Ayesha Salman: A new literary voice from Pakistan
Ayesha Salman has lovely excerpts from her forthcoming novel. We are posting a few here: Excerpt 1 She dreamt of an old haveli. There is a sweet shuffle, the sitar is playing to the wind, the raj of the Mughals is at its peak, breezy music sweeps the lawns, hinged on an ancestral memory, crackling sounds echo, like a scratched LP with two hundred years of dust to prove its wisdom and worth. Dancing girls dance like birds waiting to be fed, their flat empty bellies moving back and forth to the rhythms of their nawabs’ desires. I can smell their soft, clean dupattas, fluttering in the purple wind carrying them to the edge of reason. I long to touch them even when I know they are buried somewhere where I can’t … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature
FICTION: The Solidity of Things
Posted by Raza Rumi At PTH, we have struggled to retain the balance between politics, history and arts and culture. However, given Pakistan’s turbulent politics and security, it has been an uphill task. We are now inviting new writers to come and express themselves at PTH. Especially since the explosion (pun intended) of Pakistani fiction at a global scale. We are printing a story by Hamza Rehman who is a an Esquire based in Islamabad. Hamza is a practising lawyer who moonlights as DJ for Pakistan Broadcasting Association’s Planet FM 94, where he hosts the Alternative Rock and 80’s shows. He freelances for The Friday Times and pens fiction as much as he can. He primarily writes about characters in Islamabad and experiments heavily with metaphor. The Solidity of Things is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, Writers
Linguistics and Islam
Kim Stanley Robinson’s alternate history novel,”The Years of Rice and Salt” posits a world in which an overwhelming majority of Europeans are decimated by the Black Death in the 14th century thereby Christinaity and the white race never get the chance to shape the world as we know it. History of the world, thus, is informed by dominant cultures of the day; the Islamic world, India and the Far East. One of the qualities that sets this novel apart from other novels of the what-if genre is the intelligent observations, commentary and inquiries the writer makes into the nature of Islam. The following extract is taken from a book within this book entitled “Mohammed [pbuh] Meets Confucius”. Zia Ahmad … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, Fiction, History, Islam, Literature, Religion
Another Interview
By Zia Ahmad Making eye contact with words ending with a Y does not make you chinky. Making eye contact with a prospective employer in this pure land of ours doesn’t do you any favors. At best it only makes the tongue of your mind go flat for some brief period of time. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, men, musings, Uncategorized, urban
The White Tiger of Pakistan
The White Tiger of Pakistan If Billo Halwai Lived in Pakistan You Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs and our nation- though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy or punctuality- does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of them, especially in the field of technology and these have setup all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now. Only three nations have never let themselves be ruled by foreigners: china, Afghanistan and Abyssinia .these are the only three nations I admire. My country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways. The entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere at the same time so I am … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Afghanistan, ancient civilisations, Books, Colonialism, culture, Democracy, Economy, Europe, FATA, Fiction, human rights, Identity, Iran, Islam, Justice, Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Punjabi, Religion, Sufism, Taliban, Writers
Poem: Waris Shah Vs Aitzaz Ahsan
by Bradistan Waris Shah Vs. Aitzaz Ahsan (In the Court of Supreme Judge ALLAH The Almighty) A Tribute to Late Amrita Pritam aaj aakhaaN Aitzaz nuuN aaj aakhaN AITZAZ AHSAN nuuN, kitoN Chamber vichchoN bol, te aaj kitab-e -Knoon daa koii aglaa varkaa phol ik Uthyaa sii Wada Kanoon Daan, tuuN likh likh maare Byaan, aaj SWAT DE Dhiyaan rondiaa, tainuN Aitzaz Ahsan nuN kahen Jaag dardmandaaN diaa dardiaa, Jaag Pakistani Jaag … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, ancient civilisations, Arts and Crafts, Citizens, culture, Democracy, Europe, Fiction, Heritage, History, human rights, Identity, India, Islam, Islamism, journalism, Justice, Languages, lawyers movement, Left, Literature, Love, Media, minorities, movements, Music, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Philosophy, poetry, Politics, Punjabi, Religion, Rights, Rural, Society, south asia, Sufism, Taliban, Terrorism, youth
Interview:British-Pakistani Novelist Tariq Mehmood
UK Political Debate: Q & A with Tariq Mehmood Tariq Mehmood is a broadcaster, writer and filmmaker. His first two novels are both set in Bradford UK. He has published two illustrated books for children. Tariq co-directed the award winning documentary Injustice. He is the editor of Sangi, the only magazine in his mother tongue, Pothowari in UK. Tariq and Rock musician Aki Nawaz host the Political Show “The Point” in UK on sky satellite 836. Tariq is visiting Pakistan to cover current political situation. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Crafts, Books, Cinema, Citizens, culture, Democracy, Education, Europe, Fiction, Heritage, human rights, Identity, Images, India, Islam, Islamabad, journalism, Kashmir, Languages, Left, Literature, magazines, Media, minorities, movements, Music, New Writers, Pakistan, Politics, Religion, Society, south asia, Sufism, Travel, video, Writers, youth
The Half-Burnt Cigarette : A Short Story
by Awais Aftab He took a puff of his cigarette, blew the smoke and observed with purposeless acuteness the amorphous wisps of smoke diffusing into the air, thinning out of existence. His lifted his gaze to a yellow taxi, a few cars ahead of his at the traffic signal, to make sure it was still there. ‘Yellow, yellow like guilt,’ he thought, taking another draw. His eyes fell on the rear-view mirror, and he saw a partial reflection of his own face: black, warm eyes; a handsome charming face in the early thirties. His wife, his former college fellow, had often told him how he used to be the crush of a dozen girls during the college days. He had felt a strange, meaningless pride in that revelation by his wife … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, Pakistan, Writers
Aravind Adiga's novel 'The White Tiger' Wins 2008 Booker Prize
Soniah Kamal Anita Desai’s novels were being published in India in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, she says in her opinion piece in Outlook India, to no fanfare at all. Instead, rather than get excited about Indian writers writing in English, Indian readers continued reading Austen and Hardy and Wodehouse. It took major literary prizes awarded by the West, as well as big advances, for Indian readers to develop an interest and Indian-English writing (a trend which continues: it took Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger being long and short listed for the Booker Prize for it beginning to sell in India). Since then times have changed in many instances but this change comes with its own set of drawbacks. Were Adiga not short listed for the Booker and did not begin … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, culture, Fiction, India, Literature, New Writers, Writers
Bakka Gujjer: A short story
by Pervaiz Munir Alvi Even though there was nothing remarkable about him, still every body knew Bakka Gujjer. Those were the days when many in our neighborhood kept a milk cow or a buffalo at their homes. Bakka was their sole trusted community cow-hand. At the crack of the dawn he would show up at our door and yell: “Doctor Chaman, Bakka is here.” When I was young I used to hate Bakka for many reasons. For one, I had this assigned job to get out of my bed, go downstairs and hand him the milk-pail filled with water so that he could wash and milk our cow. And then I must stay there to take the heavy pail of milk back upstairs to the kitchen. And the second reason: ‘Why the hell … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, New Writers
A CASE OF EXPLODING MANGOES – the new Pakistani novel
“When was the last time we heard that what this country needs is another Zia?” - Mohammed Hanif By Nadir Hassan Born in Okara in 1965, Mohammed Hanif served in the Pakistan Air Force before deciding to take up a career as a journalist. Hanif worked as a reporter for Newsline for six years and is now the head of the BBC’s Urdu World Service. He also graduated from the creative writing programme at the University of East … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, culture, Fiction, History, Literature, Writers
Ahmed Bashir’s wayward heart
by Akmal Aleemi In all the years that I have lived in America – 35 to be exact – and in the four years since Ahmed Bashir died at the age of 81 from liver cancer, I never once dreamt about him, except some days ago. I dreamed that I was walking out of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. with my wife, Mumtaz. I ask her to wait for me in an area where there are several food outlets and to meet me in half an hour at the main entrance. I go out looking for my car which I had parked at some distance. I notice a group of people sitting out on a kind of porch. Among them, I see Ahmed Bashir, the intellectual, journalist and novelist, whom … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, Fiction, Literature, Pakistan, Writers
The Donor – A short story
by S Adil Shah It was a prominent private hospital where people from every nook and corner of the country would come to seek a cure to their ailments. The news of Mr. Abdullah’s kidney transplant surgery spread in the area like a wild fire. On the day of the operation the hospital was filled by a multitude of people, notwithstanding the efforts of the security personnel to check their inflow. Complete disorder prevailed in the hospital. Relatives, intimate friends, acquaintances and business colleagues of Mr. Abdullah rushed towards him to embrace, hug and encourage him not to lose heart just when he was heading from ward towards the operation theater. “Don’t worry man! It’ll be a matter of minutes and Dr. Tariq’s genius in such cases is known the world over,” a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, New Writers, Pakistan
PTH biweekly Cartoon
Picture of the Week
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Sunrise at the Arabian Sea, Charna Island
24 Dec 2011
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