July 2007

The Archives

• imperial watch

  Explain

  07.29.07 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  Seriously. Just because he is brown?

• univerCity, wizbango! tech

  Textual Commentary

  07.25.07 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  One of my favorite activity in the archive was to work on the marginalia of the manuscript - mostly just trying to decipher but often thinking through the gloss it ‘added’ to the text.
  Thinking about digital archives, I have been keenly aware that this ‘conversation on the margins’ must be incorporated into the text […]

• noted

  The Pearl Project

  07.22.07 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  I just found out about it, though it had been announced back in March. In Fall 2007, Georgetown’s School of Continuing Education will begin a seminar, The Pearl Project, to “investigate motive and attempt to determine who really killed Pearl. They will also examine the wider relationship between the Muslim world and the press […]

• noted

  Affliction with Little Dragons

  07.20.07 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  Have you heard the good news? For those of us who may have lost hope– expect the worst from humanity– no end to war, pollution and the like– the world has been handed an inspiring example in the form of the eradication of everyone’s favorite parasite, the guinea worm. In a recent article […]

• homistan

  Tick Tock V

  07.20.07 | Permalink | 16 Comments

  The Supreme Court of Pakistan, finally realizing that they can do better by not trussing up the dictatorship, reinstated CJ Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and nullified the reference filed against him by Musharraf.
  I find it hard to imagine how The General will survive all this. CJ Chaudhry back at the bench will surely pick up where […]

• portraits, stardust

  I am a horse.

  07.17.07 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  As you can see, I am a magnificent horse. Proof of my magnificence lies in the fact that I was presented as a special gift to First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy by Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1962. During the First Lady’s resplendent tour of South Asia, she was presented with […]

• noted

  Letter from Pakistan

  07.17.07 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  Days of Rage by William Dalrymple looks at Asma Jahangir - and Lal Masjid - in the NYer. The piece lacks his usual narrative flair but maybe because the Lal Masjid stuff seems a late add-on. Worth a read just for the profile of Asma Jahangir whom I have admired for a very long time.

• optical character recognition

  Sunday Reading for Smarty Pants

  07.15.07 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  Watched Transformers and found it all too snickerworthy. I just don’t know how one can keep a straight face at the slo-mo shots, the flybys and the military hardware droolfest - especially after that brilliant sendup of Bay done in Hot Fuzz. I won’t say I had high hopes but I was really looking forward […]

• univerCity

  Title Pending

  07.12.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  I will be participating on a roundpanel, The Arc of Crisis: US Policy in the Middle East and South Asia, at YearlyKos in Chicago. It was tremendously generous of Juan Cole to invite me to join John Mearsheimer, Fariba Zarinebaf and Dennis Perrin.
  I will be discussing either the treaty drawn up between the […]

• homistan, noted

  Calligraphers

  07.09.07 | Permalink | 23 Comments

  “Urdu is sweeter when written by hand,” he said. A writeup in Wired of an Urdu newspaper being created by hand in Chennai - typically in the Nastaliq (or naskh-e ta’liq/ the hanging script) ‘font’ - along with a gallery. A word of caution: The article, by Scott Carney, does contain gems like, “While the […]

• homistan

  The Mosque and the Ballot

  07.07.07 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  Just a few weeks ago, General Pervez Musharraf’s regime seemed in severe trouble. Chief Justice Chaudhry had strangely emerged as a popular hero inspiring the country after his summary dismissal by the Musharraf. Lawyers were rioting all across Pakistan’s major cities. The state’s crackdown on media had backfired. NYT, WaPo, WSJ had all put out […]

• homistan, noted

  Law of the Burqa

  07.04.07 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  You live by the Burqa, you die by the Burqa. [Background: juan cole, and Nicholas Schmidle’s dispatch in TNR.]
  My favorite bit about our Maulana Abdul Aziz, from this BBC report: “The maulana came out of the mosque with a group of girls wearing a burqa and carrying a handbag. The girls protested when he […]

• imperial watch, noted

  Politics as Usual

  07.02.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment