Listen! O dark and ravenous dungeon of Karachi! Whenever I sit in front of my cell And look out towards your mighty ramparts, An intricately patterned net. I realize what a cruel world you are How dark and steeped in sin is your path No one is privy to your ...
Read More »The enlightenment of Waris Mir: Part – III
In the first two columns of this series appearing in these pages on September 21 and 23, we started a discussion on Waris Mir (1938 – 1987) and his columns in Urdu that dealt with attempts to reform Muslim societies with a special reference to Arab societies. We talked about ...
Read More »COVID and the ditch
COVID-19 has pushed all of humanity into a ditch. Rarely have so many millions of people been in the same pit, threatened and beaten from all four sides. It is not only the disease, but the paralysis of the economy, mass unemployment, disconnection from social relations, uncertainty, physical and psychological ...
Read More »Malcolm X and Castro.
That time Malcolm X met Fidel Castro in Harlem 60 years ago on this day. A year after the Cuban Revolution, Castro and his delegation came to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, but the management of the Manhattan hotel the delegation booked now refused to house them ...
Read More »The enlightenment of Waris Mir – Part II
Waris Mir pointed out in his writings that as long as Muslim societies used rationality and reason, they were paramount, and as soon as they embraced irrational thinking and worked against reason, they declined. When Muslim rulers and sectarian leaders turned against rationality to serve their own interests, they suppressed ...
Read More »Mast Taukali
Sammo with her herd at Mountain of Rastrani Grazes her livestock and fetch water from far Dragging behind her herd barefoot My Moon face doesn’t look good amidst sheep and goats. Request you I ,O Clouds of Badraa Give her shadow and pour down on her grazing field Laughing with ...
Read More »Taukali Mast
I raise my hands and pray to My Lord May the bridal tent of Sammo receives umbrella of rain drops So she ties mat on her tent with her long beautiful fingers She comes out and views the rain How clouds are made and from which direction they pour down ...
Read More »Bolivia: The lithium coup
A supporter of Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales yells at a police officer, telling him to respect the nation’s indigenous people in La Paz, Bolivia, 2019 IN NOVEMBER 2019 President Trump welcomed the coup in Bolivia that toppled its democratically elected president, Evo Morales, as “one step closer to a ...
Read More »The Prayer Poem for the Baloch Nation
O’ Gracious God bestow the Baloch Nation with persons who are; Sagacious, valiant, magnanimous, compassionate and courageous too Their prudence and sagaciousness be more glorious than the brightest morns Their evergreen wisdom be resplendently dazzling in magnificence and majesty Their minds, thoughts and discernment all free of fetters of obsolete ...
Read More »A sad journey
THE life and struggles of Hasil Khan Bizenjo, who passed away last week, defines the conundrum the state of Pakistan has turned Balochistan into. He succeeded in achieving many things he attempted but his efforts to secure for Balochistan the degree of democratic self-rule, allowed to a large extent to ...
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