Chapati Mystery

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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imperial watch

Only Katrina Victims Get Bailouts

by sepoy September 29, 2008

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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imperial watch

Alexander the Great, John McCain needs you

by sepoy September 26, 2008

“Obama, doesn’t understand” our grecian world.

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Camera Indica

by sepoy September 24, 2008

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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Tuesday Links

by sepoy September 23, 2008

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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univerCity

Sensible Nails

by sepoy September 22, 2008

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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Going Native

by sepoy September 22, 2008

Via e. comes this brilliance. And I don’t use the word brilliant, that casually, you know. Actually, I do.

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holydays

Some Grace

by sepoy September 21, 2008

Over at Big Picture, my favorite blog if you care, is a wonderful series, Observing Ramadan.

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Islamabad Struck Again

by sepoy September 20, 2008

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. [...]

Hanif on Zardari

by sepoy September 19, 2008

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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Laws, Lawyers & the Lawless

by sepoy September 19, 2008

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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Zungu Notes

by sepoy September 17, 2008

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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, Interrupted

by sepoy September 17, 2008

“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: [...]

better with tablas

Police Patrol by Delhi Sultunate

by sepoy September 16, 2008

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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univerCity

Ralph Russell (1918-2008), Subaltern Urduwala

by sepoy September 16, 2008

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 [...]

Oh the Drudgery of Punditry…

by sepoy September 15, 2008

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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optical character recognition

Oh Snap!

by sepoy September 15, 2008

ALL 2008 CHAPALS MUST GO! So, the caption on this is funnier than any snark from me: “Unemployed youth protest …”

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DFW, RIP

by sepoy September 13, 2008

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 [...]