what is the vertiginous chapati saying to me?
From the category archives:
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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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: not a line of [...]
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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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Update: Deadline is one week from today– Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 12 noon EST
Dear Readers,
I am working on a post about book buying, browsing, searching in South Asia. I would like to solicit from you anecdotes and stories about looking for books in any language other than English while in South Asia. I have [...]
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The commercial would begin with a shot of a blue-green planet afloat in dark space. Then, with instant thousand-fold
magnification, the camera would digitally zoom into the part of the landmass in the northern hemisphere that lies above the Indian Ocean, the subcontinent flecked closer to the top of the screen by the white crest of [...]
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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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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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I been sending the usual links I would hoard for this occasional post over to twitter. But, it has been too long, yes? Some links to tide over the long Sunday:[play Cohen's Avalanche, Famous Blue Raincoat as you read]
Jacqueline Rose, A Piece of White Silk, LRB is absolutely must-read – for such careful examination [...]
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Re: Patrick French. “Touting Religion, Grabbing Land.” New York Times, March 17, 2009.
It has been a while since CM had a rant post. I have matured, you know. Elevated discourse and all that. But, fuck it. This Patrick French “opinion piece” just fills me with that oft-familiar feeling.
First off, does Patrick French meet our [...]
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update:
“It’s a very Masala film”. Those kids are too damn cute, btw.
Just in time for Oscars, we saw the “controversial” crowd-pleaser last night. I loved it. Boyle & Tandan tip their hats to Company, Maqbool and Salaam Bombay in visual and thematic cues but I thought Trainspotting may have been the biggest influence. You should [...]
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Bahār-i Dānish (Garden of Wisdom) by Munshi Ināyat Allah Kanbuh in the mid-seventeenth century. These are hikayāt (tales) of a romance between a prince Jahandar Sultan and a maiden Bahrawar Banu, translated by the narrator into Persian. Think Sheherzade, but with a Munshi.
I was delighted to find this on Google Books – though, it [...]
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Dennis Perrin, whether he knows it or not, is in contention with Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi in a contest of nuclear indignance–which of the two will assume the mantle of America’s clear-thinking, hyper-independent conscience, left unshouldered since Hunter S. Thompson’s slide into obscurity, and lamentable demise?
Taibbi has the lead. He occupies a chair close [...]
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I will have some pictures up tomorrow of Ohio, including the fivethirtyeight.com road crew in situ, on the road. I can report that nearly every single ad I have seen on tv from McCain has been a negative ad – including some delectably served hate from NRA (check out gunbanobama.com, if you must). And everything [...]
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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 — there’s [...]
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I watched Iron Man a few weeks ago in Copenhagen. It is a pretty boring movie – except for fans of Robert Downey Jr. – but it is worth watching for professional reasons alone. Let me explain, briefly. The movie that most brilliantly captured the particular brand of American Orientalism was 1994’s True Lies. Can [...]
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a long long time ago, a palmist told me that everything in my life will be hard, but i will achieve whatever it is that I wanted. just nothing will come easy. and then another person told me the same thing. No wonder I used to day dream about being a station manager of a [...]
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The revelation was Chee Malabar. I know, and knew, that Yogi B will be global. They are way too talented and ferocious, live – to not force themselves into every iPod on the block. They are also incredibly genuine and warm. But, it is Chee, for whom I must evangelize. Though, I had heard a [...]
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CM reader JM sends in this note for all you gentle readers.
Hi! Hoping you Chapati Mystery readers can help me find a publisher for my first novel, Monsoon Chutney. It’s the multi-generational tale of an upper-caste Indian-American family. What’s really fresh about this work, I feel, is that each generation has its own unique [...]
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“The worst uncontrolled reentry in history occurred in July 1979, when Skylab, America’s abandoned, 78-ton space station — which had long since run out of maneuvering fuel — came down earlier than planned, raining debris across the Australian outback.”
We would be playing out in Doha’s deserty fields and my mother, standing in the doorway, would [...]
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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 and [...]
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