The taxi driver in the age of Careem
Men like Sikander have been driving taxis for much of their adult life and know no other work. Some live in small servant quarters with their wives, who work in the houses.…
Take the Competition: Hold the Prize
“There is a yearning to see a new crop of artistes who can take music forward. For that crowd, PBOTB kills it.” Coke Studio has over time become the Pete Sampras of…
Comedy weds drama
Of the three Eid-ul-Azha releases, which also included Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 and Parwaz Hai Junoon, Load Wedding was perhaps the hardest to categorise. JPNA 2 was of course a sequel,…
‘Revisionist’ shift in Subcontinental history
History never dies; it just goes into hibernation to come to fore with the discovery of new historical evidence or different perspective. The 24th International History Conference organized by the History Department…
Media Watch: WajBro and the ladies
Of course. Of course our man Waj Bro is a ladies’ man. Of course he is. What woman could possibly resist the charms of this Greek diety? This man of words whose…
Media Watch: Kitna kar leti hai?
We’re a nation obsessed with mileage. Every conversation at a car showroom, or a used car dealership, or the awkward meeting resulting from some to-and-fro on Pakwheels or OLX, has to feature…
Follow the Diamond
Book review: Kohinoor: The story of the world’s most infamous diamond The Koh-I-Noor. It has been a symbol of the British crown for over 150 years. The crown jewel of the crown…
Original phir nahi ani
The releases lined up on Eid-ul-Azha were significantly better on paper as compared to what was on offer at Eid-ul-Fitr. However, given the string of disasters that Lollywood served two months ago,…
Media Watch: He said, he said
A phone call has been the subject of feverish debate on the mainstream media. The call from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to newly-inaugurated PM Imran Khan, felicitating the latter upon…
Media Watch: Dawn of a scary era
“A lie can travel halfway across the world, while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Though always true, the above statement (ironically enough, falsely attributed to Mark Twain) has never…
Our Forgotten Realities: What Manto and Quratulain Haider have to say about Naya Pakistan
Revisiting the sad, sombre tales by two masters of Urdu fiction in times brimming with hope and excitement ‘Everything popular is wrong.’ In our land, these words by Oscar Wilde haunt few…
Fairy meadows: A tiny taste of heaven
At the end of a trail 3300 meters above sea level, nestled between the mountains and forests of Diamer in Gilgit Baltistan, lies a small patch of serenity. The journey, for…
Media Watch: Imran Khan is no Trump
. . . but they’re not poles apart either You would have seen it by now. Trevor Noah, the South African comedian who heads Comedy Central’s Daily Show after being handpicked for…
Media Watch: Damn the dams
There is something alluring about dams that is quite firmly affixed on our national imagination. I learnt at school that Tarbela was the largest earth-filled dam in the world much, much before…
Media Watch: Imran Khan’s “no security detail”
There is always a war of attrition between politicians and their security detail. The latter want too much, the former want as little as possible. That is the truth. It might not…
Media Watch: Quit horsing around
“I don’t kick a man when he’s down. I kick a man when he’s not looking.” Hawkeye, M*A*S*H* Yes, schadenfreude is a base emotion. Yes, we should all be above it. Yes,…
Nawab Nusrat Khan’s Tomb: Another hidden gem
Most readers will be unaware of this little architectural gem in Lahore known as Nusrat Khan’s Tomb. The reason that this tomb is so elusive and has left the public unaware of…