A: So, you going to visit Istanbul? Maybe, I think so. I am banking on E. getting there, this summer. And then following along. A: There was this Kulfi wallah near me. In Lahore? A: Yeah, a few lanes down from us. He was famous, the best Kulfis you would ever eat. People would come [...]
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I am headed to Philadelphia, my fav. other-Chicago, for the annual Association for Asian Studies meeting. I am on a panel on Thursday: 7:30pm-9:30pm. National Culture and Belonging in Pakistan, chaired by A. Sean Pue, Michigan State University. Grand Ballroom Salon J – “Chale Chalo ke Voh Manzil Abhi Nahin Aai”: Progressive Writers Attempt to [...]
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I am putting together a reading list for next term, and thought it might be fun (under this whole rejuvenated CM lately) to post some more primary source reading. Below is an editorial from NYT. It is quite a remarkable document for a number of reasons, not least that it was written in NY- the [...]
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Maya Yazigi, “Defense and Validation in Shi’i and Sunni Tradition: The Case of Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr” Studia Islamica, No. 98/99 (2004), pp. 49-70 One further factor needs to be taken into account. The horrific death that Muhammad b. Abi Bakr met in Egypt at the hands of Mu’āwiya’s men made him a perfect exemplar [...]
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Stephen Merritt: Tiny Tim was, like yourself, a song historian. Well, he had a pick-up band who had not rehearsed at all, I think. And what he did was play three chord cycles over and over again, and sing on top of that. The songs from the entire 20th century and part of the 19th [...]
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I have a new piece up at The Review, Pakistan’s new paranoia, on Zaid Hamid. A man named Zaid Hamid, who has perhaps done more than anyone else to promote the new narrative of national victimhood, says that he has a clear answer. We are, he argues, living in the apocalyptic end-times – and Pakistan [...]
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I have now discovered Do not get angry, Dude in Germany along w/ a commemorative stamp. It was invented by the clerk Josef Friedrich Schmidt (1871-1948) for his three children and then commercialized in 1914. [originally published Aug 30, 2005 @ 9:03] This falls squarely in the well-established tradition, here at CM, of wasting time. [...]
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Javed Akhtar on M. F. Hussain’s Rights, Sunday, Mar 07, 2010: Javed Akhtar: You know, please allow me to digress a little. Till now we are talking about the Hindu fanatics and the Hindu fundamentalists. Now, we are talking about the Muslim fundamentalists. And their resemblance and similarities is uncanny. It reminds me, you know, [...]
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Abroo H. Khan. “An Interview with Dr. Muhammad Umar Memon“. Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 1, No. 2 (2009): 180-199 [pdf link] What prompted me to translate? I used to translate even back in Pakistan. But then, in the same way as my creative writing, my translation work was not a matter of [...]
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I’ve never really written anything outside of this house. I wrote a very thick Ph.D. thesis for Allahabad University, but I couldn’t have actually written it there. I would collect everything and come back home to write. Suppose I have a story to write and I’ve gone out of town for a couple of days: [...]
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Since moving to Berlin, I haven’t watched any Fox or gone to political websites or kept up with all that stuff. Guido keeps me up. Check this, though. Huma Imtiaz and Rahma are twittering across Sindh/Punjab and beyond (follow them here and here) and snapped this at a bazaar in Multan. The reason it makes [...]
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I really want this book. CM readers in Lahore/Karachi, with access to a post office and a paypal account, I am looking at you. From Huma Yusuf’s review in Dawn.com: Readers will enjoy flipping through old advertisements as well as gathering tidbits about brands that they’ve always consumed, but perhaps never really known. That said, [...]
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Barbara D. Metcalf, the president of the AHA, is a wonderful historian of Islam in South Asia. I recommend reading her short note, Historians and Chemical Engineers, in the February 2010 issue of Perspectives on History. History may in some ways be primarily the purview of professionals, but it is also an intimate part of [...]
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A long while ago, I was a Physics major. This was a default setting. My father, an electrical engineer, expected something similar; as did I. In college, we had some inspirational teachers. Bashir Tahir, our Math teacher for example, was particularly somnambulant to all appearances but had a wicked sharp sprint. I know this because [...]
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Dear Mr. Nanga Fakir, We’re writing to let you know that the Committee for the Haminder Subah Sath Mehmil Memorial Foundation Annual Chapati Fellowship has met. After reviewing a very strong pool of thousands of international applicants, your dossier was chosen as the winning application. The Committee was particularly impressed with your strong commitment to [...]
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Some may recall that I had pointed out Atiya Khan’s critique of my piece in the Nation some while ago. I had wanted to not turn it into some silly blog tiff, and sent in a letter to the editor, who graciously published it in Platypus Review, issue # 20. You can read it on-line [...]
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