It is not just billboards or television, English is in pamphlets and mall announcements. It is in Facebook, it is in Google. It is in WordPress. English is everywhere in Pakistan. And there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Except that sometimes, we forget those humans who cannot access this language - a great majority of humans. They cannot access a whole world (the internet, ideas, literature, or movies). So culturally and socially, they develop at a tangent than those who can read English.
Category: philosophy
The Secret of Seoul: exploring sub-stories
War Memorial | Seoul, South Korea 22nd September 2018 As my friends from back home are donning pashmina shawls against a cold Autumn racing, I am sipping on a fresh and cold yogurt drink, which is not really lassi and not really yogurt but somewhere in the middle. After an adventurous walk through the labyrinths … Continue reading The Secret of Seoul: exploring sub-stories
Order’s up: One Slice of Shreded Creativity
One slice of creativity shredded to fill your personal plate of literature appetite.
A traveller’s home: Letter to San Francisco
September 23rd, 2015San Francisco, United States Oh San Francisco, Thousands have walked through you and thousands will walk through you, braiding the trickling information from tourist guides into sophisticated essays. I am sorry but I cannot commit to doing that. I will see you in your moments of simple divinity, in the smile of … Continue reading A traveller’s home: Letter to San Francisco
A CHRISTIAN, A MUSLIM, AND AN ATHEIST WENT OUT FOR DINNER| PART 5/6 (THE DINNER)
Continued from: February 2015 Abbottabad, Pakistan I have had the fortune to savour some of the most interesting meals. Not for how deliciously spiced or finely minced the food was, but because my fellows of the meal spoke intriguing words of wisdom, delivered simply yet with infinite grace. I had the pleasure of … Continue reading A CHRISTIAN, A MUSLIM, AND AN ATHEIST WENT OUT FOR DINNER| PART 5/6 (THE DINNER)
The Entire Universe
Fictional blurb (not a travelogue) Your eyes, when glitter, reminisce the stars that cascaded galaxies once upon a time. In the palms of your hands lie forests all mighty and green, their roots encapsulated within your nerves and how they pattern your skin with hues of blue and purple. You are where the … Continue reading The Entire Universe
Painting murals on a rainy day
July 4th, 2017 Abbottabad, Pakistan As I stand across the green and blue of Abbottabad, I feel my fingers tingle; I feel a need to paint; to let my heartstrings tug my fingertips and create art, in its surreal yet raw essence. Lints of cloud cascade the skies, drawing nearer from their infinite distances to … Continue reading Painting murals on a rainy day
A Christian, a Muslim, and an Atheist went out for dinner | Part 3 (The Pilgrim’s Feast)
( Continued from Part 2 ) February 2015 Islamabad, Pakistan I clutched my neck scarf for the fifteenth time and looked around awkwardly at this place I had never before ventured to; a fancy new restaurant. Adorned in a bright coloured sweater striking against my off-white kurta, I felt rather awkward and lost, even though my folks … Continue reading A Christian, a Muslim, and an Atheist went out for dinner | Part 3 (The Pilgrim’s Feast)
Islamabad: a most beautiful poem
Islamabad, Pakistan 1st March, 2017 I love this photograph, for it shows perfectly the paradox that is Islamabad. There is gray, and there is blue. There is sun, and there is rain. There is nature, and there are concrete skyscrapers. The city in its entirety seems to be constructed out of gray, stale cement. Yet … Continue reading Islamabad: a most beautiful poem
A Christian, a Muslim, and an Atheist went out for dinner | Part 2
( Continued from Part 1) August 2011 Abbottabad, Pakistan "Ah exactly what I was looking for," Carlo beamed, as he spooned white rice onto his plate. He then picked a round chapati*, burning hot from the girdle. "Have some chicken gravy or spinach," insisted my mother. "Oh but this is all I need. Chappati … Continue reading A Christian, a Muslim, and an Atheist went out for dinner | Part 2