I Spy Hindutva

Attempts have been made to 'saffronize' at both the ground level (by editing textbooks) and by challenging conclusions of scholars who have attempted to rewrite history.

Why not hang Surabjit Singh?

Whether it is for illegally crossing borders, overstaying visas or terrorism, Indians and Pakistanis arrested in each other's countries have poor consular and legal access.

The Snow Will Melt

“So what happened to that Fokker which crashed in the mountains?” sipping coffee, she (Benazir Bhutto) took the words right out of my mouth. Did Billy and Dabbu speak through her?

Ashes in the River

...at that stage all the differences are really wiped out.

Abdul Latif Khalid (1944-2007)

My father’s sudden demise at only 63 years of age through a massive heart attack has been by far the most profound life experience I have had to endure.

The Disturbed

“Written words are dead letters… I am sick of writing; I want to speak. It feels good when your voice travels to someone’s attentive ears."

About Death

When uncertainty dances with your fears, then know this that tragedy has collected its toll

Catharsis

This house was her mother’s. This house was killing her slowly but surely. She could feel mother’s presence everywhere in every nook and corner of this house…

My mother, me and my daughter

There comes a moment in everyone’s life when a door bell or a telephone call changes everything.

We are family

Color Me In

My eyes wander around her room – it is clean – each artifact carefully in place as if she arranged her coffin before she decided to die.

Accepting Death

Ignoring death is like cremating reality

Guillotine

The metallic slice
The smooth cut
The last sigh.

The Dreaded Phone Call

My father had been sick the last few months. He had undergone a knee implant a couple of years ago since his knee joints were completely worn out by rheumatoid arthritis, and one of the implants was now infected.

Memento Mori

Thoughtful and intriguing quotes, paintings and pictures on and about death and autopsies, gave the take-home message: live life, and embrace death.

Let me say..

the hypocrisy of nature’s law
that will now make some millions draw
to selflessly ask for pity and grace
from the one who brought distress!

If I Died Tomorrow

Infinity to present then to infinity

Death Be Not Proud II

We can see our kind massacred in the thousands on the news, then go about our business as if nothing has happened. Its only when the Grim Reaper takes one of our own that we mourn.

To Hold Up the Floor

How gently you knock when your blood
courses underneath, can you teach me that?

Night Out

Mrs. Da Cuhna handled death like she handled life. Head-on, with zest. Today was Joe, her husband’s funeral.

Ravi Thumkar’s Widow

Ravi Thumkar’s widow arrived two days after he died. Until then, his body was kept in the Municipal Hospital morgue. He’d died of cirrhosis of the liver, a man pickled by alcohol.

When I Die

put atop bed of memories
fasten with ropes of desire
shoulder the cherished dreams
consign to flames of pyre

Light at the End of the Tunnel

What are NDEs? Are they the prelude to our life after death or the very last experience we have before oblivion? Is their an irrefutable scientific explanation?

The Weight of Water

“Women are like water,” her father used to say, “they are gentle and patient and they take the shape of whatever situation into which they are poured.”

Hole walli Haveli

“Aray baba, why do you ask such questions. Come and sit here. After your baray mamoo and your parents, hai hai all of them died in that mua car crash, I was left all alone. I asked your Chotay Mamoo to come live with me. Buss, after that all he a

The Woman on the Tracks

Three wheels pass over her waist before the train stops.

Faraz

Deeply indulgent in philosophy, classical music and Jaun Elia, Faraz was a thinker more than anything else. He spent much of his time conversing about life, the meaning of existence, and yes death.

The Truth About Beauty

The infinite enigma of beauty can turn out to be the falsest mirage, the mystery of love can turn into a cruel trap, religious and philosophical truths so beautiful when they are first encountered can become unbreakable chains around one’s neck and

Gimme Eat??

Sometimes I think its just me over-reacting. Maybe I am taking on these things more seriously than they ought to be taken. But I cannot stop myself from thinking that even after thousands of years of eating, we are still damn hungry!

Unpoet

float and fall like flakes
one after another
in a suffocating embrace
to the ground
unloved and undead

Somebody’s Done For

I am very pleased today because all the servants of the house got a scolding. Look at me, I have never been scolded.

The Last Leaf

Up in the tree
Touched by the breeze
What must it be
For the last of the leaves

Half a Confession III

Strangely, yaara, I am happy even now -- except for this incessant pain that is eating me up -- even though it is taking me eternally longer to key in these words -- but this is still lightning speed compared with Stephen Hawking’s

Half a Confession-I

My impulsive ride on the motorbike bare back to topless, daring the gods of winds and tarmac, shattered that idyll. I insisted on going to the graveyard, open the shroud to look at his face and despite protestation I kissed him on the lips one last time.

A Paean to my Family

Chachijan -- one of my earliest memories is one of those spool tapes on which my father invites her to sing with the words “Azra Apa, ub aap” – and she sang the Ghalib ghazal “Nukta cheen hai” for she had a melodious voice an

My Mother, Myself

As an Air Force wife who saw her combat pilot husband through two wars and a highly charged flying career, my mother witnessed many fatal air crashes...

Eternal Love

He had always felt her presence. She was there with him, in him, by him.. She was inside of him. She was him. And he was her. Collectively, they were a living yellow that which becomes, or is, with a natural unavoidable union of blue and green. It was wri

Dead Flowers

Perhaps, we understand very well-
dreams of dead flowers
living

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Do we actually possess a soul? Are we actually being judged at every second for our thoughts and words and actions?

One More Day Before Debu’s Death

Debu suddenly became very philosophical and scratching his crotch asked Ali, 'Hey Ali, my left eye ball is dancing since this morning. You know all this shit. Isn’t this a good omen. Doesn’t it mean I will succeed in my dhanda today? Or i

When Abu Died

“What’s happened ?”, I kept asking aloud. Someone escorted me out. I think it was one of the staff. Not sure. The policeman in the Waiting Room told me the details. Apparently, whilst walking back from work, he was hit by a passing vehic

The Three Queens

My mother was her mother’s slave. And her mother was queen. Who was my father? I do not know. It was not important... As worshippers of the old religion, of our mother goddess, we understand that women are the subtle rivers that carry the world forw

Bhaiya, Malhar Sunao

He slowly opened his eyes, and looked down at her. She seemed so peaceful and satisfied as if all her wishes had come true. Her head was tilted and rested on his arm.

Reminiscing with an Old Heart

Half a chance is what you always have. Always remember that! People, who get something or somewhere, have to play at half chances. A sure thing comes along but once in a lifetime.

Mercy Killing

When the pain becomes intractable and death becomes inevitable, the urge to overcome the agony by an abrupt end of life, surfaces.

Karachi a Pawn

Today’s attack on the Corp Commander’s motorcade was the boldest attack to defy and challenge the powers. How bold was the attempt can be gauged from the fact that MQM which literally owns the city stays out of direct confrontation with the kh

The Widow of Sudin Bannerjee

On an impulse, she decides to start clearing up her wardrobe. That should keep her busy the whole day. But before she would open the wardrobe doors, she sees the large suitcase standing in front of it. Sudin’s things from the office.

Mother

Soul of man developed gradually
Exemplary man rose from this soul
and put to rest death once again
nobody eulogises Death anymore

Naila

She looked the same as she did before at her funeral. That was my first Namaz e janaza. I looked at the crowd: 30 people maybe. Most of them didn’t know her well either. 800 at the wedding and 30 at the funeral.

Meenakshi

This is how Meenu or Meenakshi spent each day of her life – an enchanted blissful existence filled with family love, in a small town of Godhra till the gruesome riots of 2002 broke out and in one fell swoop, all was lost…

Suicide: My Salvation

Life: how we give up everything for it
How unfair it is to death
Silence, peace, freedom, yes death
Is what I want with every breath.

Past

Night was never so long,
Hopes, never so waned.
Lost unto death’s deep valley
A face, I truly loved.

My Urban Widowhood

A year has passed since that fateful day when my two greatest wishes were granted.

Amma and the Clock

Tick tick tick…tick..tick….tick………..tick ………….tick , there it was, the clock was dying on me again. I was watching it die, and although it was lifeless, the dull, chocking ticks made the death look so

Chiragh e Sehri

What is written on paper can be altered. What is written in fate only gods can change.

Basement

Don’t know where you came from and where you went afterwards. I only knew that my house was in your way, and you were always thirsty whenever you passed it.

Coins

Why am I alive and not dead? I let my body fall freely, the eyes fixed to the sky. A big splash. And all my questions answered.

Shashank

An eulogy

The Drive

She unclipped his seatbelt and hers, moving closer to him, forcing him into an embrace. He resisted for one long moment before collapsing into her arms. Together they cried, each holding the other, in the darkness of their car, not knowing where they were

When I see you again

Physical distances between loved ones are painful but bearable as hope lies in the existing space and time. But death imparts distances impossible to comprehend as hope is pushed beyond eternity and its becomes difficult to put feelings in some worldly pe

Death Be Not Proud

It was close to midnight when I found out that Mani had died.

Postcards from Heaven

here’s to waking with the sun

Let it Be ...

If I cannot alter,
The course of fate

Mother

Mother’s eyes are glossy wet with affection and smoke ...

The Issue of Euthanasia

There are many topics in the world that are talked about regularly and bring very much public controversy with them. One of these topics is the issue of euthanasia.

The Realm

I am a self. That’s the only way to describe what I am. I used to inhabit a human body a long time ago. More precisely, a human nervous system

Salaam O Rachel* Salaam

you are face of US we salute

Camera

Smile, she says

Forty Winks

Where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality?

Shaping the Grayness

The way she saw it, everyone was full of darkness

Antarctica

Once again the world was engulfed in war. For what reasons no one knew, least of which the soldiers, for the reasons had been so contrived and ill supported that they were also soon forgotten.

The Case For and Against The Satanic Verses

Evaluating Diatribe and Dialectic as Art

Sohail Rana: Musings on music

His adorers are surrounded by a lifetime of numerous memories of his immortal compositions.

Obscure Conclave

the world spins out of my desperate grasp

Siachen Theatre

“They died on the ice-capped peaks of Siachin, 22,000 ft. above ground!

His Hurry

I had my gut punched for being brown

The King’s Gambit: Chapter 4 (The Aviator)

The seventy-two year old Christian Palestinian was confidently sitting at the head of the most powerful group of Muslim men ever assembled

Kashmir Fatigue

I still have a home there and I am looking forward to my permanent return

The Red Dress

With the mountainous weight of forty-three years

A Father’s Letter To Daughter: A short story

whichever clan rules the earth, I shall always be the outsider

The Virgin Bride

The idea of doing that with some sophisticated American bombshell...was paralyzing

The Evolution of Urdu Literature in the 20th Century

Literature is the narration of time

A Little Death

Money we protect

They Changed My God

I do not know how God is related to me

Degrees of Horror

Someone in Kutch is just a few degrees removed from me

Karachi Dreams

a metropolis vast in size and tiny in the scope of its productivity

Anything But Vacant

I would like some thighs, cut the fat, I want it lean

Ganapathy and The Drillmaster

Ganapathy loved food. In any form, shape or size

The Other Asian Woman

Sex is what I think should be

Three Bombay Poems

Street death has a peculiar habit ...

Banyan Tree

a lone boat on the sea of the universe

Touch

In the West, by the way, that is where our son will eventually go to study...they brutally electrocute an animal to death...

The Bombing

A temporary replica of Ka’aba was recreated for the occasion.

Her Other Self

Why did she wake up in nightmarish sweats chased by dark fears?

Fate

What happened to you, my friend?

Passage

Now that he is dead, he has liberated himself, me and our relationship from the clutch of violence

Reshma: Voice of Mother Earth

The voice of Reshma is the voice of Mother Earth

Buta, Pattey and Allah Chowrangi

In a lonely December night four men died in the city of Karachi ...

Waziria’s Dilemma

The Minister sweated with excitement. His agents had brought him news of very serious weight.

Evil Spirits Travel in Straight Lines

Two French scientists go to Senegal to fight a resistant strain of malaria.

Incantation

Where intelligence can be enhanced with expensive pharmaceuticals, a poor boy needs an alternative medicine

The Life Hereafter

And just when we shelter under death, life comes at us sideways

Calligraphy of Coils

A conversation with Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali

Life (and Death) etc.

Why is truth morally right when it’s so rare?

The Highway of Death

And as my children also die to feed you
A fire smoulders again

Fifty Years of Pakistan Cricket: A Look Back

Take a long, relishing look back at Pakistan Cricket.

The Stop Sign

If you have never seen this road sign, are you sure you are awake?

The Present Age

A Revolutionary Age is an age of action; the present age is an age of advertisement, or an age of publicity: nothing happens, but there is instant publicity about it.