On departure at Indira Gandhi Airport, New Delhi her father, a man with steel nerves, exclaimed with a mask face, in a matter of fact manner, “Now that you are going across, own the place, own the people, and own the problems the way you have owned the man from there.” Without a trace of [...]
As if the year passed in a stroke. It is hard to come to terms that one year has passed since Moin Akhter left us. A stand up comedian who took the art to a level whose altitude is hard for any other actor to surmount. As a family friend there are countless small and [...]
Just a few weeks ago I was moved to hear an ex Indian Chief Election Commissioner say to Najam Sethi: “Hamara Makkah Medina to aap ke paas hai.” (Our Mecca and Madina are with you). After retirement he had come to visit the holy places of Sikh in Pakistan, the Nankana Sahib and other holy [...]
With the tragic news of 150 Pakistani soldiers buried alive in an avalanche in the Pakistan base camp at Siachen, it brings back to memory the bitter truths about this conflict. The glacier: Siachen means ‘the place of wild roses’. Siachen glacier is the great Himalayan watershed that demarcates central Asia from the Indian sub-continent, [...]
If music is a mountain range, its Mt Everest is Abida Parveen. A summit of Sufi music, which no soul can surmount. The Queen not only drowns herself in the music she sings, but she sweeps along her listeners too, in the tides of the overpowering words that flow out her throat. After the plunge, [...]
PART-I “The tsunami wave of diabetes mellitus and its health and economic consequences is threatening much of the world. The need to prevent and control this debilitating chronic disease is urgent, before desperation sets in.” Journal of Royal Society of medicine. How does this matter to us South Asians? Indian Subcontinent (which includes India, Pakistan, [...]
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