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
There may be several reasons why a writer reaches the heights of popularity, but great writing is not necessarily one of
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
Pakistan’s publishing industry has done well by authors writing in Urdu, but those working in English appear to lag
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
Migration in South Asia seen through political, economic and cultural perspectives
Published 18 Dec, 2016 07:32am
How political correctness is killing literature in America
Updated 19 Dec, 2016 03:05pm
Analysing the argument which suggests that questioning extremism and militancy in Pakistan requires a radical rethinking
Published 18 Dec, 2016 07:32am
Getting to the heart of any written work involves more than merely absorbing its contents
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
While questions about the enigmatic writer’s life abound, there continues to be very little information on the man
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
One day, one event, seen through five very diverse points of view
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
Narratives of Afghan women are presented in a compilation of stories that is reflective of their deeper strength
Updated 03 Jun, 2018 02:48am
The true authorship of an Azerbaijani masterpiece comes up for debate, and the question of primary and secondary
Published 04 Dec, 2016 07:35am
A treatise on the city that presents its various faces — the historical, cultural, religious and political
Published 04 Dec, 2016 07:35am
Reading the life and times of Urdu’s pioneering female writer
Published 27 Nov, 2016 07:12am
When thoughts of a life less ordinary are packed up and put away in a house built on choices
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
Hazem Kandil’s book offers an analysis of the various facets of the Muslim Brotherhood movement
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
In efforts to craft favourable relationships in the emerging world order, Pakistani policymakers would do well to
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
Is the dearth of talented translators marginalising Urdu literature works from the global literary landscape?
Published 13 Nov, 2016 06:36am
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is the author of Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters that provides important...
Updated 13 Nov, 2016 10:43am
The rise of private transmissions has made it imperative to study the applicability of media laws in Pakistan
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
The story of how a family ripped apart by violence and war, spanning centuries and across continents, comes together
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
A compilation of rare images and journalistic, scholarly and personal writings on our cinema history
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
The history of the Pakistani Urdu novel is traced from 1947 onwards
Updated 30 Oct, 2016 07:53am
On some of the best short story writers and how their craft is executed
Published 30 Oct, 2016 07:27am
Mushtaq Bilal interviews contemporary authors writing in English, probing how their identities as Pakistanis inform the
Published 30 Oct, 2016 07:27am
A half-Sicilian, half-Puerto Rican chef from Chicago serves up popular Western foods with a decidedly halal touch
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
Amna K. Boheim worked in investment banking before turning to writing. She also writes a blog on life’s little
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
This is the first time that a musician has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature — raising the question whether
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
It’s all about following your heart … and who would know this better than our women in green
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know is analysed as a study of the effort to transcend limitations of class,
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
An anthology that presents some of Intizar Husain’s works translated into English — fiction, essays, and a play
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
