Thanks to Sepoy, my new website is up and running. The website currently displays only the work that will be in the show; my Flickr site will continue to display all my pictures. Some new paintings are not yet posted anywhere, as they will make their debut at the opening on Feb. 7. For those [...]
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As you know, The Atlantic has opened up its archives for free – following NYT etc. I recommend, The Young Kipling, December 1887 – extracts from letters and diaries of a young American girl living in Allahabad and getting to know Kipling. “How Kipling does love those wild men of the North! He calls them [...]
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The good folks at The Century Foundation sent this word: Are the United States and wider international community partly responsible for Pakistan’s political meltdown? Even before the year-end slaying of Benazir Bhutto, General Pervez Musharraf’s abrupt imposition of emergency rule triggered a downward spiral in Pakistan, upending the country’s legal institutions and putting in doubt [...]
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We came here from Georgia. Our family did. Horse and wagon. I pretty much know that for a fact. I know they’s a lots of things in a family history that just aint plain so. Any family. The stories get passed over. As the sayin goes. Which I reckon some would take as meanin that [...]
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I have been waiting, patiently and with bated breath, for this moment for a while now. Those close to me can attest that I am not a patient man, so this has been a rather Amir Hamzaish effort on my part. Lapata is having a show! Let me state that a bit more emphatically: Lapata [...]
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I haven’t really rolled the mental rolodex over into 2008. Something scares me about that number. It portends change, maybe dislocation, perhaps an end to the way things were. I embrace change with the same fatalism as when a human, lacking the natural means to flight, jumps out of a plane strapped to a parachute. [...]
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Of course, one needs flour to make cake. The Dictator Formerly Known As The General recently opined that the flour crisis is not real and that the cost of flour in Pakistan is, in fact, cheaper than neighboring countries. Let it be noted that the price of flour in Pakistan is 3 or 4 times [...]
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In 1953, when Dast-i Saba (Wind’s Palm) was published, Faiz Ahmed Faiz had been in jail for almost two years. He would remain in jail for another two. He was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the nascent state of Liaqat Ali Khan and arrested in early March, 1951. You can read about Faiz’s prison days [...]
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For crying out loud. Hadh hoti hay. Our mango republic, ran by the Dictator Formerly Known As The General, has lost its mind. I have often highlighted the reports and writings of Nicholas Schmidle, a freelance journalist, reporting from Pakistan on numerous occasions. I have often exchanged emails with him. He was, contra majority, writing, [...]
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The last afternoon before I left the country, we snuck to the rooftop of Lahore High Court to cast a parting glance at the city. The image still remains imprinted. A while ago, I highlighted the photos of rizwan on flickr, who had some amazing – yet routine – captures: perhaps my favorite photo, a [...]
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CM friend Baraka thinks that there is a stereotype about Muslim women out there that does not show them as the thinking, feeling, lively people with loving hearts and independent minds that we know them to be. And she is doing something about it by calling for real-life stories about Muslim women in relationships/dating being [...]
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The assumptions nested in our electoral punditry are astounding. What’s more astounding is that we do not question them, especially when they barely conceal true, noxious racialist thinking. Why, for instance, is Don Imus a pariah, when Dick Morris and Chris Matthews can proceed without pause with lines of questioning based on the assumption that [...]
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This past weekend, I was on a panel at the annual historian’s shindig, the AHA: Contested Pasts and Constructed Presents: Memory in the Local. It was the last panel on Sunday afternoon – colloquially termed the “Luggage Panel”. And yet, it still managed to be a good one – with up to 6 attendees! Dresner’s [...]
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The media’s pontificating talking heads and some sorry campaign managers trying to pull their candidates from the muck have got it wrong. They’re obsessing over the difference between two abstractions: change and experience, assuming those labels define the persons to whom they’re applied, and the voters enthusiastic about voting for them. True to narrow-casted form, [...]
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“In Saudi Arabia, there is no guarantee that you won’t be arrested because of your frankness and speaking your mind on your blog.” posted Fouad al-Farhan on his blog. He was correct. He has been detained by Saudi authorities for over 24 days. There is no power, we bloggers hold over states or royals. There [...]
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The hits keep on coming. George MacDonald Fraser, creator of Harry Flashman, has died at the age of 82. If you haven’t read the adventures of Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE, do it now. Start. As I’ve said, it was Sir Daniel Darnley who led me to Esquemeling, and Conan Doyle to Froissart, [...]
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The MSM’s take on Bhutto’s murder has inspired much wondering on the pages of Chapati Mystery–can they be talking about Benazir Bhutto? our readers ask. The corrupt thief of a billion American tax dollars meant for Pakistan’s infrastructure and military? The monarchical heir to power in a supposed democracy? The populist who claimed to speak [...]
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Once again, sitting here, I find myself instinctively examining the media coverage since the 27th. Just like the JFK-inspired, home-brewed ways in which her assassination was discussed, these recent pieces all highlight some personal connection to Bibi, while offering their analysis. There is never a hint of any legislative or political legacy, any economic or [...]
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