Modern Punjabi storytelling that explores the loss of culture and the demise of the past
Updated 16 Jan, 2020 11:27am
A well-researched book on the father and son duo that helped cement Mughal rule in the subcontinent
Published 11 Jun, 2017 07:03am
In Dr Shahab Ahmed’s own words, the main difficulty in conceptualising Islam/Islamic lies in the prolific scale of...
Published 11 Jun, 2017 07:03am
Setting up a business is not easy, but the stories in this book can instil some hope in even the most disheartened
Published 11 Jun, 2017 07:03am
The events of 1971 that took place in the then eastern wing of the country find insufficient space in our literary...
Published 04 Jun, 2017 07:27am
A guide to understanding the Leave/Remain debate in all its glory, with all its gory details
Published 04 Jun, 2017 07:27am
Not quite ‘divergent’ for those who ‘hunger’ for less ‘pandemonium’ and more ‘brave new worlds’
Published 04 Jun, 2017 07:27am
Romeo and Juliet set in Lahore with an eye for detail marks a remarkable debut
Published 04 Jun, 2017 07:27am
A literary agent once said to me that a paragraph in People magazine with some trivial gossip about a writer sold...
Updated 04 Jun, 2017 11:03am
Greed, conquest, murder and torture — the ugly history behind a fabled jewel
Published 04 Jun, 2017 07:27am
As the fate of Fata continues to hang in the balance, this splendid work of research may help explain the causes of the
Updated 28 May, 2017 08:40am
Pen-sketches that provide context to a political debate that stands far from settled
Updated 28 May, 2017 08:40am
A devotee’s paean to the founder of Sikhism
Updated 28 May, 2017 07:10am
TV’s greatest show ever (nearly four years after the end of the series, I consider none of its recent competition...
Updated 28 May, 2017 07:10am
A collection of contemporary poems that succeed in getting their message across
Updated 28 May, 2017 07:10am
Part eight of the series exploring Pakistani Urdu writing over the past 70 years
Updated 28 May, 2017 07:10am
In our case where history is not taught in schools, it is through our great poets and fiction-writers that we become
Updated 28 May, 2017 07:10am
New research into the Pakistan-India river dispute appears to imply perpetual conflict
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
Bilal Tanweer brings to a wider audience the oddballs of a little neighbourhood in Karachi
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
A poignant piece of work that explores the horrors of immigrant lives
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
Over the last five years, writing and information-communication technologies have been merging into a powerful tool for
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
Tackling stereotypes and in the process, creating empathy
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
A visitor from Singapore journeys across the country in search of lost Sikh heritage
Updated 21 May, 2017 06:53am
Demolishing the idea of the ‘magnanimity’ of the Raj
Updated 14 May, 2017 10:18am
English translations of short stories by a leading light of Urdu literature opens up her writing to the world
Updated 14 May, 2017 06:15am
In ‘Muhabbat ka Bulava’ a young man falls in love with his friend’s sister and when his loved one’s very rich father
Updated 14 May, 2017 10:18am
Post-9/11, the murmur of Muslim women’s voices grows louder
Updated 14 May, 2017 06:15am
A Pakistani biography of Einstein fails to justify itself
Updated 14 May, 2017 06:15am
In his essay, ‘The Curse of The Moroccan Writer’, Fouad Laroui’s description of the problems faced by Moroccan...
Updated 14 May, 2017 10:20am
Straightening out over a century of confusion around the Salafist movement
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:28am
Nadeem Aslam’s latest novel continues his focus on the sufferings of the marginalised
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:29am
A personal history framed against tales of migration
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:37am
Last month I attended a symposium enticingly titled “What is a poem?” The organisers had posed the following...
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:31am
What matters is the journey, not the destination
Updated 11 May, 2017 07:10pm
Interior decoration is to architecture what nacre is to an oyster: within an outer shell lies the pearl.
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:42am
I took to the habit of underlining the text and scribbling in the margins while reading a book a little late in ...
Updated 07 May, 2017 10:33am
How the Suez war stripped a superpower of its status
Updated 01 May, 2017 01:48pm
A book that calls out for a greater exploration of a legend
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
In March, a man drove a car on to London’s Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring one before fatally...
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
Though written with sincerity, this novel is unable to dig deep enough
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
Confessions that appear to have been undertaken for form’s sake
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
Part seven of the series exploring Pakistani Urdu writing over the past 70 years
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
Soon after I had witnessed people dying and killing for a new ethnicity being forged, a new nationalism being born, ...
Updated 30 Apr, 2017 07:05am
I wrote and pronounced what I had written awful, wrote again, by hand, went out to do a little shopping, maybe to the
Published 23 Apr, 2017 06:53am
Just two days ago, on April 21, began the eighth decade since the death of Pakistan’s national poet, Allama...
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:44pm
An economist imagines what Pakistan’s future could be if a revolution of thought began now
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:46pm
While some of the discussions about language were tired, this year’s ILF redeemed itself with a focus on national
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:38pm
This book of personal essays is remarkably pioneering both in format and scope and defies straightforward categorisation
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:59pm
As letters fly back and forth, a simple friendship turns obsessive
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:55pm
Husain Haqqani’s book, while advocating pragmatism over ideology, glosses over important elements
Updated 25 Apr, 2017 11:52pm
A’ez Azizi (if he were alive), Mujahid Barelvi and Aslam Khwaja come across as three very different individuals...
Published 12 Mar, 2017 07:25am
Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib often questions the capacity of words to express thoughts, asking if silence ...
Updated 16 Mar, 2017 07:30am
The life and times of a worthy politician from the perspective of his contemporaries
Published 12 Mar, 2017 07:25am
Mapping the history and future of the gene that defines who we are in a single book is not an easy task
Published 12 Mar, 2017 07:25am
Convergences: Essays on Art and Literature by Octavio Paz brings together three decades of his musings and...
Published 05 Mar, 2017 07:11am
Here’s how to open with a bang. “It was the afternoon of my 81st birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite ...
Published 05 Mar, 2017 07:11am
The current political situation could be a catalyst in the rise of modern resistance literature
Published 05 Mar, 2017 07:11am
Kudos for pulling off the LLF given the recent state of affairs, but more conversation is needed
Updated 07 Mar, 2017 09:28pm
A day after the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan was soaked in innocent blood, an exquisite book was...
Published 26 Feb, 2017 07:17am
In my last column I wrote about the artistic depictions of Pakistan’s capital. Stark contrasts are to be found in...
Published 26 Feb, 2017 07:17am
A dominant theme at this year’s Karachi Literature Festival was the partition of the subcontinent
Published 26 Feb, 2017 07:17am
The ideology is detrimental to the progress of Islamic law argues a new book
Published 26 Feb, 2017 07:17am
I must admit that until recently I didn’t take social media as seriously as someone ought to in this time and age....
Published 19 Feb, 2017 05:58am
Historical rupture is a terrible thing; it throws centuries into the darkness of amnesia. How hard it is for us to...
Published 19 Feb, 2017 05:58am
It is a strange state of affairs that Urdu just about survived at the KLF
Published 19 Feb, 2017 05:58am
The Karachi Literature Festival would do well to incorporate new ideas and fresh approaches
Updated 19 Feb, 2017 10:51am
His name is synonymous with the second highest peak in the world, but for decades there has been a dearth of research...
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
Pierre Bayard is a French author and professor of literature. Some years ago he published a book, How to Talk About...
Updated 17 Feb, 2017 05:17pm
A young adult novel that takes the path less travelled
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
Neither white nor black in the midst of apartheid
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
“Thor, bless his heart, has no narrative arc: he is the same person all the way through.”
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
A new trove of letters illuminates Hasan Askari’s relationships with his contemporaries
Updated 15 Feb, 2017 02:54pm
Stories of survival from women in some of the world’s most dangerous places
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
SOUTH Asia is becoming increasingly monolingual and linguistically divided, in terms of both intellectual discourse...
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
REVIEWING a new play on the radio, a drama critic described it at length — a soldier returning from Afghanistan...
Updated 05 Feb, 2017 09:32am
The winners of the first PSL mark their victory with a collector’s item
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
Although the theory of a single currency may hold weight, its practical implementations
leave much to be desired
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
Architecture was Habib Fida Ali’s passion and he successfully transferred that fervour into many outstanding buildings
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
Nazia Ejaz explores themes of perception and identity without political, cultural or geographic peculiarity
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
Loving Vincent is a corny new biopic made from 62,450 hack oil paintings in Van Gogh’s style –
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
This unusual trek in Hunza is a difficult one but is worth it
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:26pm
Voices of dissent are once again being raised about a constitutional requirement.
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 01:05pm
I write this column for B&A in interesting times. There is an expression we repeat in our conversations, ...
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:27pm
Dylan has affected almost all literary writers of the past half century, whether or not they have directly encountered
Updated 04 Feb, 2017 12:48pm
Countries left behind in the technological race need not worry; it is still possible to catch up
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
From literary festivals to conferences, nothing has been the same without the master storyteller
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:27pm
A collection of poetry that blurs the boundaries between the three Punjabs — east, west, and diasporic
Updated 16 Jan, 2020 11:27am
Looking beyond appearances to uncover the social hierarchy entrenched in the United States
Published 22 Jan, 2017 07:31am
Graphic novels have come a long way from the superhero comic book
Published 22 Jan, 2017 07:31am
Nayeema Mahjoor writes about the hardships faced by women in the disputed territory of Kashmir
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
Mustansar Hussain Tarrar spends a few days travelling across the sandscape and tells the tale with wit and perspective
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
New research on the Muhammad Bin Qasim narrative reveals the misassumptions with which generations have been raised
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
Leaving Pakistan for the United States in the 1970s deepens the connection between the author and her Islamic roots
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
Journalism takes an illustrative turn
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
Tracking the rise of the militant group that holds parts of the Middle East hostage
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
The objective of introducing the Sufi giant’s poetry to the modern reader is commendable even if it falls a little
Updated 01 Jan, 2017 11:12am
There is quite a lot going on in Pakistan’s capital city, otherwise known as the place where nothing much happens
Published 01 Jan, 2017 10:43am
The Urdu literary scene is flourishing on foreign shores, but literature itself does not seem to be at the heart of it
Published 01 Jan, 2017 10:43am
A slim book that, despite its brevity, takes an engaging trip into a city beloved by the literati of yore
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
