Why Doxiadis Cries for Islamabad I found your name a little intriguing, first I thought maybe you are DAUD(ibrahim ka)POTA, but I guess you are too old for that.... any way that was on the lighter side.
Lutyens planned New Delhi, Le Corbusier planned Chandigarh,
Doxiadis planned Islamabad, one wonders who did the best job of the three

Anatomy of Revenge A third rate article, if my English teacher of yore were to read this, he would have said,"If I dipped my arse in ink and sat on a paper it would be better than this essay"

Pakistan: A Downward Spiral? The state of a nation is reflected in sport like it is in any sphere of social life.
For Pakistan it has been a slide for sure. There was a time when Pakistani per capita income was higher than India's, the Pakistani Rupee was stronger than India's, Pakistan was considered more prosperous than India. Today India has taken a lead which Pakistan cannot close for decades.
The Pakistani nation has been unfortunate to have been led by incompetent civilian leaders who have not been able to put the army in its place. It is really a shame to see senior leaders elected by the people jee huzooring the General Sa'abs, whereas the generals should stick to protecting the borders. Nobody knows who is the Army C-in-C in democracies like USA, UK, Canada, France, but when it comes to Pakistan, the whole world knows who is in command because either he is in power as a dictator or he is planning the next coup, therefore a man to watch.
The people must throw away the army yoke and usher in true federal democracy and Pakistan can find its moorings.

Preventing More Lal Masjids #956
Are we looking at a communist revolution a-la-Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917?

A Letter To President Musharraf With the latest killing of Pakistani troops in NWFP, do we see the beginning of secessionist activity in that part of Pakistan, leading the Pakhtoons to join Afghanistan?

A Letter To President Musharraf No government in the world has been able to ban alcohol consumption including the US where prohibition gave rise to the serious menace of bootlegging and had to be withdrawn. The right thing for Pakistani governments would be to let people live their own lives. Open liquor trade. A Muslim who thinks there is nothing wrong in drinking will visit the theka sarab desi whereas a devout Muslim will keep away from alcohol. Let the individual decide what is good for him. Why should the state dictate the lives of the people. Take secular India, we have 150 Million Muslims. If in their wisdom they choose to deviate from Islamic tenets they have the freedom to indulge as they want, no questions asked , if they want to be dinkum Muslims, there is no stopping them, India has 3000 madrassas where the most devout Muslim tulaba train. As the world progresses, the state is expected to interfere less and less in the individual`s life. Let Pakistani authorities stop taking retrograde steps and move to secularise the country.

A Letter To President Musharraf Re: # 128
Methinks the fellow in the white kurta pajama and the gamchha on his head has his stance with the submachinegun all wrong, no wonder he copped it

A Letter To President Musharraf Re: # 41
I think a large part of the Sikh population got carried away by the propaganda carried out by Bhindranwale, he mesmerised the gullible rural population into believing that they could really take on the majority and attain Khalistan. On such occasions a lot of riff raff and lumpen element joins in the chorus, you even had cashiered Army officers joining the movement and setting up the final countdown at Harmandar Saheb, while the silent majority were just dumb observers. Any upright Sikh officer who dared to stand up to Bhindranwale was eliminated creating a fear psychosis. There was a lot of disaffection in the defence services too engineered by Bhindranwale followers through unit granthis. Soon after Blue Star Sikh troops commandeered trucks and siezed weapons as far as Nasik and started towards Punjab, of course they never made it and would have realised they had been misled.
The blame of course goes to the Congress and their leader Indira Gandhi in the first place shoring up Bhindranwale against the Akali Dal. She paid the price for this blunder.
As for the pogroms after her death again the Congress and Rajiv Gandhi are wholly to blame. Passions were really high particularly after selected massacres of Hindus in Punjab, but it was the duty of the Congress to ruthlessly put down the disorder but they on the contrary actually encouraged the mass murder.
As I have said before, due to the follies of Congress rulers, a magnificent community has been hurt and sidelined and the question is in the next war against Pakistan in the Punjab will the Jat wholewheartedly welcome the Indian army as hithertofore or will he just watch them passively?

As The Drama Unfolds A spirited piece. One hopes more and more Pakistanis will speak out against these Mullahs.
By the way, in almost all Bollywood movies Muslim characters are good (albeit lesser mortals compared to the hero of the film) guys (remember Bollywood takes pride in being a great uniter of faiths through its movies), so that last paragraph is a little out of sync.

Preventing More Lal Masjids Re: # 396

The only good thing that has come out of the creation of Pakistan is that Urdu as a language has seen better days, whereas the language is losing appeal among the Muslims in India and declining.
But then, if Pakistan had not been created, the ratio of Muslims to Hindus in undivided India would have been 35:65, and Urdu would have also flourished.

What Lies Beneath: Dispatch from the Frontlines of the Burqa Brigades This burqa thing! I was in Dubai recently, in the Ibn Batuta Mall ( The period architecture is fabulous), a mother in full burqa had a child with her. She let the child out of the pram to play, and as all children do, the child periodically ran into the lap of her mother for security
Since the mother was the only one in burqa and she had her attention on the child, it was fine. It just set me thinking, if there were a couple of score mothers all covered from head to toe, and their children with them, how would the children identify their mothers in a crowd of black veils?

Preventing More Lal Masjids Re: # 215

I thought it was ``Hear, hear!``

Preventing More Lal Masjids Re: # 183

Ongoing reforms:
- Rooting out of child marriage system
- Rooting out of dowry system
- Ensuring entry to all castes in temples
- Encouraging girl child literacy
- Woman empowerment
- Rooting out female foeticide
- Through education eliminating preponderence of caste system in the Indian citizen`s daily life

These are only a few, and mind you these reforms cannot be called Hindu reforms but embrace all religions of the Nation, progress is slow, but the reforms are surely taking root, ask any person who remembers India of the 50s.
One can also proudly say that in India slowly but surely, religion is yielding place to merit and talent. Take a referendum on the choice of the new President, Dr Abdul Kalam will win hands down.
It is the opportunist political vermin like VP Singh and Arjun Singh who should be shown their place.

Preventing More Lal Masjids I wish Hood(lum) Bhai spares all Chowkies of the agony of reading his pieces on various issues and having to put up with his `expert` comments which actually tantamount to reinventing the wheel

India’s First Woman President? Dr Kalam should have been given a second term in deference to the wishes of the vast majority of India`s citizens

Just a Woman Re: # 126
That is exactly the point, in the South Asian communities, a woman cannot be too careful about these thingsl