what is the vertiginous chapati saying to me?
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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 [...]
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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 century [...]
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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, some [...]
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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 conscious [...]
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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 it [...]
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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, serendipitous finds [...]
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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 personal [...]
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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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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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Very Promising new collection of essays on Pakistan. It will make a fine addition to this.
Beyond Crisis: Re-evaluating Pakistan
Edited by Naveeda Khan
Published by: Routledge India
Publication Date: 23/02/2010
Pages: 544
About the Book
Through the essays in this volume, we see how the failure of the state becomes a moment to ruminate on the artificiality of this most modern [...]
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“When you walk you are freed from the worries of ordinary life” – Kanai Das Baul.
“I know it is not exactly like every family, but in this burning ground, in this place of sorrow, we have found new hope.” – Manisha Ma.
There are nine lives but eleven stories. Prasannamati Mataji and Prayogamati, Jain nuns [...]
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3 QUARKS DAILY PRIZE IN ARTS & LITERATURE:
We are now going to do the Arts and Literature Prizes, and here’s how it will work: we will soon begin accepting nominations for this prize. After the nominating period is over, there will be a round of voting by our readers which will narrow down the entries [...]
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Afghanistan won by 29 runs. Click for a Tribal breakdown.
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Hasan demands that this headline exist somewhere, and so it does. Here is a statistical analysis of over 210 million facebook accounts which one can query by country etc. Pakistan’s lists of group likes are quite instructive: Vin Diesel, for example, beats out the Prophet Muhammad. “I really hate slow computers” tells you something [...]
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Most of my usual conversation (passing/commenting on links) has moved to twitter, so doing a sunday link post seems almost, well, retro.
Still, things I do for you, gentle readers, will always be en vogue. Because that is how awesome you are. Each and every single one of you.
Drake Bennett’s Changing History, Boston Globe, [...]
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Dear Dr. Lapata
In an effort to speed up the publication schedule and work through our backlog, we are attempting to collect any remaining permissions from authors who are moving up in line for publication. Our records indicate that we still require permissions for the image(s) contained in your article, “(redacted).” Please return these permissions as [...]
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