My recent trip to Lahore, I happened to find myself in the Cypher Bureau. Thought I’d share some surreptitious snaps that I took. Click through to see bigger versions, cleaner text.
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April 2009
I. Dear NYT editorial page, Let’s talk. I know you are really into this ____ miles from Islamabad schtick. It is a good schtick. Mainly because your dwindling readership cannot actually place Islamabad on a map. Nor do they have any sense of its physicality. Can you name a prominent landmark in Islamabad? Do you [...]
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Naim Sahib in Outlook India on the plight of Sikh families under the Swat deal: Islamic ‘Adl in Orakzai. It is worth reading in full, and I wanted to highlight this pertinent call to the lawyers movement… [glossary: 'adl (justice), jizya (property tax levied on conquered populations), dhimmis (non-Muslims under Muslim rule), fiqh (jurisprudence), bid'ah [...]
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If one was interested in plunging the murky depths of the ways in which US academia began to study “South Asia” – specifically within the Area Studies framework, one could begin with these preliminary sources: W. Norman Brown. “South Asia Studies: A History,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 356 [...]
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My first cassette, paid for, was Iqbal Bano sings Faiz which was put out by Shalimar Recording. That summer, I think it was a summer, I was obsessed with Faiz’s Dast-i Saba (1952). That dog-eared, tea-stained, copy still sits on my shelf, with pages marked and poems underlined. In that collection is the poem Yaad [...]
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Things have been dour here, lately. I was thinking we needed to talk cricket, today. And, as if by magic, dear e. sent this awesome shot of President Hussein getting schooled by Brian Lara (Mr. 400). The IPL has started in South Africa. India’s biggest sporting event was moved due to security concerns to SA. [...]
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Read what David Kilcullen, close advisor to General Petraeus, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee back in Feb: In Pakistan, we need to stop asking ourselves the question “Is Pakistan an enemy or an ally?” Pakistan is NOT the enemy. But we have enemies – as well friends – in Pakistan. We need to identify [...]
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I am so looking forward to the next 7 years and 200 odd days left.
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I went trolling on the internets for some sights of the Indian campaigns. Not much. The official BJP site has like 8 little photos and Congress none. Though, the Congress does have separate Hindi and Urdu sites. Nothing on Getty Images, but I did find some cool shots on flickr. Enjoy.
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The Pakistani Parliament has now passed the bill authorizing Shari’a laws in Swat – and perhaps in other territories. Punjab, according to the NYT report, United Militants Threaten Pakistan’s Populous Heart is also in grave danger of going Islamic in a meta-way. Baluchistan has broken out into violence and protests since the president of the [...]
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Gentle readers, I wanted to let you all know about two forthcoming presentations. It would be great if you all could come and cheered me widely, before, during and after my presentations. In fact, I would appreciate a solid wall of sound drowning out every word I utter. That would be helpful. I. At the [...]
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Shanakht was a festival of arts and performance, organized by Citizens Archive of Pakistan[website now 404] which was attacked by the workers of Pakistan People Party because they were offended by one of the images displayed here. You can read a rundown of the event here and a sobering editorial at Dawn for background. I [...]
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Today marks the fifth year anniversary of this here blog. Here be the first post. Thank you, gentle readers, for being here, for reading, for participating, for sending me links and articles, for being supportive, for sharing. Let the chapatis “flourish”. Yeah? My puns are getting worse, as I age.
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Back when The Wire was ending its run, the Freaknomics blog hosted Sudhir Venkatesh watching the tv serial with some “real thugs”. The first post had too much smarm for me to continue following it (Warren Buffet? WTF? It’s RUPERT MURDOCH, dude). I forgot and moved on. But after reading TR’s damning review of his [...]
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Adaner Usmani sent this to a mutual listserv. I believe it should be noted. there are anywhere from a dozen to two dozen haris from a village in sanghar on their fifteenth day of a hunger strike outside the karachi press club. they are protesting the violent excesses of a neighboring feudal who has been [...]
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Indian elections are around the corner and I am starting to compile links to read/follow. Yahoo and Google (also in hindi) seem like excellent first stops. Mark em. Yahoo’s column aggregator is especially useful. But Google’s “Quotes from our Leaders” has immediate applicability.(“Had I been the country’s home minister, I would have crushed Varun Gandhi [...]
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James Traub’s cover-story, Can Pakistan be Governed? is actually fairly nuanced and one of the better things to have appeared in NYT recently. More important, is the cover image for the magazine. I like to compile short-lists of reigning conventional wisdoms on Pakistan, and this cover is a beauty. Check it: PERILOUS ANARCHIC BROKE VIOLENT [...]
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These tips came a while back and I am sure y’all already seen it but seen together, I think they advance some new levels of morbid fascination. The blog is something else. [Thx to pdcs, babu for tips] Also, I will miss Neckbeard. Also, also, why did Obama choose to visit a Muslim nation over [...]
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DK recently sent an email to some of us detailing her experiences in buying Urdu instructional materials in Delhi. It’s a wonderfully funny email and I asked her permission to reproduce it here. But before I get to that, I wanted to revisit my own trip(s) to Urdu Bazaar in Lahore, a few weeks ago, [...]
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The flights had been going since 1956, even though they were in direct violation of Paris Convention of 1919, the Havana Convention of 1928 and the Chicago Convention of 1944. The first article of which states: “The contracting States recognize that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.” The [...]
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