Ahmed Faraz: The Light Stays sad news indeed. This is like end of an era in urdu poetry.

Faiz, Sahir, Ali Sardar Jafri, Firaq, Habib Jalib, Kaifi....and now Faraz also gone! He was probably the last in that great caravan.

"bichhRay sabhi baari baari..........."

Urdu poetry is never going to be same again!

Writings on the Wall the biggest writing is

"we wish miracles to happen, we don't want to do anything ourselves"

which is true for people of india as well.

An Ode Called Amritsar nice article!
Amritsar and Lahore were called twin cities before partition and in the early part of 20th century, were of roughly the same size.

Kashmir Liberated, Others Languish thanks bulleya #20

Kashmir Liberated, Others Languish is there any international law about the treatment of spies who get caught?

How did Hindus Become Vegetarians? My understanding of 'hinduism' is very simplistic and helps me to understand the changing practices over time. This is a 'religion'if people must label it so; which has evolved over time and has been enriched by experiences, observations and wisdoms of earthly people and its very being and the code of practice has not been prescribed or dictated by God. Hence, being meat/beef eaters at some time and then becoming veetarians is perfectly understandable.

How did Hindus Become Vegetarians? I fully support my friend kaalchakra here.What he described in #33, brought back many memories from my childhood too. May be slightly differently, but cow was always revered even in sikhism till the khalistanis came on the scene. We were taught that one of the five 'K's, the kirpaan (sword) was for the protection of cow and the poor (gaoo-ghareeb. Kooka movement started with closing down slaughter houses in Amritsar and Maler Kotla and as a result nearly 80 kooka sikhs were blown away with canon at Maler Kotla.

Abdul Latif Khalid (1944-2007) My condolences to you and your family. I am sure you will carry his good name forward.

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries dullabhatti,
is he same Ahmad Salim, whom Paash had dedicated a long poem in 71-72?

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries Re: # 27
kaal, here is some part of it from man article on wikipedia, (not written by Rahul Sankritayan of course):

Persecution under the Sunga Pusyamitra

Pusyamitra Sunga (reigned 185 to 151 BCE) assassinated the last Mauryan emperor Brhadrata in 185 BCE, and subsequently founded the Sunga dynasty. From the mid 3rd century BC, under Ashoka, Buddhist proselytization had begun to spread beyond the subcontinent. Buddhist texts such as the Ashokavadana and Divyavadana, written about four centuries after his reign, they contain accounts of the persecution of Buddhists during his reign. They ascribe to him the razing of stupas and viharas built by Ashoka, the placement of a bounty of 100 dinaras on the heads of Buddhist monks and describe him as one who wanted to undo the work of Ashoka.[39]

Some historians have rejected Pushyamitra' s persecution of Buddhists and the traditional accounts are often described as exaggerated. The Asokavadana legend has been likened to a Buddhist version of Pusyamitra's attack of the Mauryas, reflecting the declining influence of Buddhism in the Sunga Imperial court.

Later Sunga kings were seen as amenable to Buddhism and as having contributed to the building of the stupa at Bharhut.[40]. The decline of Buddhism in India did not set in until the Gupta dynasty.

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries Re: # 22

I havn't said that. I was responding to kabuliwala's comment about muslims being responsible for ousting of Budhism from India, though some people do claim that Budhist monastries were destoyed by hindus and monks were killed and many monks ran away to eastern countries along with some old budhist literature. Did Rahul Sankretayan not go to Tibet in search of those old budhist monuscripts?

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries Re: # 17
Budhism was dead long ago before the muslims set their feet on Indian soil and hindu renaissance by Shankar Acharya was responsible for this.

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries kaal, just because Zia was heading the country, that too in a un-constitutional way, it does not mean that he represented what all people of Pakistan shared his view on the collective past.

Voice from Waziristan Hello Khalid,
good to see you on F P

Your article reminds of exactly similar situatin in Pujab(east) during Khalistani terror in 80s when lot of people, majprity hindus had to leave there own houses and business particularly from border areas of Amritsar and Gurdaspur to haryana or delhi. Most of the recruits into the khalistani fold were young men with pencnant for arms and sensation seeking. Many were just antisocial elements and the so called ideology had hardly anything to do with what they were doing. There was another phenomenon noted towards the fag end of that period that many so calld khalistanis were actually made to do abductions and take huge ransoms by some police officers and when they refused, they were killed in false encounters.
Another similarity in such 'movements' accross nations seems to be that they are almost always concentrated in border areas.
Hope,this is a passing phase and people start living normal life again.

On disowning Bhagat Singh and Other Vagaries just reproducing a Daghistani saying which I read in Rasul Hamzatov's 'Mera Daaghistan':
"If you fire at your past with a pistol, the future will blow you out with a cannon"

I read whatever part of Shauqat Sardar's autobiography was published in Preetlari and was wondering why the publication was stopped midway.

Translation: Two Poems of Mirabai can you post the original versions a well?