The rooftop, chath, is the hub of Chand Raat (Night of the Moon). The point being to go up, and gaze at the sky – hoping to catch a glimpse of that peculiarly slight new moon. A sight which will mark the end of Ramadan. In my short moon-gazing life, I think I have only [...]
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Or Nobody! Ha! Anyways, before the great proletariat revolution consumes us all, I wanted to tip the hat towards Matt Taibbi’s breathless putdown of this Palinesque exurbia, The scariest thing about Sarah Palin isn’t how unqualified she is – it’s what her candidacy says about America: In her speech, Palin presented herself as a raging [...]
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“Obama, doesn’t understand” our grecian world.
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I am going to continue to pimp Big Picture. Though, honestly, this time around, I did have a slight twinge of “India Essentialized”. What do I know, though.
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First, a profile of Montgomery McFate, the anthropologist who launched the Human Terrain Program, by Noah Shachtman. Michael Bhatia, who died in Afghanistan in May, was one of the casualties of the HTP. Next, via Daku come some linkage: – Larki pay hath utatha hay, madarchod! – I cannot even quantify the laugh/cringe ratio of [...]
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This one goes to the Urduphiles, out there. A proverb was used in a newspaper headline: “Hukmaran Hosh kay Nakhun lain”. Literally: Government should trim the nails (nakhun) of sense (hosh), the Jama’at-i Islami. (Leaving aside the JI from this discussion) Meaning that someone is being stupid, or doing something without much thought, and should [...]
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Via e. comes this brilliance. And I don’t use the word brilliant, that casually, you know. Actually, I do.
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Over at Big Picture, my favorite blog if you care, is a wonderful series, Observing Ramadan.
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All images via AP & AFP. At Least 40 Killed in Huge Explosion at Pakistan Hotel. The attack, at 7:55 p.m., was at Marriott. A video. The hotel is destroyed. This is, by initial reporting, the biggest suicide attack in the history of this country – dwarfing the Lahore attack from March of this year. [...]
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From The National, UAE, Exiles’ Return – a superb piece by Muhammad Hanif, author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes. In Karachi, you can only hear the distant thunder of the war on terror: the new Taliban bombing our brothers in faith, and the retaliations of America’s Taliban-hunting-toys, bombing more of our brothers in faith. [...]
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A few more images from today’s Daily Waqt: “In Swat, the masked members of Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (Movement of Pakistani Taliban) hold a ‘criminal’ while their companion delivers a public punishment. Maulana Fazlullah has started a campaign to forcibly install Shari’ah laws in the region, after which the tensions have mounted.” “In Lahore, the President [...]
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CM friend zunguzungu has three must-reads up, on Bush Doctrine, McCain, Obama, and all things considered. Bush Doctrine is about lynching, Lynching, Shock & Awe and other violent spectacles, Death and American Spectacles, Take three
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“If we must say something, let’s at least only say true things.1 The principle of his fiction, as I understand it.” Zadie Smith @ McSweeney’s. “He went on to mention, all too briefly, his hope that there might be “a model for what free, informed adulthood might look like in the context of Total Noise: [...]
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That is some sharp work. From his myspace page: “Taru Dalmia is a reggae and hip hop artist based in New Delhi India. He has performed at various poetry forums and live shows, representing the lyrical and cultural tradition of reggae dancehall and hip hop in India.” [HT, SC]
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Ralph Russell, noted Urdu scholar, and head of Urdu at SOAS from 1949-1981, has passed away. I am re-printing, with his permission, Professor C. M. Naim’s thoughts: Subaltern Urduwala: Anyone who came in contact with Ralph Russell (1918-2008) always remembered him as a remarkable man. Mostly because he not only knew Urdu so well but [...]
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Christopher Hitchens, of much ill-repute, tries his hand at Pakistan: The very name “Pakistan” inscribes the nature of the problem. It is not a real country or nation but an acronym devised in the 1930s by a Muslim propagandist for partition named Chaudhary Rahmat Ali. It stands for Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and Indus-Sind. The stan [...]
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ALL 2008 CHAPALS MUST GO! So, the caption on this is funnier than any snark from me: “Unemployed youth protest …”
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David Foster Wallace is gone. Deeply shocked. And saddened. Just crushingly sad. See him on Charlie Rose interview from 1997. DFW: You confront your own vanity when you think about going on TV. So I’m — no apologies, but just — that’s an explanation. The — the footnotes in the — there’s a way that [...]
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The golden age of political signage is upon us. [HT, wonkette.]
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Pakistan, gentle readers, is imploding. Zordari has been sworn in as President at the back of deals made with MQM and other nefarious organizations (here’s lookin at you, Zalmay!) US/NATO air and ground troops are conducting operations inside Pakistan – with requisite civilian casualties and widespread public discontent in Pakistan. But, these two recent stories [...]
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