatology, I briefly touched on this here and, [...]
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