tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352288512012-01-25T05:14:07.341-08:00Long Live PakistanMayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.comBlogger2121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-4249534113318927562011-06-09T00:10:00.000-07:002011-06-09T00:14:36.510-07:00<em>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</em><br /><strong>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <em>Daily Times</em> and <em>The Friday Times</em></strong><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098398085786647714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/5813972069_9f24c77bcf_m.jpg" width="240" height="179" /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/06/special-survey-indians-on-pakistan.html">Special Survey – Indians on Pakistan</a></strong><br />No black & white views, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/special-column-rooting-for-pakistan.html">Special Column – Rooting for Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistan-India cricket match in Mohali, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/karachi-diary-discovery-of-city.html">Karachi Diary - The Discovery of a City</a></strong><br />The sum total of its people, by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/09/special-interview-kazim-aizaz-alam.html">Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US</a></strong><br />How are Americans treating him, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/letter-from-london-why-i-love-pakistan.html">Letter from London - Why I Love Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pyaasa for Pakistan, by Catriona Luke<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/pakistan-floods-is-indian-media.html">Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's tragedy doesn't move India, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/sign-of-times-terror-attack-in-daata.html">Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine</a></strong><br />Requiem for the dead, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/karachi-landmark-t2f-defence-housing.html">Karachi Landmark - T2F, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />Karachi's coolest cafe, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-diary-reading-chicklit-in.html">Pakistan Diary - Reading Chicklit in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/karachi-guide-sunday-market-defence.html">Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />The world of old books, by Yasir Malik<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-at-home-in-lahore.html">Pakistan Diary - At Home in Lahore</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-dancing-girl-of-heera.html">Pakistan Diary - The Dancing Girl of Heera Mandi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-karachi-kartography.html">Pakistan Diary - The Karachi Kartography</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-jinnahs-mausoleum.html">Pakistan Diary - Jinnah's Mausoleum</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-is-karachi-unsafe.html">Pakistan Diary - Is Karachi Safe?</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-first-karachi-literature.html">Pakistan Diary - The First Karachi Literature Festival</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-my-first-evening-in.html">Pakistan Diary - My First Evening in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/karachi-scene-musical-world-of-saffia.html">Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg</a></strong><br />A Karachite’s passion for Hindustani classical, by Junaid Zuberi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/dateline-karachi-pakistans-first.html">Dateline Karachi - Get Ready for Pakistan's First Literature Festival</a></strong><br />Three cheers for Pak-lit; by <i>The Independent</i>'s Andrew Buncombe<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-review-two-indians-in-isloo.html">Blog Review - Two Indians in Isloo</a></strong><br />They are blogging on life in Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/viewpoint-and-how-are-things-for-you-as.html">Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?”</a></strong><br />Novelist Sehba Sarwar in a round table chat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-feature-face-to-face-with-asma.html">Special Feature - Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir</a></strong><br />The symbol of a brave Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/photo-essay-pakistans-bright-stars.html">Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars</a></strong><br />The people who constitute Pakistaniyat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-review-coffee-house-of-lahore-by.html">Book Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz</a></strong><br />Coffee, tea and revolution; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-feature-indian-who-loves.html">Special Feature – The Indian Who Loves Pakistan</a></strong><br />Author Khushwant Singh's home is always open to Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html"> "Today Islamabad, Lahore Feel Like War Zones, and Karachi is Calm" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part IV; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html"> "I Would be Lost Without My Laptop" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part III; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">"Houston is as Ugly, Polluted, Hot as Karachi" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part II; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">"My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part I; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its artists; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/karachi-life-gay-mans-diary.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part II</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-feature-911-day-mr-jinnah-died.html">Special Feature – 9/11, The Day Mr Jinnah Died</a></strong><br />The final day in the life of Pakistan’s founder; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/personal-history-karachi-quotient.html">Personal History – The Karachi Quotient</a></strong><br />Growing up in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Imran Ahmed<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/islamabad-have-diplomats-politicians.html">"Islamabad have diplomats & politicians, but also philosophers and scholars" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-IV with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/majority-who-buy-my-art-are-still-not.html">"The Majority Who Buy My Art Are Still Not Pakistanis" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-III with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-not-wise-to-exhibit-on-political.html">“It’s not wise to exhibit on political themes" – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-II with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-bothered-by-everything-that-snatches.html">“I’m bothered by everything that snatches away my rights” – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-I with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/freedom-day-special-series-faiza-khan.html">Freedom Day Special Series – Faiza Khan; Celebrating an Artist’s Life</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its people; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/family-portrait-karachi-family-in.html">Family Portrait – A Karachi Family in an Indian Mall</a></strong><br />A slice of their Delhi afternoon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-writing-is-older-than-creation-of.html">"Our writing is older than the creation of Pakistan itself" - Ali Sethi, Novelist</a></strong><br />Exclusive interview with a new Pakistani novelist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-life-pakistani-in-sri-lanka.html">High Life – A Pakistani in Sri Lanka</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain finds a new home; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/dateline-karachi-citys-first-monsoon.html">Dateline Karachi – The City’s first Monsoon Rain</a></strong><br />When the tough weather surrendered to the people’s will; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/karachi-diary-arundhati-roy-in-pakistan.html">Karachi Diary - Arundhati Roy in Pakistan</a></strong><br />India's literary terrorist wows its 'enemy'; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/viewpoint-insult-to-my-pakistan.html">Viewpoint - An Insult to My Pakistan</a></strong><br />Remember why we created Pakistan; by Sehar Tariq<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/special-hello-taliban.html">Special – Hello Taliban</a></strong><br />Background of the Swat peace deal; by Amir Hashim Khakwani, translation by Kazim Aizaz Alam <br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/obituary-khalid-hasan-journalist-writer.html">Obituary: Khalid Hasan, Journalist & Writer</a></strong><br />He died of cancer, aged 74; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/eminent-pakistani-naz-ikramullah-artist.html">Eminent Pakistani - Naz Ikramullah, Artist</a></strong><br />Snooping around a sari-clad Pakistani in the Indian capital; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-my-wish-list.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Kamran Shafi's Wish List</a></strong><br />Pakistani’s wittiest columnist shares an exclusive with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-yes-we-can.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Yes We Can!</a></strong><br />A Karachi blogger writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-no-hope-here.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – No Hope Here</a></strong><br />Eminent Karachi columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-finding.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Finding Comfort in a Sindh Village</a></strong><br />Author Sehba Sarwar writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-5-hopes-for.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – 5 Hopes for the Nation</a></strong><br />Academic Hassan Abbas shares his hope with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-happy-pakistan-series-get-out-of.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Get Out of Self-deception</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/special-editorial-happier-pakistan-in.html">Special Editorial – A Happier Pakistan in 2009</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis to share their optimism with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/remembrance-616-pm-december-27-2007.html">Remembrance - 6:16 pm, December 27, 2007</a></strong><br />On Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s first death anniversary; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/karachi-diary-in-love-with-arundhati.html">Karachi Diary - In Love with Arundhati Roy</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani besotted with an Indian passport holder; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-should-pakistan-handover.html">Viewpoint - Should Pakistan Hand Mumbai Suspects to India?</a></strong><br />A look at the costs and benefits; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-pakistan-after-bombay-2611.html">Viewpoint - Pakistan After Bombay 26/11</a></strong><br />Policy shift needed, not war; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-dostana-in-pakistan.html">Exclusive - 'Dostana' in Pakistan</a></strong><br /><em>Dawn</em> newspaper refused to print this op-ed on homosexualism in Pakistan; by Irfan Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/capital-culture-making-music-in.html">Capital Culture - Making Music in Pakistan</a></strong><br />Claiming back our heritage; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/only-country-where-i-am-non-muslim-is.html">"The Only Country Where I am a Non-Muslim is My Own" - Interview with Saira Wasim</a></strong><br />Chatting with a Pakistani artist who happens to be an Ahmadi Muslim; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/special-life-love-lahore.html">Special - Life, Love, Lahore</a></strong><br />Life and times of Pakistan's premier monstropolis; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/scoop-when-mr-zardari-met-ms-palin.html">Scoop – When Mr Zardari Met Ms Palin</a></strong><br />All he wanted was a hug; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-mourning-once-was-marriott.html">In Mourning - Once Was Marriott</a></strong><br />Terrorist attack kills more than 40 people in the Islamabad hotel; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/special-mr-zardari-youve-got-mail.html">Special – Mr Zardari, You've Got Mail</a></strong><br />A Pakistani student writes to the nation's new Prez; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/xclusive-how-asif-zardari-courted.html">Xclusive – How President Zardari Courted Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Revealing excerpts from Benazir’s memoirs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/photo-essay-lawrence-garden-memories.html">50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die - Lawrence Garden, Lahore</a></strong><br />Listening to the sound of trees; pics by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/obituary-pervez-musharraf-1999-2008.html">Obituary – Pervez Musharraf, 1999-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s former CEO and a friend of George Bush; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/14th-august-series-bina-shah-im-not.html">14th August Series: Bina Shah - "I'm Not Free"</a></strong><br />Pakistan's celebrated author on Independence Day<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/capital-notes-once-was-islamabad.html">Capital Notes - Once was Islamabad</a></strong><br />Mourning the demise of Pakistan's greenest city; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/memoir-pakistan-paindabad-blogged-me-to.html">Memoir - Pakistan Paindabad Blogged Me to Fame</a></strong><br />This blogsite has changed my life; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/bina-shahs-review-pakistan-paindabad-s.html">Bina Shah's Review - <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>'s Intentions are Good, the Execution Clumsy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent author discusses this blogsite<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/special-pakistan-paindabad-in-news.html"><strong>Pakistan Paindabad in News</strong> </a><br />This blogsite has reached a milestone; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/series-50-pakistani-destinations-before.html"><strong>New Series - 50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die</strong> </a><br />Your guide to beautiful Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-goodbye-shahzadi-shyam.html"><strong>Book Review – Goodbye Shahzadi, Shyam Bhatia</strong> </a><br />An Indian journalist’s disappointing biography of Benazir Bhutto; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/viewpoint-lahore-delhi-hip-factor.html"><strong>Viewpoint -- Lahore-Delhi Hip Factor </strong> </a><br />Young life in both cities is a blend of cafe culture, cool music and retail nirvana; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/travel-journey-to-pakistan.html"><strong>Travel – Journey to Pakistan</strong> </a><br />When an Indian goes to Lahore with excess baggage; by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/reading-urdu-outside-pakistan.html"><strong>Trends - Reading Urdu Outside Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The homesick diaspora has online Urdu as refuge; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/dateline-lahore-poetry-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Dateline Lahore - Poetry in Pakistan</strong> </a><br />Poetry is a part of everyday life, including politics; by Henry Chu<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/lahore-diary-club-sandwich-was-invented.html"><strong>Lahore Diary - Club Sandwich was Invented in Lawrence Garden!</strong> </a><br />Amazing stories you never knew about this city landmark; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-tuesday-311-lahore.html"><strong>Black Tuesday – 3/11, Lahore</strong> </a><br />Folks die, stuff happens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/literature-love-poem-by-faiz-ahmad-faiz.html"><strong>Literature - Love Poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz</strong> </a><br />Ghazal by Pakistan's great Urdu poet; by Shaheen Sultan Dhanji<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/special-william-dalrymples-cool-n-sexy.html"><strong>Special – William Dalrymple’s Cool ‘n’ Sexy Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The best-selling author has finally fallen for the country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/viewpoint-mr-zardari-mr-sharif-audacity.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Zardari & Mr. Sharif, The Audacity of Hope</strong> </a><br />Their new friendship might not be good for the democracy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/musing-losing-east-pakistan.html"><strong>Musing - Losing East Pakistan</strong> </a><br />A young Pakistani do a remembrance of things past; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/pakistan-elections-morning-after.html"><strong>Pakistan Elections – The Morning After</strong> </a><br />Life goes on after the landmark mandate; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/mourning-benazir-bhutto-shehr-i-qatl-ke.html"><strong>Mourning Benazir Bhutto - Shehr-i-Qatl ke Log</strong> </a><br />Marking the end of the 40-day mourning period of Ms. Bhutto’s death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/xclusive-who-is-general-ashfaq-parvez.html"><strong>Xclusive - Who is General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani?</strong> </a><br />Is Mr. Kayani the right guy for Pakistan Army; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/personal-history-fish-out-of-water.html">Personal History – Fish Out of Water</a></strong><br />A Pakistani-American returns home to re-discover her culture, language and religion; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/parda-faash-britney-spears-pak-hearts.html">Parda Faash – Britney spears Pak Hearts</a></strong><br />Benazir is gone, Britney is coming; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/opinion-sufi-links-of-benazir-bhutto.html">Opinion - The Sufi Links of Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Benazir Bhutto displayed the sufi trait in her death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/viewpoint-benazir-is-dead-long-live.html">Viewpoint - Benazir is Dead, Long Live Pakistan</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani remains hopeful even after Benazir's assasination; by Salman Ravala<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/exclusive-616-pm-2712-benazir-bhutto-is.html">Exclusive - 6:16 pm, 27/12, Benazir Bhutto is Dead</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis–Begum Nawazish Ali, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Khalid Hasan, Shandana Minhas, Kamran Shafi, Raza Rumi–relive the moment with Pakistan Paindabad<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/bibi-special-my-life-with-benazir.html">Bibi Special - My Life with Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Eminent columnist and Bibi's friend looks back on the late leader; by Khalid Hasan<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-benazir-bhutto-1953-2007.html">Obituary: Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan's future Prime Minister and convent-educated mother of three teenagers; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-column-courage-in-time-of-chaos.html">Special Column - Courage in a Time of Chaos</a></strong><br />Pakistan will survive the tragedy of Benazir's assasination; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-pakistan-paindabad-gets-good.html">Special - Pakistan Paindabad Gets Good Press</a></strong><br />Mullah Radio Quiz attracted 6000 visitors on a single day; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-ismail-gulgee-1926-2007.html">Obituary –Ismail Gulgee, Pakistani Artist</a></strong><br />Abstract expressionist and portraitist of the Afghan royal family; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-top-10-pakistani-blogs.html">Special - Top 10 Pakistani Blogs</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad fails to make it; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/satire-special-quiz-on-pakistan.html">Satire – Special Quiz on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Jemima’s memoirs, Sharif’s symbol, halaal sex, and more; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-praise-and-criticism-of-pakistan.html">In Praise and Criticism of Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />Message from readers<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/commentary-three-musketeers-of-pakistan.html">Commentary - The Three Musketeers of Pakistan</a></strong><br />A not-for-dummies guide to the trinity of Benazir + Nawaz + Musharraf; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/exclusive-gay-planet-in-karachi.html">Exclusive – Gay Planet in Karachi</a></strong><br />A homosexual man’s guide to Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-what-is-to-be-done.html">Satire – What Is to Be Done?</a></strong><br />A few readymade revolutionary deals for Mr. Musharraf & Co.; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/culture-specie-called-pakistani-art.html">Culture - A Specie Called Pakistan Art</a></strong><br />Excursions into a little known world; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/travel-mr-razas-tips-on-pakistan.html">Travel - Mr. Raza’s Tips on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Counseling by Pakistan’s most lovable travel writer; compiled by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/writing-novel-is-like-ejecting-infant.html">“Writing a Novel is Like Ejecting an Infant from Your Uterus” – Interview with Shandana Minhas</a></strong><br />Frank talk with the Karachi-based author of <em>Tunnel Vision</em>; interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/emergency-column-pervez-musharraf.html">Emergency Column - Pervez Musharraf Arrested My Mother</a></strong><br />But he is losing the match; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/opinion-iqbal-islam-and-emergency.html">Opinion - Iqbal, Islam, and the Emergency</a></strong><br />Our poet had envisaged a different Pakistan; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/society-diary-of-gay-man-from-karachi.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part I</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/repressive-measures-have-led-to-some.html">“Repressive measures have led to some spectacular literature in Pakistan” – Interview with Rakhshanda Jalil</a></strong><br />The editor of a anthology of Pakistani short stories on the country’s vibrant writing scene; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/honey-how-we-shrunk-musharrafs.html">Honey, How We Shrunk Musharraf's Emergency</a></strong><br />Ripping apart international media's mis-coverage of Pakistan's crisis; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-full-text-of-mr-musharrafs.html">Satire – Full Text of Mr. Musharraf’s Emergency Proclamation</a></strong><br />Illegally obtained by Pakistan Paindabad; by Gaurav Sood and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-in-search-of-sister.html">Book Review – Searching for Sister Pakistan</a></strong><br />neither night nor day, 13 stories by women writers from Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/indian-bloggers-website-on-pak-creates.html">Indian blogger's website on Pak creates waves in cyberspace</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad is being noticed; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/recollection-heartbreak-in-lahore.html">Recollection - Heartbreak in Lahore</a></strong><br />A play that moved both Indians and Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/viewpoint-on-pakistan-paindabads-first.html">Viewpoint - On Pakistan Paindabad's First Anniversary</a></strong><br />The blogsite needs a Pakistani collaborator; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/memoirs-confessions-of-grass-eater.html">Memoirs – Confessions of a Grass Eater</a></strong><br />Living a vegetarian life in Lahore; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/opinion-fight-to-end.html">Opinion - A Fight to the End</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent opinion maker on BB's bloodied return, exclusively for <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-editorial-blasts-blitzkrieg-and.html">Special Editorial - Blasts, Blitzkrieg, and BB</a></strong><br />Is Benazir Bhutto’s second return as hopeful as her first; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/pride-prejudice-and-pakistanis.html">Pride, Prejudice, and Pakistanis</a></strong><br />What does Pakistan Paindabad’s Indian readers think of <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/accolades-for-pakistan-paindabad.html">Accolades for Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />The <em>Daily Times</em> newspaper has something to say about this website<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/photo-essay-celebrating-lahores-canal.html">Photo Essay - Celebrating the Canal of Lahore</a></strong><br />Honoring the city's most precious treasure; <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em> revisits an old story on its first birthday<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-makes-pakistanis-laugh.html">Pakistan Paindabad Exclusive - What Makes Pakistanis Laugh</a></strong><br />Paksitan's celebrated writer Bina Shah investigates<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-survey-what-do-young-americans.html">Special Survey - What Do Young Americans Think of Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistanis in the perceptions of their greatest ally; by Raymond Lee<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-out-karachi-sunbathing-in.html">Time Out Karachi - Sunbathing in the Metropolis</a></strong><br />Imagine Karachi without its beaches; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/karachis-anarchy-leads-me-to-question.html">"Karachi's Anarchy Leads Me to Question Things” - Interview with Amin Gulgee</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s most celebrated sculptor talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/memories-once-so-many-hindus-lived-in.html"><strong>Memories - Once So Many Hindus Lived in Taxila</strong></a><br />An old lady recounts the time when Pakistan came into existence; by Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/dateline-wagah-pakistan-versus-india.html"><strong>Dateline Wagah - Pakistan Versus India</strong></a><br />Eyewitness report from Ground Zero; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/naan-keema-k2-and-cricket-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Naan, Keema, K2, and Cricket in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In love with my land; by Merium H. Kazmi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/m-hanif-raza-mister-borat-of-pakistan.html"><strong>M. Hanif Raza - Mister Borat of Pakistan</strong></a><br />A travel writer too naive to be true; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-indian-intellectuals-cant.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Indian Intellectuals Can’t Accept Pakistan</strong></a><br />Exposing the anti-Muslim attitude of Indian writers like Ramachandra Guha; by Ali Eteraz<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-jiye-gandhi.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Jiye Gandhi</strong></a><br />We need more Gandhians in Pakistan; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/azaadi-at-60-we-pakistanis.html"><strong>Azaadi at 60 – We the Pakistanis</strong></a><br />A young Karachite demands a new not-so-moth-eaten Pakistan; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/writing-columns-often-moves-me-to-tears.html"><strong>"Writing columns often moves me to tears" - Independence Day Interview with Kamran Shafi</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most acclaimed columnists sits down with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistani-riddle-speaking-hindi-reading.html"><strong>A Pakistani Riddle – Speaking Hindi; Reading Arabic</strong></a><br />Making sense of our Pakistani identity; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/reading-karachi-understanding-pakistan.html"><strong>Understanding Pakistan in Karachi</strong></a>i<br />A single city defines the ethno-political dimensions of an entire nation; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/exclusive-review-pervez-musharraf-and.html"><strong>Exclusive Review – Pervez Musharraf and the Deathly Hallows</strong></a><br />We’ve read the unreleased book purchased illegally from a Karachi store; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/karachi-chronicle-slow-journey-to.html"><strong>Karachi Chronicle – Slow Journey to Nationhood</strong></a><br />Tracing the nation’s struggle for a common identity; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/time-out-lahore-dancing-smoking-and.html"><strong>Time Out Lahore - Dancing, Smoking and Crashing Out in Pakistan’s Sin City</strong></a><br />Sharing a slice of the most happening city this side of the Indus; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/lahore-karachi-tale-of-two-cities.html"><strong>Lahore &amp; Karachi – A Tale of Two Cities</strong></a><br />Two cities both alike in dignity; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/viewpoint-mr-musharraf-stuck-in-golden.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Musharraf Stuck in Golden Temple Trap</strong></a><br />Lal Masjid farce is over but it could have devastating results; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/lal-masjid-editorial-flushing-out.html"><strong>Lal Masjid Editorial – Flushing Out the Religious Blackmailers</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s government finally showed its belated courage in dealing with the fanatics; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/bina-shah-i-want-to-foster-future.html"><strong>Bina Shah - "I Want to Foster Future Booker Prize Winners"</strong></a><br />Pakistan's most promising young writer talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; interview by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-readers-on-gay-life-in.html"><strong>Letter to the Readers- On Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In response to accusations of maligning Pakistan's reputation; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-secrets-gay-life-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Open Secrets- Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />It's risky but easy to be a homosexual in this country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/satire-president-musharrafs-little.html"><strong>Satire - President Musharraf’s Little Khaki Book</strong></a><br />Exclusive excerpts from Pervez Musharraf's new book; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/bapsi-sidhwa-i-wrote-naturally-about.html"><strong>Bapsi Sidhwa: "I wrote naturally about sexuality..."</strong></a><br />The grandmother of Pakistani writing in English talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; special interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/five-things-i-love-about-pakistan.html"><strong>Exclusive - Five things I love about Pakistan</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most respected opinion-makers on the country’s better side; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/editorial-pervez-musharraf-gags-media.html"><strong>Editorial – Mr. Musharraf Gags Media, Ruins His Own Legacy</strong></a><br />Can Pakistanis be pushed back to the bad old dictatorial days; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/because-heart-hai-pakistani.html"><strong>Because Heart Hai Pakistani</strong></a><br />A Pakistani, living in America, muses on her land; by Nahal S<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-report-pink-purdah-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Special Report - Pakistan's Pink Purdah</strong></a><br />Two women in love married each other and are now in jail; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-pakistan.html"><strong>Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Karachi-based photojournalist loves his country and how; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-review-city-of-sin-and-splendour.html"><strong>Book Review - City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore</strong></a><br />Bapsi Sidhwa's Lahore is a lovingly embroidered family heirloom; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/favourite-five-why-i-am-proud-pakistani.html"><strong>Favourite Five – Why I Am a Proud Pakistani</strong></a><br />Khalid Hasan, US correspondent of <em>The Friday Times</em>, lists his reasons.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-editorial-pakistans-soul-is-not.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan’s Soul is Not for Sale</strong></a><br />Searching and finding hope in these anxious times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/chacha-chaudhry-and-papa-pervez.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Chacha Chaudhry and Papa Pervez</strong></a><br />Musharraf blunders, Karachi burns but is Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry all clean; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/panch-pakistani-power-points.html"><strong>Panch Pakistani Power Points</strong></a><br />An eminent columnist shares his reasons for loving Pakistan; by Ishtiaq Ahmed<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-5-reasons-for-loving-pakistan.html"><strong>Top 5 Reasons for Loving Pakistan</strong></a><br />Explaining the pull in terms of rating and ranking; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-heroes-of-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Heroes of Pakistan</strong></a><br />Five Pakistanis who make me proud to be a Pakistani; by Hassan Abbas<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/fiver-for-father-land.html"><strong>Fiver for the Fatherland</strong></a><br />Gosh, I love my Pakistan; by Jawad Zakariya<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-stars-to-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Stars to Pakistan</strong></a><br />Here's why I'm proud of my nation; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistan-top-5.html"><strong>Pakistan Top 5</strong></a><br />Freedom, thrill, family, smartness, and girls; by Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/5-best-things-about-pakistan-difficult.html"><strong>5 Best Things about Pakistan – Difficult to List!</strong></a><br />Is there anything beautiful about this country; by Saeeda Diep<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/khyber-pass-memoirs.html"><strong>Khyber Pass Memoirs</strong></a><br />A retired British RAF Pilot discloses ‘Pakistan Paindabad’ was the first Urdu phrase he learnend; by Tony Connane<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/heera-mandi-dream-house-of-whores.html"><strong>Heera Mandi - The Dream House of the Whores</strong></a><br />Midnight excursion in the alleys of Lahore's red light district; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-about-hindus-of-pakistan.html"><strong>New Dawn for Pakistan's Least-Loved Citizens?</strong></a><br />Pakistan has started taking note of its Hindu legacy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/lahore-sight-seeing-fun-on-road.html"><strong>Lahore Sight-Seeing - Fun on the Road</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Passing instant judgments while driving in Pakistan's great city; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pervez-musharraf-100-percent-superstar.html"><strong>Pervez Musharraf – The 100 Percent Superstar</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s passion for “percentage-analysis” makes him a unique statesman of our times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/viewpoint-is-it-okay-for-western.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Should Westerners Visit Pakistan?</strong></a><br />The country has unleashed an ambitious "Destination Pakistan 2007" tourist campaign, but is the place safe; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/basant-photo-essay-kat-gayi-kat.html"><strong>Basant Photo Essay: Kat Gayi, Kat Gayi...Patang Kat Gayi!</strong></a><br />Lahore went rangeela but debate continues on Basant’s legitimacy in Pakistan; Pictures by Usman Ahmed and Viewpoint by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-ardeshir-cowasjee-grand.html"><strong>Interview with Ardeshir Cowasjee - The Grand Old Man of Karachi</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>One of Pakistan’s most respected citizens spills it out – about his beloved city of Karachi.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-outrage-and-unrest-in.html"><strong>Editorial - Outrage and Unrest in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Mr. Musharraf fires a judge and falls in trouble. Here is what he should do next; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/exclusive-photo-essay-spy-camera-at.html"><strong>Wagah Photo Essay - Spying in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>When an Indian, armed with a secret digicam, crossed into Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/rang-de-red-spring-time-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Rang De Red - Spring Time in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Love and longing in the time of "Enlightened Moderation"; Poetry by Ajit Shenoy, pictures by <a href="http://flickr.com/people/manitoon/">Usman Ahmed</a><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-changing-face-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Editorial – The Changing Face of Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Is it merely skin-deep; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/viewpoint-culture-shock-in-hip-pakistan.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Culture Shock in Hip Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Lahore girl, living in US, returns home to find a changing society; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-liberal.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "Liberal Parents Allow Arranged Love Marriages"</strong></a><br />How western impact affect inter-generational relations; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-good-girls-not.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan - "Good Girls Not Available"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A non-resident Pakistani recalls his non-dating days in Karachi; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/samjhauta-express-editorial-give-more.html"><strong>Samjhauta Express Editorial - Give Respect to Pakistani Travelers</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A bomb attack exposed the travails of the traveling citizens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-in-pakistan-there-are-no-discos.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "There Are No Discos in Lahore"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A young man discusses the “scene in colleges” and in other "intimate hideouts"; talking with Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-correct-way.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – The Correct Way</strong></a><br />If you wish to go further, get married; by Usman<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-i-prefer.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "I Prefer the Oriental <em>Ishq</em>"</strong></a><br />Where do young people meet in Lahore? And how things eased following Musharraf’s takeover; conversations with Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/exclusive-feature-making-love-in.html"><strong>Making Love in Pakistan: An Introduction</strong></a><br />On this Valentine's Week, a special series on the mixed-sex dynamics of the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-survive-taunts-and-sneers-of.html"><strong>How To Survive The Taunts And Jibes Of Pakistani Columnists?</strong></a><br />Reading Pakistani newspaper columns in the times of Pervez Musharraf; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/viewpoint-what-is-wrong-in-being-muslim.html"><strong>Viewpoint – What Is Wrong In Being A Muslim Fundamentalist?</strong></a><br />A Taxila teacher reacts to columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed's interview with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Syed Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/exclusive-interview-with-ishtiaq-ahmed.html"><strong>Exclusive Conversations with Pakistani Columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed</strong></a><br />An eminent Pakistan-born intellectual on his native country, and on Islam as practiced in his adopted nation – Sweden; Interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/photo-report-running-for-pakistan.html"><strong>Photo Report - Running for Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A recent marathon in Pakistan made a political statement of its own; by Usman Ahmed and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/editorial-pakistan-and-india-will-never.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan and India Will Never be Friends</strong></a><br />The dividing wall of mistrust between these two nations won't come tumbling down anytime soon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/blocking-blogs-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Blocking Blogs in Pakistan</strong></a><br />While Time magazine makes bloggers the People of the Year 2006, Pakistan government is blocking access to blogs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-pakistani-economy-its-time-to.html"><strong>The State of Pakistani Economy – It’s the Time to Party</strong></a><br /><br /><strong>Acknowledgement</strong>: <em>This blogsite is the ongoing consequence of constant inspiration and gentle prodding of my friend Gaurav Sood</em>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-424953411331892756?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-58270110826982150932011-06-08T23:56:00.000-07:002011-06-09T00:13:16.016-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5813972069/" title="Special Survey – Indians on Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/5813972069_9f24c77bcf_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Special Survey – Indians on Pakistan"></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">No black & white views.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</span><br /><br />What do young Indians think of Pakistan, especially after the Osama episode? Is the country doomed? Are all the people horrible there? Is Jinnah’s nation a hothouse of terrorists waiting to bomb our cities? <span style="font-style:italic;">Pakistan Paindabad</span> contacted a few people and they responded with their ideas of Pakistan. Surprisingly, their perspectives were more multi-layered, complicated, intelligent and brutally frank than those coming from your average Pak hater (“you are wicked, wicked, wicked”) or professional peacenik (“I love you no matter what”). If a Pakistani is interested in knowing the views of their country from a thinking Indian’s mind, then this is it. Reader, get gutsy and read.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">You, the people, can’t be blamed</span><br /><br />"Following the Osama killing, I think the Pakistani establishment has much to answer for. Of that I have not doubt. I am not sure how much control the Pakistan premier has over all this. As an Indian, I don't blame the Pakistani population for all this. I think there's much less democracy in Pakistan than in India, and the people can't be held responsible for what the state does. For me, it is not possible to think of Pakistan as 'one' country. There are so many different power groups and political interests there. Pakistan functions at two levels - where the population just wants to get on with its life; while the politicians and army are busy justifying their meaningless existence by feeding trouble everywhere. I was, however, alarmed that there was not enough public outcry against the Salmaan Taseer killing. If Taliban-type fundamentalists take hold of Pakistan, it would be impossible for India-Pak relations to ever improve."<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Sanchita Guha, editor in</span> Marie Claire <span style="font-style:italic;">magazine, Delhi</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Doubts remain</span><br /><br />“I feel Pakistan is internally pretty conflicted. I have friends among the educated moderates there and I see the conflict going on between them and the politicians and the military. The country is desperately poor, yet they are so focused on their vendettas that they neglect internal reforms. Osama's death and the subsequent hyperventilation regarding how they weren't informed of the US's operation only highlights this. I doubt it was a game changer though. Pakistan will continue doing what it has been doing.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Nithya Subramanian, researcher working on national strategy, Delhi</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">You skipped democracy</span><br /><br />"When I think of Pakistan, the first emotion that comes to me is sympathy. And when I compare the progress that India has made in the equal number of years since independence, I do feel that Pakistan has taken some serious wrong turns. Democracy was a major thoroughfare they overlooked. I have grown up hearing stories of its bazaars and mohallas in Lahore. I am sure much has changed since. But how much and how? Understanding that seems a task as difficult as looking through a wall. There is a lot that we can learn about a country’s culture through its cinema and books, especially fiction. These chronicle the minute, everyday details about a society and its evolution. This then becomes a way of understanding a place from inside. I have seen Pakistan through Daniyal Mueenuddin’s <span style="font-style:italic;">In Other Rooms, Other Wonders</span> and Kamila Shamsie’s work, among others. But my view remains fragmented.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Sonal Aggarwal, fiction writer working on her first book, Delhi</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">You’re my disappointing sibling</span><br /><br />“In a lot of ways my feelings about Pakistan are like one would have if they were part of a dysfunctional relationship with a sibling. There is a shared history, culture, tongue, instinctual affection but a disappointment at where the relationship stands. While growing up in Kathmandu, my next door neighbors were Pakistanis, and their children were my closest friends. There is great affinity between people and one is wounded by the turmoil in Pakistan. No one should have to raise their children in an environment like that. I was told by a fellow Pakistani writer, that there are snipers on the roof of his child's school. It’s a sad reality. But between states it’s hard to ignore the facts that exist. The Mumbai terror attacks cannot be erased from memory and unless there is support forthcoming from Pakistan to bring justice to the victims it will be hard to heal the relationship.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Advaita Kala, novelist, Delhi</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">You’re perhaps normal but we might never know</span><br /><br />“Truly, it's difficult to say what one feels about Pakistan, because as novelist Chimamanda Adichie said, I only get the single story about Pakistan - that's the one which is all about ISI and terrorism and basically how this is a state that's always after India. Sometimes, for a change of pace, there's also news about honour rapes and honour killings and the pathetic status of women. So every time I see a Coke Studio or I read the tweets of ReallyVirtual, or the blogpost of three super enthusiastic cricket lovers who pulled out all stops to make it to India, I am struck, shamingly, by how normal Pakistanis are, how smart they are, how very much like us. And that, of course, there must be thousands of stories out there that speak of culture, wit, ingenuity, intelligence, creativity, inspiration, fascination, obsession... Would I like to know more? Absolutely. Will I? I don't know. I'm not an active surfer of the net, I'm not on twitter, and I don't think I will see the hundreds of stories that make up life in Pakistan on any Indian newspaper or TV anytime soon.”<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Nishat Fatima, freelance writer and photographer, Hyderabad</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Too much Delhi in Pak</span><br /><br />I don't have well-informed thoughts about contemporary Pakistan, but from the perspective of an editor of a city magazine, I do have one abiding thought and sentiment about the country. Even today, sixty years after Partition, Delhi's Muslim culture is divided between Delhi and Karachi. In a sense, Pakistan is still full of Dilliwalas; and to an extent they've done more to preserve the memory of Delhi's integral culture than we have here. We have no street in Delhi named after Ghalib, but they do in Lahore; Karachi has a Delhi Colony; as Vazira Fazila-Yaqoobali once wrote in our magazine, in Karachi, "hakims, perfumers, kababwalas and nihariwalas all proudly advertise their Delhi origins" -- these are ties that neither Partition nor the decades of hostility since then could snap. As a recent, earnest, try-hard Dilliwala myself, I'm moved by the idea of authentic Dilliwalas living across a hostile border, long sundered from the city but still loyal to it -- it underscores a kind of identity, of being a Dilliwala -- you'll certainly relate -- that are less easily abused, and much more meaningful, than "Indian" or "Pakistani".<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Raghu Karnad, editor,</span> Time Out Delhi<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-5827011082698215093?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-85183059119970767062011-03-30T03:14:00.000-07:002011-03-30T03:19:03.143-07:00<em>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</em><br /><strong>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <em>Daily Times</em> and <em>The Friday Times</em></strong><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098398085786647714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5573359397_3e3694f147_m.jpg" width="240" height="179" /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/special-column-rooting-for-pakistan.html">Special Column – Rooting for Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistan-India cricket match in Mohali, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/karachi-diary-discovery-of-city.html">Karachi Diary - The Discovery of a City</a></strong><br />The sum total of its people, by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/09/special-interview-kazim-aizaz-alam.html">Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US</a></strong><br />How are Americans treating him, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/letter-from-london-why-i-love-pakistan.html">Letter from London - Why I Love Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pyaasa for Pakistan, by Catriona Luke<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/pakistan-floods-is-indian-media.html">Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's tragedy doesn't move India, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/sign-of-times-terror-attack-in-daata.html">Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine</a></strong><br />Requiem for the dead, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/karachi-landmark-t2f-defence-housing.html">Karachi Landmark - T2F, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />Karachi's coolest cafe, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-diary-reading-chicklit-in.html">Pakistan Diary - Reading Chicklit in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/karachi-guide-sunday-market-defence.html">Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />The world of old books, by Yasir Malik<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-at-home-in-lahore.html">Pakistan Diary - At Home in Lahore</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-dancing-girl-of-heera.html">Pakistan Diary - The Dancing Girl of Heera Mandi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-karachi-kartography.html">Pakistan Diary - The Karachi Kartography</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-jinnahs-mausoleum.html">Pakistan Diary - Jinnah's Mausoleum</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-is-karachi-unsafe.html">Pakistan Diary - Is Karachi Safe?</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-first-karachi-literature.html">Pakistan Diary - The First Karachi Literature Festival</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-my-first-evening-in.html">Pakistan Diary - My First Evening in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/karachi-scene-musical-world-of-saffia.html">Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg</a></strong><br />A Karachite’s passion for Hindustani classical, by Junaid Zuberi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/dateline-karachi-pakistans-first.html">Dateline Karachi - Get Ready for Pakistan's First Literature Festival</a></strong><br />Three cheers for Pak-lit; by <i>The Independent</i>'s Andrew Buncombe<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-review-two-indians-in-isloo.html">Blog Review - Two Indians in Isloo</a></strong><br />They are blogging on life in Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/viewpoint-and-how-are-things-for-you-as.html">Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?”</a></strong><br />Novelist Sehba Sarwar in a round table chat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-feature-face-to-face-with-asma.html">Special Feature - Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir</a></strong><br />The symbol of a brave Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/photo-essay-pakistans-bright-stars.html">Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars</a></strong><br />The people who constitute Pakistaniyat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-review-coffee-house-of-lahore-by.html">Book Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz</a></strong><br />Coffee, tea and revolution; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-feature-indian-who-loves.html">Special Feature – The Indian Who Loves Pakistan</a></strong><br />Author Khushwant Singh's home is always open to Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html"> "Today Islamabad, Lahore Feel Like War Zones, and Karachi is Calm" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part IV; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html"> "I Would be Lost Without My Laptop" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part III; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">"Houston is as Ugly, Polluted, Hot as Karachi" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part II; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">"My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part I; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its artists; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/karachi-life-gay-mans-diary.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part II</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-feature-911-day-mr-jinnah-died.html">Special Feature – 9/11, The Day Mr Jinnah Died</a></strong><br />The final day in the life of Pakistan’s founder; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/personal-history-karachi-quotient.html">Personal History – The Karachi Quotient</a></strong><br />Growing up in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Imran Ahmed<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/islamabad-have-diplomats-politicians.html">"Islamabad have diplomats & politicians, but also philosophers and scholars" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-IV with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/majority-who-buy-my-art-are-still-not.html">"The Majority Who Buy My Art Are Still Not Pakistanis" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-III with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-not-wise-to-exhibit-on-political.html">“It’s not wise to exhibit on political themes" – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-II with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-bothered-by-everything-that-snatches.html">“I’m bothered by everything that snatches away my rights” – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-I with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/freedom-day-special-series-faiza-khan.html">Freedom Day Special Series – Faiza Khan; Celebrating an Artist’s Life</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its people; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/family-portrait-karachi-family-in.html">Family Portrait – A Karachi Family in an Indian Mall</a></strong><br />A slice of their Delhi afternoon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-writing-is-older-than-creation-of.html">"Our writing is older than the creation of Pakistan itself" - Ali Sethi, Novelist</a></strong><br />Exclusive interview with a new Pakistani novelist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-life-pakistani-in-sri-lanka.html">High Life – A Pakistani in Sri Lanka</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain finds a new home; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/dateline-karachi-citys-first-monsoon.html">Dateline Karachi – The City’s first Monsoon Rain</a></strong><br />When the tough weather surrendered to the people’s will; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/karachi-diary-arundhati-roy-in-pakistan.html">Karachi Diary - Arundhati Roy in Pakistan</a></strong><br />India's literary terrorist wows its 'enemy'; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/viewpoint-insult-to-my-pakistan.html">Viewpoint - An Insult to My Pakistan</a></strong><br />Remember why we created Pakistan; by Sehar Tariq<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/special-hello-taliban.html">Special – Hello Taliban</a></strong><br />Background of the Swat peace deal; by Amir Hashim Khakwani, translation by Kazim Aizaz Alam <br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/obituary-khalid-hasan-journalist-writer.html">Obituary: Khalid Hasan, Journalist & Writer</a></strong><br />He died of cancer, aged 74; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/eminent-pakistani-naz-ikramullah-artist.html">Eminent Pakistani - Naz Ikramullah, Artist</a></strong><br />Snooping around a sari-clad Pakistani in the Indian capital; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-my-wish-list.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Kamran Shafi's Wish List</a></strong><br />Pakistani’s wittiest columnist shares an exclusive with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-yes-we-can.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Yes We Can!</a></strong><br />A Karachi blogger writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-no-hope-here.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – No Hope Here</a></strong><br />Eminent Karachi columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-finding.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Finding Comfort in a Sindh Village</a></strong><br />Author Sehba Sarwar writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-5-hopes-for.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – 5 Hopes for the Nation</a></strong><br />Academic Hassan Abbas shares his hope with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-happy-pakistan-series-get-out-of.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Get Out of Self-deception</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/special-editorial-happier-pakistan-in.html">Special Editorial – A Happier Pakistan in 2009</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis to share their optimism with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/remembrance-616-pm-december-27-2007.html">Remembrance - 6:16 pm, December 27, 2007</a></strong><br />On Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s first death anniversary; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/karachi-diary-in-love-with-arundhati.html">Karachi Diary - In Love with Arundhati Roy</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani besotted with an Indian passport holder; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-should-pakistan-handover.html">Viewpoint - Should Pakistan Hand Mumbai Suspects to India?</a></strong><br />A look at the costs and benefits; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-pakistan-after-bombay-2611.html">Viewpoint - Pakistan After Bombay 26/11</a></strong><br />Policy shift needed, not war; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-dostana-in-pakistan.html">Exclusive - 'Dostana' in Pakistan</a></strong><br /><em>Dawn</em> newspaper refused to print this op-ed on homosexualism in Pakistan; by Irfan Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/capital-culture-making-music-in.html">Capital Culture - Making Music in Pakistan</a></strong><br />Claiming back our heritage; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/only-country-where-i-am-non-muslim-is.html">"The Only Country Where I am a Non-Muslim is My Own" - Interview with Saira Wasim</a></strong><br />Chatting with a Pakistani artist who happens to be an Ahmadi Muslim; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/special-life-love-lahore.html">Special - Life, Love, Lahore</a></strong><br />Life and times of Pakistan's premier monstropolis; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/scoop-when-mr-zardari-met-ms-palin.html">Scoop – When Mr Zardari Met Ms Palin</a></strong><br />All he wanted was a hug; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-mourning-once-was-marriott.html">In Mourning - Once Was Marriott</a></strong><br />Terrorist attack kills more than 40 people in the Islamabad hotel; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/special-mr-zardari-youve-got-mail.html">Special – Mr Zardari, You've Got Mail</a></strong><br />A Pakistani student writes to the nation's new Prez; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/xclusive-how-asif-zardari-courted.html">Xclusive – How President Zardari Courted Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Revealing excerpts from Benazir’s memoirs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/photo-essay-lawrence-garden-memories.html">50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die - Lawrence Garden, Lahore</a></strong><br />Listening to the sound of trees; pics by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/obituary-pervez-musharraf-1999-2008.html">Obituary – Pervez Musharraf, 1999-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s former CEO and a friend of George Bush; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/14th-august-series-bina-shah-im-not.html">14th August Series: Bina Shah - "I'm Not Free"</a></strong><br />Pakistan's celebrated author on Independence Day<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/capital-notes-once-was-islamabad.html">Capital Notes - Once was Islamabad</a></strong><br />Mourning the demise of Pakistan's greenest city; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/memoir-pakistan-paindabad-blogged-me-to.html">Memoir - Pakistan Paindabad Blogged Me to Fame</a></strong><br />This blogsite has changed my life; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/bina-shahs-review-pakistan-paindabad-s.html">Bina Shah's Review - <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>'s Intentions are Good, the Execution Clumsy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent author discusses this blogsite<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/special-pakistan-paindabad-in-news.html"><strong>Pakistan Paindabad in News</strong> </a><br />This blogsite has reached a milestone; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/series-50-pakistani-destinations-before.html"><strong>New Series - 50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die</strong> </a><br />Your guide to beautiful Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-goodbye-shahzadi-shyam.html"><strong>Book Review – Goodbye Shahzadi, Shyam Bhatia</strong> </a><br />An Indian journalist’s disappointing biography of Benazir Bhutto; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/viewpoint-lahore-delhi-hip-factor.html"><strong>Viewpoint -- Lahore-Delhi Hip Factor </strong> </a><br />Young life in both cities is a blend of cafe culture, cool music and retail nirvana; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/travel-journey-to-pakistan.html"><strong>Travel – Journey to Pakistan</strong> </a><br />When an Indian goes to Lahore with excess baggage; by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/reading-urdu-outside-pakistan.html"><strong>Trends - Reading Urdu Outside Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The homesick diaspora has online Urdu as refuge; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/dateline-lahore-poetry-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Dateline Lahore - Poetry in Pakistan</strong> </a><br />Poetry is a part of everyday life, including politics; by Henry Chu<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/lahore-diary-club-sandwich-was-invented.html"><strong>Lahore Diary - Club Sandwich was Invented in Lawrence Garden!</strong> </a><br />Amazing stories you never knew about this city landmark; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-tuesday-311-lahore.html"><strong>Black Tuesday – 3/11, Lahore</strong> </a><br />Folks die, stuff happens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/literature-love-poem-by-faiz-ahmad-faiz.html"><strong>Literature - Love Poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz</strong> </a><br />Ghazal by Pakistan's great Urdu poet; by Shaheen Sultan Dhanji<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/special-william-dalrymples-cool-n-sexy.html"><strong>Special – William Dalrymple’s Cool ‘n’ Sexy Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The best-selling author has finally fallen for the country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/viewpoint-mr-zardari-mr-sharif-audacity.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Zardari & Mr. Sharif, The Audacity of Hope</strong> </a><br />Their new friendship might not be good for the democracy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/musing-losing-east-pakistan.html"><strong>Musing - Losing East Pakistan</strong> </a><br />A young Pakistani do a remembrance of things past; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/pakistan-elections-morning-after.html"><strong>Pakistan Elections – The Morning After</strong> </a><br />Life goes on after the landmark mandate; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/mourning-benazir-bhutto-shehr-i-qatl-ke.html"><strong>Mourning Benazir Bhutto - Shehr-i-Qatl ke Log</strong> </a><br />Marking the end of the 40-day mourning period of Ms. Bhutto’s death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/xclusive-who-is-general-ashfaq-parvez.html"><strong>Xclusive - Who is General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani?</strong> </a><br />Is Mr. Kayani the right guy for Pakistan Army; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/personal-history-fish-out-of-water.html">Personal History – Fish Out of Water</a></strong><br />A Pakistani-American returns home to re-discover her culture, language and religion; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/parda-faash-britney-spears-pak-hearts.html">Parda Faash – Britney spears Pak Hearts</a></strong><br />Benazir is gone, Britney is coming; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/opinion-sufi-links-of-benazir-bhutto.html">Opinion - The Sufi Links of Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Benazir Bhutto displayed the sufi trait in her death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/viewpoint-benazir-is-dead-long-live.html">Viewpoint - Benazir is Dead, Long Live Pakistan</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani remains hopeful even after Benazir's assasination; by Salman Ravala<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/exclusive-616-pm-2712-benazir-bhutto-is.html">Exclusive - 6:16 pm, 27/12, Benazir Bhutto is Dead</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis–Begum Nawazish Ali, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Khalid Hasan, Shandana Minhas, Kamran Shafi, Raza Rumi–relive the moment with Pakistan Paindabad<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/bibi-special-my-life-with-benazir.html">Bibi Special - My Life with Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Eminent columnist and Bibi's friend looks back on the late leader; by Khalid Hasan<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-benazir-bhutto-1953-2007.html">Obituary: Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan's future Prime Minister and convent-educated mother of three teenagers; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-column-courage-in-time-of-chaos.html">Special Column - Courage in a Time of Chaos</a></strong><br />Pakistan will survive the tragedy of Benazir's assasination; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-pakistan-paindabad-gets-good.html">Special - Pakistan Paindabad Gets Good Press</a></strong><br />Mullah Radio Quiz attracted 6000 visitors on a single day; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-ismail-gulgee-1926-2007.html">Obituary –Ismail Gulgee, Pakistani Artist</a></strong><br />Abstract expressionist and portraitist of the Afghan royal family; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-top-10-pakistani-blogs.html">Special - Top 10 Pakistani Blogs</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad fails to make it; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/satire-special-quiz-on-pakistan.html">Satire – Special Quiz on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Jemima’s memoirs, Sharif’s symbol, halaal sex, and more; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-praise-and-criticism-of-pakistan.html">In Praise and Criticism of Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />Message from readers<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/commentary-three-musketeers-of-pakistan.html">Commentary - The Three Musketeers of Pakistan</a></strong><br />A not-for-dummies guide to the trinity of Benazir + Nawaz + Musharraf; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/exclusive-gay-planet-in-karachi.html">Exclusive – Gay Planet in Karachi</a></strong><br />A homosexual man’s guide to Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-what-is-to-be-done.html">Satire – What Is to Be Done?</a></strong><br />A few readymade revolutionary deals for Mr. Musharraf & Co.; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/culture-specie-called-pakistani-art.html">Culture - A Specie Called Pakistan Art</a></strong><br />Excursions into a little known world; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/travel-mr-razas-tips-on-pakistan.html">Travel - Mr. Raza’s Tips on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Counseling by Pakistan’s most lovable travel writer; compiled by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/writing-novel-is-like-ejecting-infant.html">“Writing a Novel is Like Ejecting an Infant from Your Uterus” – Interview with Shandana Minhas</a></strong><br />Frank talk with the Karachi-based author of <em>Tunnel Vision</em>; interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/emergency-column-pervez-musharraf.html">Emergency Column - Pervez Musharraf Arrested My Mother</a></strong><br />But he is losing the match; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/opinion-iqbal-islam-and-emergency.html">Opinion - Iqbal, Islam, and the Emergency</a></strong><br />Our poet had envisaged a different Pakistan; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/society-diary-of-gay-man-from-karachi.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part I</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/repressive-measures-have-led-to-some.html">“Repressive measures have led to some spectacular literature in Pakistan” – Interview with Rakhshanda Jalil</a></strong><br />The editor of a anthology of Pakistani short stories on the country’s vibrant writing scene; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/honey-how-we-shrunk-musharrafs.html">Honey, How We Shrunk Musharraf's Emergency</a></strong><br />Ripping apart international media's mis-coverage of Pakistan's crisis; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-full-text-of-mr-musharrafs.html">Satire – Full Text of Mr. Musharraf’s Emergency Proclamation</a></strong><br />Illegally obtained by Pakistan Paindabad; by Gaurav Sood and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-in-search-of-sister.html">Book Review – Searching for Sister Pakistan</a></strong><br />neither night nor day, 13 stories by women writers from Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/indian-bloggers-website-on-pak-creates.html">Indian blogger's website on Pak creates waves in cyberspace</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad is being noticed; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/recollection-heartbreak-in-lahore.html">Recollection - Heartbreak in Lahore</a></strong><br />A play that moved both Indians and Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/viewpoint-on-pakistan-paindabads-first.html">Viewpoint - On Pakistan Paindabad's First Anniversary</a></strong><br />The blogsite needs a Pakistani collaborator; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/memoirs-confessions-of-grass-eater.html">Memoirs – Confessions of a Grass Eater</a></strong><br />Living a vegetarian life in Lahore; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/opinion-fight-to-end.html">Opinion - A Fight to the End</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent opinion maker on BB's bloodied return, exclusively for <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-editorial-blasts-blitzkrieg-and.html">Special Editorial - Blasts, Blitzkrieg, and BB</a></strong><br />Is Benazir Bhutto’s second return as hopeful as her first; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/pride-prejudice-and-pakistanis.html">Pride, Prejudice, and Pakistanis</a></strong><br />What does Pakistan Paindabad’s Indian readers think of <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/accolades-for-pakistan-paindabad.html">Accolades for Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />The <em>Daily Times</em> newspaper has something to say about this website<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/photo-essay-celebrating-lahores-canal.html">Photo Essay - Celebrating the Canal of Lahore</a></strong><br />Honoring the city's most precious treasure; <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em> revisits an old story on its first birthday<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-makes-pakistanis-laugh.html">Pakistan Paindabad Exclusive - What Makes Pakistanis Laugh</a></strong><br />Paksitan's celebrated writer Bina Shah investigates<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-survey-what-do-young-americans.html">Special Survey - What Do Young Americans Think of Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistanis in the perceptions of their greatest ally; by Raymond Lee<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-out-karachi-sunbathing-in.html">Time Out Karachi - Sunbathing in the Metropolis</a></strong><br />Imagine Karachi without its beaches; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/karachis-anarchy-leads-me-to-question.html">"Karachi's Anarchy Leads Me to Question Things” - Interview with Amin Gulgee</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s most celebrated sculptor talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/memories-once-so-many-hindus-lived-in.html"><strong>Memories - Once So Many Hindus Lived in Taxila</strong></a><br />An old lady recounts the time when Pakistan came into existence; by Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/dateline-wagah-pakistan-versus-india.html"><strong>Dateline Wagah - Pakistan Versus India</strong></a><br />Eyewitness report from Ground Zero; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/naan-keema-k2-and-cricket-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Naan, Keema, K2, and Cricket in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In love with my land; by Merium H. Kazmi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/m-hanif-raza-mister-borat-of-pakistan.html"><strong>M. Hanif Raza - Mister Borat of Pakistan</strong></a><br />A travel writer too naive to be true; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-indian-intellectuals-cant.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Indian Intellectuals Can’t Accept Pakistan</strong></a><br />Exposing the anti-Muslim attitude of Indian writers like Ramachandra Guha; by Ali Eteraz<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-jiye-gandhi.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Jiye Gandhi</strong></a><br />We need more Gandhians in Pakistan; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/azaadi-at-60-we-pakistanis.html"><strong>Azaadi at 60 – We the Pakistanis</strong></a><br />A young Karachite demands a new not-so-moth-eaten Pakistan; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/writing-columns-often-moves-me-to-tears.html"><strong>"Writing columns often moves me to tears" - Independence Day Interview with Kamran Shafi</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most acclaimed columnists sits down with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistani-riddle-speaking-hindi-reading.html"><strong>A Pakistani Riddle – Speaking Hindi; Reading Arabic</strong></a><br />Making sense of our Pakistani identity; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/reading-karachi-understanding-pakistan.html"><strong>Understanding Pakistan in Karachi</strong></a>i<br />A single city defines the ethno-political dimensions of an entire nation; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/exclusive-review-pervez-musharraf-and.html"><strong>Exclusive Review – Pervez Musharraf and the Deathly Hallows</strong></a><br />We’ve read the unreleased book purchased illegally from a Karachi store; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/karachi-chronicle-slow-journey-to.html"><strong>Karachi Chronicle – Slow Journey to Nationhood</strong></a><br />Tracing the nation’s struggle for a common identity; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/time-out-lahore-dancing-smoking-and.html"><strong>Time Out Lahore - Dancing, Smoking and Crashing Out in Pakistan’s Sin City</strong></a><br />Sharing a slice of the most happening city this side of the Indus; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/lahore-karachi-tale-of-two-cities.html"><strong>Lahore &amp; Karachi – A Tale of Two Cities</strong></a><br />Two cities both alike in dignity; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/viewpoint-mr-musharraf-stuck-in-golden.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Musharraf Stuck in Golden Temple Trap</strong></a><br />Lal Masjid farce is over but it could have devastating results; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/lal-masjid-editorial-flushing-out.html"><strong>Lal Masjid Editorial – Flushing Out the Religious Blackmailers</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s government finally showed its belated courage in dealing with the fanatics; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/bina-shah-i-want-to-foster-future.html"><strong>Bina Shah - "I Want to Foster Future Booker Prize Winners"</strong></a><br />Pakistan's most promising young writer talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; interview by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-readers-on-gay-life-in.html"><strong>Letter to the Readers- On Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In response to accusations of maligning Pakistan's reputation; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-secrets-gay-life-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Open Secrets- Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />It's risky but easy to be a homosexual in this country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/satire-president-musharrafs-little.html"><strong>Satire - President Musharraf’s Little Khaki Book</strong></a><br />Exclusive excerpts from Pervez Musharraf's new book; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/bapsi-sidhwa-i-wrote-naturally-about.html"><strong>Bapsi Sidhwa: "I wrote naturally about sexuality..."</strong></a><br />The grandmother of Pakistani writing in English talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; special interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/five-things-i-love-about-pakistan.html"><strong>Exclusive - Five things I love about Pakistan</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most respected opinion-makers on the country’s better side; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/editorial-pervez-musharraf-gags-media.html"><strong>Editorial – Mr. Musharraf Gags Media, Ruins His Own Legacy</strong></a><br />Can Pakistanis be pushed back to the bad old dictatorial days; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/because-heart-hai-pakistani.html"><strong>Because Heart Hai Pakistani</strong></a><br />A Pakistani, living in America, muses on her land; by Nahal S<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-report-pink-purdah-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Special Report - Pakistan's Pink Purdah</strong></a><br />Two women in love married each other and are now in jail; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-pakistan.html"><strong>Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Karachi-based photojournalist loves his country and how; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-review-city-of-sin-and-splendour.html"><strong>Book Review - City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore</strong></a><br />Bapsi Sidhwa's Lahore is a lovingly embroidered family heirloom; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/favourite-five-why-i-am-proud-pakistani.html"><strong>Favourite Five – Why I Am a Proud Pakistani</strong></a><br />Khalid Hasan, US correspondent of <em>The Friday Times</em>, lists his reasons.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-editorial-pakistans-soul-is-not.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan’s Soul is Not for Sale</strong></a><br />Searching and finding hope in these anxious times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/chacha-chaudhry-and-papa-pervez.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Chacha Chaudhry and Papa Pervez</strong></a><br />Musharraf blunders, Karachi burns but is Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry all clean; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/panch-pakistani-power-points.html"><strong>Panch Pakistani Power Points</strong></a><br />An eminent columnist shares his reasons for loving Pakistan; by Ishtiaq Ahmed<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-5-reasons-for-loving-pakistan.html"><strong>Top 5 Reasons for Loving Pakistan</strong></a><br />Explaining the pull in terms of rating and ranking; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-heroes-of-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Heroes of Pakistan</strong></a><br />Five Pakistanis who make me proud to be a Pakistani; by Hassan Abbas<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/fiver-for-father-land.html"><strong>Fiver for the Fatherland</strong></a><br />Gosh, I love my Pakistan; by Jawad Zakariya<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-stars-to-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Stars to Pakistan</strong></a><br />Here's why I'm proud of my nation; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistan-top-5.html"><strong>Pakistan Top 5</strong></a><br />Freedom, thrill, family, smartness, and girls; by Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/5-best-things-about-pakistan-difficult.html"><strong>5 Best Things about Pakistan – Difficult to List!</strong></a><br />Is there anything beautiful about this country; by Saeeda Diep<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/khyber-pass-memoirs.html"><strong>Khyber Pass Memoirs</strong></a><br />A retired British RAF Pilot discloses ‘Pakistan Paindabad’ was the first Urdu phrase he learnend; by Tony Connane<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/heera-mandi-dream-house-of-whores.html"><strong>Heera Mandi - The Dream House of the Whores</strong></a><br />Midnight excursion in the alleys of Lahore's red light district; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-about-hindus-of-pakistan.html"><strong>New Dawn for Pakistan's Least-Loved Citizens?</strong></a><br />Pakistan has started taking note of its Hindu legacy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/lahore-sight-seeing-fun-on-road.html"><strong>Lahore Sight-Seeing - Fun on the Road</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Passing instant judgments while driving in Pakistan's great city; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pervez-musharraf-100-percent-superstar.html"><strong>Pervez Musharraf – The 100 Percent Superstar</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s passion for “percentage-analysis” makes him a unique statesman of our times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/viewpoint-is-it-okay-for-western.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Should Westerners Visit Pakistan?</strong></a><br />The country has unleashed an ambitious "Destination Pakistan 2007" tourist campaign, but is the place safe; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/basant-photo-essay-kat-gayi-kat.html"><strong>Basant Photo Essay: Kat Gayi, Kat Gayi...Patang Kat Gayi!</strong></a><br />Lahore went rangeela but debate continues on Basant’s legitimacy in Pakistan; Pictures by Usman Ahmed and Viewpoint by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-ardeshir-cowasjee-grand.html"><strong>Interview with Ardeshir Cowasjee - The Grand Old Man of Karachi</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>One of Pakistan’s most respected citizens spills it out – about his beloved city of Karachi.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-outrage-and-unrest-in.html"><strong>Editorial - Outrage and Unrest in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Mr. Musharraf fires a judge and falls in trouble. Here is what he should do next; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/exclusive-photo-essay-spy-camera-at.html"><strong>Wagah Photo Essay - Spying in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>When an Indian, armed with a secret digicam, crossed into Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/rang-de-red-spring-time-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Rang De Red - Spring Time in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Love and longing in the time of "Enlightened Moderation"; Poetry by Ajit Shenoy, pictures by <a href="http://flickr.com/people/manitoon/">Usman Ahmed</a><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-changing-face-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Editorial – The Changing Face of Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Is it merely skin-deep; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/viewpoint-culture-shock-in-hip-pakistan.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Culture Shock in Hip Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Lahore girl, living in US, returns home to find a changing society; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-liberal.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "Liberal Parents Allow Arranged Love Marriages"</strong></a><br />How western impact affect inter-generational relations; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-good-girls-not.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan - "Good Girls Not Available"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A non-resident Pakistani recalls his non-dating days in Karachi; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/samjhauta-express-editorial-give-more.html"><strong>Samjhauta Express Editorial - Give Respect to Pakistani Travelers</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A bomb attack exposed the travails of the traveling citizens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-in-pakistan-there-are-no-discos.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "There Are No Discos in Lahore"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A young man discusses the “scene in colleges” and in other "intimate hideouts"; talking with Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-correct-way.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – The Correct Way</strong></a><br />If you wish to go further, get married; by Usman<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-i-prefer.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "I Prefer the Oriental <em>Ishq</em>"</strong></a><br />Where do young people meet in Lahore? And how things eased following Musharraf’s takeover; conversations with Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/exclusive-feature-making-love-in.html"><strong>Making Love in Pakistan: An Introduction</strong></a><br />On this Valentine's Week, a special series on the mixed-sex dynamics of the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-survive-taunts-and-sneers-of.html"><strong>How To Survive The Taunts And Jibes Of Pakistani Columnists?</strong></a><br />Reading Pakistani newspaper columns in the times of Pervez Musharraf; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/viewpoint-what-is-wrong-in-being-muslim.html"><strong>Viewpoint – What Is Wrong In Being A Muslim Fundamentalist?</strong></a><br />A Taxila teacher reacts to columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed's interview with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Syed Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/exclusive-interview-with-ishtiaq-ahmed.html"><strong>Exclusive Conversations with Pakistani Columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed</strong></a><br />An eminent Pakistan-born intellectual on his native country, and on Islam as practiced in his adopted nation – Sweden; Interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/photo-report-running-for-pakistan.html"><strong>Photo Report - Running for Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A recent marathon in Pakistan made a political statement of its own; by Usman Ahmed and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/editorial-pakistan-and-india-will-never.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan and India Will Never be Friends</strong></a><br />The dividing wall of mistrust between these two nations won't come tumbling down anytime soon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/blocking-blogs-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Blocking Blogs in Pakistan</strong></a><br />While Time magazine makes bloggers the People of the Year 2006, Pakistan government is blocking access to blogs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-pakistani-economy-its-time-to.html"><strong>The State of Pakistani Economy – It’s the Time to Party</strong></a><br /><br /><strong>Acknowledgement</strong>: <em>This blogsite is the ongoing consequence of constant inspiration and gentle prodding of my friend Gaurav Sood</em>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8518305911997076706?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-28920044668238634192011-03-30T03:10:00.000-07:002011-03-30T03:29:14.797-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5573359397/" title="Special Column – Rooting for Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5573359397_3e3694f147.jpg" width="470" height="350" alt="Special Column – Rooting for Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Pakistan-India cricket match in Mohali.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</span><br /><br />Thunderous crowd. National anthems. Fluttering flags. Two prime ministers. And a cricket match between India and Pakistan. <span style="font-style:italic;">Pakistan Paindabad</span> wants the better team to win in the semifinal match of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which is taking place – at the time of writing this piece – in Mohali, a town in the Indian side of Punjab.<br /><br />But, truly speaking, we want Pakistan to win because:<br />a) The country need heroes<br />b) The country is suffering so badly otherwise<br />c) The country deserves a good news<br /><br />But as we watch the live telecast on TV in Delhi and see Indian batsmen Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar hitting four runs on every ball, our heart goes out to our Pakistani friends in Lahore and Karachi. We are chewing our nails. This is silly. After all, cricket is just a game and no matter which team wins, it won’t really affect our lives or bank accounts but… wait, Sehwag is out! Yay, go Pakistan!<br /><br />On the morning of the D-day, columnist Irfan Husian wrote in <span style="font-style:italic;">Dawn</span>:<br />"I must say I feel for our team in Mohali: seldom will eleven men be asked to shoulder such a heavy burden of national pride. And while this is equally true for the Indian team, our boys have the additional responsibility of lifting a country that has suffered so much in the recent past. Never mind that much of our pain has been entirely self-inflicted: common people are not responsible for the mess Pakistan finds itself in today. And they are the ones who could do with the lift a victory would provide."<br /><br />Although we are Indian passport holders, we won’t be disappointed if India loses. Despite the perennial problems of poverty, casteism and other problems, Indians – at least the middle-class Indians – have learnt to ignore their country’s black spots and delight themselves unabashedly in the grand illusion of an emerging superpower status. So if India is defeated, the happy Indians in the Mohali stadium can fly back to their bungalows in Jor Bagh and Bandra West and - after drowning the grief in martini - can plan out their next course in the pursuit of happiness. Pakistanis, on the other hand, have limited options. Their country is reeling under a suicidal gloom, thanks to Talibani terror, corrupt political system, and a secretive all-powerful army.<br /><br />Meanwhile Tendulkar is still not out. Pakistanis are looking tensed. What if they lose? Mr Husain also wrote in the same <span style="font-style:italic;">Dawn</span> column:<br />"Over the years, after hours of nail-biting tension followed by a huge disappointment as our men in green manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again, I have devised a technique to lessen the dull ache of terminal let-down. My method consists of hedging my involvement by betting against Pakistan, so that if our team loses, I will at least have won my bet. And if they win, the pleasure I get from their victory is set off against my loss."<br /><br />So, readers, give a cheer to both Pakistan and India. Wait, Tendulkar is out... yay, go Pakistan... wait, Tendular has been called back. Oh, Pakistan.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-2892004466823863419?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-88298808275343281682011-03-19T22:41:00.000-07:002011-03-19T22:49:28.771-07:00<em>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</em><br /><strong>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <em>Daily Times</em> and <em>The Friday Times</em></strong><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098398085786647714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/5542230584_9877b1e171_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/karachi-diary-discovery-of-city.html">Karachi Diary - The Discovery of a City</a></strong><br />The sum total of its people, by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/09/special-interview-kazim-aizaz-alam.html">Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US</a></strong><br />How are Americans treating him, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/letter-from-london-why-i-love-pakistan.html">Letter from London - Why I Love Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pyaasa for Pakistan, by Catriona Luke<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/pakistan-floods-is-indian-media.html">Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's tragedy doesn't move India, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/sign-of-times-terror-attack-in-daata.html">Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine</a></strong><br />Requiem for the dead, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/karachi-landmark-t2f-defence-housing.html">Karachi Landmark - T2F, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />Karachi's coolest cafe, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-diary-reading-chicklit-in.html">Pakistan Diary - Reading Chicklit in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/karachi-guide-sunday-market-defence.html">Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />The world of old books, by Yasir Malik<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-at-home-in-lahore.html">Pakistan Diary - At Home in Lahore</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-dancing-girl-of-heera.html">Pakistan Diary - The Dancing Girl of Heera Mandi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-karachi-kartography.html">Pakistan Diary - The Karachi Kartography</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-jinnahs-mausoleum.html">Pakistan Diary - Jinnah's Mausoleum</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-is-karachi-unsafe.html">Pakistan Diary - Is Karachi Safe?</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-first-karachi-literature.html">Pakistan Diary - The First Karachi Literature Festival</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-my-first-evening-in.html">Pakistan Diary - My First Evening in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/karachi-scene-musical-world-of-saffia.html">Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg</a></strong><br />A Karachite’s passion for Hindustani classical, by Junaid Zuberi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/dateline-karachi-pakistans-first.html">Dateline Karachi - Get Ready for Pakistan's First Literature Festival</a></strong><br />Three cheers for Pak-lit; by <i>The Independent</i>'s Andrew Buncombe<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-review-two-indians-in-isloo.html">Blog Review - Two Indians in Isloo</a></strong><br />They are blogging on life in Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/viewpoint-and-how-are-things-for-you-as.html">Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?”</a></strong><br />Novelist Sehba Sarwar in a round table chat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-feature-face-to-face-with-asma.html">Special Feature - Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir</a></strong><br />The symbol of a brave Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/photo-essay-pakistans-bright-stars.html">Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars</a></strong><br />The people who constitute Pakistaniyat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-review-coffee-house-of-lahore-by.html">Book Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz</a></strong><br />Coffee, tea and revolution; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-feature-indian-who-loves.html">Special Feature – The Indian Who Loves Pakistan</a></strong><br />Author Khushwant Singh's home is always open to Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html"> "Today Islamabad, Lahore Feel Like War Zones, and Karachi is Calm" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part IV; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html"> "I Would be Lost Without My Laptop" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part III; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">"Houston is as Ugly, Polluted, Hot as Karachi" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part II; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">"My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part I; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its artists; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/karachi-life-gay-mans-diary.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part II</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-feature-911-day-mr-jinnah-died.html">Special Feature – 9/11, The Day Mr Jinnah Died</a></strong><br />The final day in the life of Pakistan’s founder; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/personal-history-karachi-quotient.html">Personal History – The Karachi Quotient</a></strong><br />Growing up in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Imran Ahmed<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/islamabad-have-diplomats-politicians.html">"Islamabad have diplomats & politicians, but also philosophers and scholars" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-IV with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/majority-who-buy-my-art-are-still-not.html">"The Majority Who Buy My Art Are Still Not Pakistanis" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-III with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-not-wise-to-exhibit-on-political.html">“It’s not wise to exhibit on political themes" – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-II with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-bothered-by-everything-that-snatches.html">“I’m bothered by everything that snatches away my rights” – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-I with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/freedom-day-special-series-faiza-khan.html">Freedom Day Special Series – Faiza Khan; Celebrating an Artist’s Life</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its people; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/family-portrait-karachi-family-in.html">Family Portrait – A Karachi Family in an Indian Mall</a></strong><br />A slice of their Delhi afternoon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-writing-is-older-than-creation-of.html">"Our writing is older than the creation of Pakistan itself" - Ali Sethi, Novelist</a></strong><br />Exclusive interview with a new Pakistani novelist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-life-pakistani-in-sri-lanka.html">High Life – A Pakistani in Sri Lanka</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain finds a new home; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/dateline-karachi-citys-first-monsoon.html">Dateline Karachi – The City’s first Monsoon Rain</a></strong><br />When the tough weather surrendered to the people’s will; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/karachi-diary-arundhati-roy-in-pakistan.html">Karachi Diary - Arundhati Roy in Pakistan</a></strong><br />India's literary terrorist wows its 'enemy'; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/viewpoint-insult-to-my-pakistan.html">Viewpoint - An Insult to My Pakistan</a></strong><br />Remember why we created Pakistan; by Sehar Tariq<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/special-hello-taliban.html">Special – Hello Taliban</a></strong><br />Background of the Swat peace deal; by Amir Hashim Khakwani, translation by Kazim Aizaz Alam <br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/obituary-khalid-hasan-journalist-writer.html">Obituary: Khalid Hasan, Journalist & Writer</a></strong><br />He died of cancer, aged 74; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/eminent-pakistani-naz-ikramullah-artist.html">Eminent Pakistani - Naz Ikramullah, Artist</a></strong><br />Snooping around a sari-clad Pakistani in the Indian capital; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-my-wish-list.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Kamran Shafi's Wish List</a></strong><br />Pakistani’s wittiest columnist shares an exclusive with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-yes-we-can.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Yes We Can!</a></strong><br />A Karachi blogger writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-no-hope-here.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – No Hope Here</a></strong><br />Eminent Karachi columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-finding.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Finding Comfort in a Sindh Village</a></strong><br />Author Sehba Sarwar writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-5-hopes-for.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – 5 Hopes for the Nation</a></strong><br />Academic Hassan Abbas shares his hope with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-happy-pakistan-series-get-out-of.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Get Out of Self-deception</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/special-editorial-happier-pakistan-in.html">Special Editorial – A Happier Pakistan in 2009</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis to share their optimism with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/remembrance-616-pm-december-27-2007.html">Remembrance - 6:16 pm, December 27, 2007</a></strong><br />On Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s first death anniversary; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/karachi-diary-in-love-with-arundhati.html">Karachi Diary - In Love with Arundhati Roy</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani besotted with an Indian passport holder; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-should-pakistan-handover.html">Viewpoint - Should Pakistan Hand Mumbai Suspects to India?</a></strong><br />A look at the costs and benefits; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-pakistan-after-bombay-2611.html">Viewpoint - Pakistan After Bombay 26/11</a></strong><br />Policy shift needed, not war; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-dostana-in-pakistan.html">Exclusive - 'Dostana' in Pakistan</a></strong><br /><em>Dawn</em> newspaper refused to print this op-ed on homosexualism in Pakistan; by Irfan Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/capital-culture-making-music-in.html">Capital Culture - Making Music in Pakistan</a></strong><br />Claiming back our heritage; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/only-country-where-i-am-non-muslim-is.html">"The Only Country Where I am a Non-Muslim is My Own" - Interview with Saira Wasim</a></strong><br />Chatting with a Pakistani artist who happens to be an Ahmadi Muslim; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/special-life-love-lahore.html">Special - Life, Love, Lahore</a></strong><br />Life and times of Pakistan's premier monstropolis; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/scoop-when-mr-zardari-met-ms-palin.html">Scoop – When Mr Zardari Met Ms Palin</a></strong><br />All he wanted was a hug; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-mourning-once-was-marriott.html">In Mourning - Once Was Marriott</a></strong><br />Terrorist attack kills more than 40 people in the Islamabad hotel; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/special-mr-zardari-youve-got-mail.html">Special – Mr Zardari, You've Got Mail</a></strong><br />A Pakistani student writes to the nation's new Prez; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/xclusive-how-asif-zardari-courted.html">Xclusive – How President Zardari Courted Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Revealing excerpts from Benazir’s memoirs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/photo-essay-lawrence-garden-memories.html">50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die - Lawrence Garden, Lahore</a></strong><br />Listening to the sound of trees; pics by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/obituary-pervez-musharraf-1999-2008.html">Obituary – Pervez Musharraf, 1999-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s former CEO and a friend of George Bush; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/14th-august-series-bina-shah-im-not.html">14th August Series: Bina Shah - "I'm Not Free"</a></strong><br />Pakistan's celebrated author on Independence Day<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/capital-notes-once-was-islamabad.html">Capital Notes - Once was Islamabad</a></strong><br />Mourning the demise of Pakistan's greenest city; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/memoir-pakistan-paindabad-blogged-me-to.html">Memoir - Pakistan Paindabad Blogged Me to Fame</a></strong><br />This blogsite has changed my life; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/bina-shahs-review-pakistan-paindabad-s.html">Bina Shah's Review - <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>'s Intentions are Good, the Execution Clumsy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent author discusses this blogsite<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/special-pakistan-paindabad-in-news.html"><strong>Pakistan Paindabad in News</strong> </a><br />This blogsite has reached a milestone; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/series-50-pakistani-destinations-before.html"><strong>New Series - 50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die</strong> </a><br />Your guide to beautiful Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-goodbye-shahzadi-shyam.html"><strong>Book Review – Goodbye Shahzadi, Shyam Bhatia</strong> </a><br />An Indian journalist’s disappointing biography of Benazir Bhutto; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/viewpoint-lahore-delhi-hip-factor.html"><strong>Viewpoint -- Lahore-Delhi Hip Factor </strong> </a><br />Young life in both cities is a blend of cafe culture, cool music and retail nirvana; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/travel-journey-to-pakistan.html"><strong>Travel – Journey to Pakistan</strong> </a><br />When an Indian goes to Lahore with excess baggage; by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/reading-urdu-outside-pakistan.html"><strong>Trends - Reading Urdu Outside Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The homesick diaspora has online Urdu as refuge; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/dateline-lahore-poetry-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Dateline Lahore - Poetry in Pakistan</strong> </a><br />Poetry is a part of everyday life, including politics; by Henry Chu<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/lahore-diary-club-sandwich-was-invented.html"><strong>Lahore Diary - Club Sandwich was Invented in Lawrence Garden!</strong> </a><br />Amazing stories you never knew about this city landmark; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-tuesday-311-lahore.html"><strong>Black Tuesday – 3/11, Lahore</strong> </a><br />Folks die, stuff happens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/literature-love-poem-by-faiz-ahmad-faiz.html"><strong>Literature - Love Poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz</strong> </a><br />Ghazal by Pakistan's great Urdu poet; by Shaheen Sultan Dhanji<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/special-william-dalrymples-cool-n-sexy.html"><strong>Special – William Dalrymple’s Cool ‘n’ Sexy Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The best-selling author has finally fallen for the country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/viewpoint-mr-zardari-mr-sharif-audacity.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Zardari & Mr. Sharif, The Audacity of Hope</strong> </a><br />Their new friendship might not be good for the democracy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/musing-losing-east-pakistan.html"><strong>Musing - Losing East Pakistan</strong> </a><br />A young Pakistani do a remembrance of things past; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/pakistan-elections-morning-after.html"><strong>Pakistan Elections – The Morning After</strong> </a><br />Life goes on after the landmark mandate; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/mourning-benazir-bhutto-shehr-i-qatl-ke.html"><strong>Mourning Benazir Bhutto - Shehr-i-Qatl ke Log</strong> </a><br />Marking the end of the 40-day mourning period of Ms. Bhutto’s death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/xclusive-who-is-general-ashfaq-parvez.html"><strong>Xclusive - Who is General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani?</strong> </a><br />Is Mr. Kayani the right guy for Pakistan Army; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/personal-history-fish-out-of-water.html">Personal History – Fish Out of Water</a></strong><br />A Pakistani-American returns home to re-discover her culture, language and religion; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/parda-faash-britney-spears-pak-hearts.html">Parda Faash – Britney spears Pak Hearts</a></strong><br />Benazir is gone, Britney is coming; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/opinion-sufi-links-of-benazir-bhutto.html">Opinion - The Sufi Links of Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Benazir Bhutto displayed the sufi trait in her death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/viewpoint-benazir-is-dead-long-live.html">Viewpoint - Benazir is Dead, Long Live Pakistan</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani remains hopeful even after Benazir's assasination; by Salman Ravala<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/exclusive-616-pm-2712-benazir-bhutto-is.html">Exclusive - 6:16 pm, 27/12, Benazir Bhutto is Dead</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis–Begum Nawazish Ali, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Khalid Hasan, Shandana Minhas, Kamran Shafi, Raza Rumi–relive the moment with Pakistan Paindabad<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/bibi-special-my-life-with-benazir.html">Bibi Special - My Life with Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Eminent columnist and Bibi's friend looks back on the late leader; by Khalid Hasan<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-benazir-bhutto-1953-2007.html">Obituary: Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan's future Prime Minister and convent-educated mother of three teenagers; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-column-courage-in-time-of-chaos.html">Special Column - Courage in a Time of Chaos</a></strong><br />Pakistan will survive the tragedy of Benazir's assasination; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-pakistan-paindabad-gets-good.html">Special - Pakistan Paindabad Gets Good Press</a></strong><br />Mullah Radio Quiz attracted 6000 visitors on a single day; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-ismail-gulgee-1926-2007.html">Obituary –Ismail Gulgee, Pakistani Artist</a></strong><br />Abstract expressionist and portraitist of the Afghan royal family; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-top-10-pakistani-blogs.html">Special - Top 10 Pakistani Blogs</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad fails to make it; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/satire-special-quiz-on-pakistan.html">Satire – Special Quiz on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Jemima’s memoirs, Sharif’s symbol, halaal sex, and more; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-praise-and-criticism-of-pakistan.html">In Praise and Criticism of Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />Message from readers<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/commentary-three-musketeers-of-pakistan.html">Commentary - The Three Musketeers of Pakistan</a></strong><br />A not-for-dummies guide to the trinity of Benazir + Nawaz + Musharraf; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/exclusive-gay-planet-in-karachi.html">Exclusive – Gay Planet in Karachi</a></strong><br />A homosexual man’s guide to Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-what-is-to-be-done.html">Satire – What Is to Be Done?</a></strong><br />A few readymade revolutionary deals for Mr. Musharraf & Co.; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/culture-specie-called-pakistani-art.html">Culture - A Specie Called Pakistan Art</a></strong><br />Excursions into a little known world; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/travel-mr-razas-tips-on-pakistan.html">Travel - Mr. Raza’s Tips on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Counseling by Pakistan’s most lovable travel writer; compiled by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/writing-novel-is-like-ejecting-infant.html">“Writing a Novel is Like Ejecting an Infant from Your Uterus” – Interview with Shandana Minhas</a></strong><br />Frank talk with the Karachi-based author of <em>Tunnel Vision</em>; interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/emergency-column-pervez-musharraf.html">Emergency Column - Pervez Musharraf Arrested My Mother</a></strong><br />But he is losing the match; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/opinion-iqbal-islam-and-emergency.html">Opinion - Iqbal, Islam, and the Emergency</a></strong><br />Our poet had envisaged a different Pakistan; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/society-diary-of-gay-man-from-karachi.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part I</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/repressive-measures-have-led-to-some.html">“Repressive measures have led to some spectacular literature in Pakistan” – Interview with Rakhshanda Jalil</a></strong><br />The editor of a anthology of Pakistani short stories on the country’s vibrant writing scene; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/honey-how-we-shrunk-musharrafs.html">Honey, How We Shrunk Musharraf's Emergency</a></strong><br />Ripping apart international media's mis-coverage of Pakistan's crisis; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-full-text-of-mr-musharrafs.html">Satire – Full Text of Mr. Musharraf’s Emergency Proclamation</a></strong><br />Illegally obtained by Pakistan Paindabad; by Gaurav Sood and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-in-search-of-sister.html">Book Review – Searching for Sister Pakistan</a></strong><br />neither night nor day, 13 stories by women writers from Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/indian-bloggers-website-on-pak-creates.html">Indian blogger's website on Pak creates waves in cyberspace</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad is being noticed; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/recollection-heartbreak-in-lahore.html">Recollection - Heartbreak in Lahore</a></strong><br />A play that moved both Indians and Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/viewpoint-on-pakistan-paindabads-first.html">Viewpoint - On Pakistan Paindabad's First Anniversary</a></strong><br />The blogsite needs a Pakistani collaborator; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/memoirs-confessions-of-grass-eater.html">Memoirs – Confessions of a Grass Eater</a></strong><br />Living a vegetarian life in Lahore; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/opinion-fight-to-end.html">Opinion - A Fight to the End</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent opinion maker on BB's bloodied return, exclusively for <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-editorial-blasts-blitzkrieg-and.html">Special Editorial - Blasts, Blitzkrieg, and BB</a></strong><br />Is Benazir Bhutto’s second return as hopeful as her first; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/pride-prejudice-and-pakistanis.html">Pride, Prejudice, and Pakistanis</a></strong><br />What does Pakistan Paindabad’s Indian readers think of <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/accolades-for-pakistan-paindabad.html">Accolades for Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />The <em>Daily Times</em> newspaper has something to say about this website<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/photo-essay-celebrating-lahores-canal.html">Photo Essay - Celebrating the Canal of Lahore</a></strong><br />Honoring the city's most precious treasure; <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em> revisits an old story on its first birthday<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-makes-pakistanis-laugh.html">Pakistan Paindabad Exclusive - What Makes Pakistanis Laugh</a></strong><br />Paksitan's celebrated writer Bina Shah investigates<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-survey-what-do-young-americans.html">Special Survey - What Do Young Americans Think of Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistanis in the perceptions of their greatest ally; by Raymond Lee<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-out-karachi-sunbathing-in.html">Time Out Karachi - Sunbathing in the Metropolis</a></strong><br />Imagine Karachi without its beaches; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/karachis-anarchy-leads-me-to-question.html">"Karachi's Anarchy Leads Me to Question Things” - Interview with Amin Gulgee</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s most celebrated sculptor talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/memories-once-so-many-hindus-lived-in.html"><strong>Memories - Once So Many Hindus Lived in Taxila</strong></a><br />An old lady recounts the time when Pakistan came into existence; by Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/dateline-wagah-pakistan-versus-india.html"><strong>Dateline Wagah - Pakistan Versus India</strong></a><br />Eyewitness report from Ground Zero; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/naan-keema-k2-and-cricket-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Naan, Keema, K2, and Cricket in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In love with my land; by Merium H. Kazmi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/m-hanif-raza-mister-borat-of-pakistan.html"><strong>M. Hanif Raza - Mister Borat of Pakistan</strong></a><br />A travel writer too naive to be true; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-indian-intellectuals-cant.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Indian Intellectuals Can’t Accept Pakistan</strong></a><br />Exposing the anti-Muslim attitude of Indian writers like Ramachandra Guha; by Ali Eteraz<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-jiye-gandhi.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Jiye Gandhi</strong></a><br />We need more Gandhians in Pakistan; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/azaadi-at-60-we-pakistanis.html"><strong>Azaadi at 60 – We the Pakistanis</strong></a><br />A young Karachite demands a new not-so-moth-eaten Pakistan; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/writing-columns-often-moves-me-to-tears.html"><strong>"Writing columns often moves me to tears" - Independence Day Interview with Kamran Shafi</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most acclaimed columnists sits down with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistani-riddle-speaking-hindi-reading.html"><strong>A Pakistani Riddle – Speaking Hindi; Reading Arabic</strong></a><br />Making sense of our Pakistani identity; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/reading-karachi-understanding-pakistan.html"><strong>Understanding Pakistan in Karachi</strong></a>i<br />A single city defines the ethno-political dimensions of an entire nation; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/exclusive-review-pervez-musharraf-and.html"><strong>Exclusive Review – Pervez Musharraf and the Deathly Hallows</strong></a><br />We’ve read the unreleased book purchased illegally from a Karachi store; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/karachi-chronicle-slow-journey-to.html"><strong>Karachi Chronicle – Slow Journey to Nationhood</strong></a><br />Tracing the nation’s struggle for a common identity; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/time-out-lahore-dancing-smoking-and.html"><strong>Time Out Lahore - Dancing, Smoking and Crashing Out in Pakistan’s Sin City</strong></a><br />Sharing a slice of the most happening city this side of the Indus; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/lahore-karachi-tale-of-two-cities.html"><strong>Lahore &amp; Karachi – A Tale of Two Cities</strong></a><br />Two cities both alike in dignity; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/viewpoint-mr-musharraf-stuck-in-golden.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Musharraf Stuck in Golden Temple Trap</strong></a><br />Lal Masjid farce is over but it could have devastating results; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/lal-masjid-editorial-flushing-out.html"><strong>Lal Masjid Editorial – Flushing Out the Religious Blackmailers</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s government finally showed its belated courage in dealing with the fanatics; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/bina-shah-i-want-to-foster-future.html"><strong>Bina Shah - "I Want to Foster Future Booker Prize Winners"</strong></a><br />Pakistan's most promising young writer talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; interview by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-readers-on-gay-life-in.html"><strong>Letter to the Readers- On Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In response to accusations of maligning Pakistan's reputation; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-secrets-gay-life-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Open Secrets- Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />It's risky but easy to be a homosexual in this country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/satire-president-musharrafs-little.html"><strong>Satire - President Musharraf’s Little Khaki Book</strong></a><br />Exclusive excerpts from Pervez Musharraf's new book; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/bapsi-sidhwa-i-wrote-naturally-about.html"><strong>Bapsi Sidhwa: "I wrote naturally about sexuality..."</strong></a><br />The grandmother of Pakistani writing in English talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; special interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/five-things-i-love-about-pakistan.html"><strong>Exclusive - Five things I love about Pakistan</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most respected opinion-makers on the country’s better side; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/editorial-pervez-musharraf-gags-media.html"><strong>Editorial – Mr. Musharraf Gags Media, Ruins His Own Legacy</strong></a><br />Can Pakistanis be pushed back to the bad old dictatorial days; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/because-heart-hai-pakistani.html"><strong>Because Heart Hai Pakistani</strong></a><br />A Pakistani, living in America, muses on her land; by Nahal S<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-report-pink-purdah-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Special Report - Pakistan's Pink Purdah</strong></a><br />Two women in love married each other and are now in jail; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-pakistan.html"><strong>Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Karachi-based photojournalist loves his country and how; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-review-city-of-sin-and-splendour.html"><strong>Book Review - City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore</strong></a><br />Bapsi Sidhwa's Lahore is a lovingly embroidered family heirloom; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/favourite-five-why-i-am-proud-pakistani.html"><strong>Favourite Five – Why I Am a Proud Pakistani</strong></a><br />Khalid Hasan, US correspondent of <em>The Friday Times</em>, lists his reasons.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-editorial-pakistans-soul-is-not.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan’s Soul is Not for Sale</strong></a><br />Searching and finding hope in these anxious times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/chacha-chaudhry-and-papa-pervez.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Chacha Chaudhry and Papa Pervez</strong></a><br />Musharraf blunders, Karachi burns but is Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry all clean; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/panch-pakistani-power-points.html"><strong>Panch Pakistani Power Points</strong></a><br />An eminent columnist shares his reasons for loving Pakistan; by Ishtiaq Ahmed<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-5-reasons-for-loving-pakistan.html"><strong>Top 5 Reasons for Loving Pakistan</strong></a><br />Explaining the pull in terms of rating and ranking; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-heroes-of-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Heroes of Pakistan</strong></a><br />Five Pakistanis who make me proud to be a Pakistani; by Hassan Abbas<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/fiver-for-father-land.html"><strong>Fiver for the Fatherland</strong></a><br />Gosh, I love my Pakistan; by Jawad Zakariya<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-stars-to-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Stars to Pakistan</strong></a><br />Here's why I'm proud of my nation; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistan-top-5.html"><strong>Pakistan Top 5</strong></a><br />Freedom, thrill, family, smartness, and girls; by Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/5-best-things-about-pakistan-difficult.html"><strong>5 Best Things about Pakistan – Difficult to List!</strong></a><br />Is there anything beautiful about this country; by Saeeda Diep<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/khyber-pass-memoirs.html"><strong>Khyber Pass Memoirs</strong></a><br />A retired British RAF Pilot discloses ‘Pakistan Paindabad’ was the first Urdu phrase he learnend; by Tony Connane<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/heera-mandi-dream-house-of-whores.html"><strong>Heera Mandi - The Dream House of the Whores</strong></a><br />Midnight excursion in the alleys of Lahore's red light district; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-about-hindus-of-pakistan.html"><strong>New Dawn for Pakistan's Least-Loved Citizens?</strong></a><br />Pakistan has started taking note of its Hindu legacy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/lahore-sight-seeing-fun-on-road.html"><strong>Lahore Sight-Seeing - Fun on the Road</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Passing instant judgments while driving in Pakistan's great city; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pervez-musharraf-100-percent-superstar.html"><strong>Pervez Musharraf – The 100 Percent Superstar</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s passion for “percentage-analysis” makes him a unique statesman of our times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/viewpoint-is-it-okay-for-western.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Should Westerners Visit Pakistan?</strong></a><br />The country has unleashed an ambitious "Destination Pakistan 2007" tourist campaign, but is the place safe; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/basant-photo-essay-kat-gayi-kat.html"><strong>Basant Photo Essay: Kat Gayi, Kat Gayi...Patang Kat Gayi!</strong></a><br />Lahore went rangeela but debate continues on Basant’s legitimacy in Pakistan; Pictures by Usman Ahmed and Viewpoint by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-ardeshir-cowasjee-grand.html"><strong>Interview with Ardeshir Cowasjee - The Grand Old Man of Karachi</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>One of Pakistan’s most respected citizens spills it out – about his beloved city of Karachi.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-outrage-and-unrest-in.html"><strong>Editorial - Outrage and Unrest in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Mr. Musharraf fires a judge and falls in trouble. Here is what he should do next; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/exclusive-photo-essay-spy-camera-at.html"><strong>Wagah Photo Essay - Spying in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>When an Indian, armed with a secret digicam, crossed into Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/rang-de-red-spring-time-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Rang De Red - Spring Time in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Love and longing in the time of "Enlightened Moderation"; Poetry by Ajit Shenoy, pictures by <a href="http://flickr.com/people/manitoon/">Usman Ahmed</a><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-changing-face-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Editorial – The Changing Face of Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Is it merely skin-deep; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/viewpoint-culture-shock-in-hip-pakistan.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Culture Shock in Hip Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Lahore girl, living in US, returns home to find a changing society; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-liberal.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "Liberal Parents Allow Arranged Love Marriages"</strong></a><br />How western impact affect inter-generational relations; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-good-girls-not.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan - "Good Girls Not Available"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A non-resident Pakistani recalls his non-dating days in Karachi; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/samjhauta-express-editorial-give-more.html"><strong>Samjhauta Express Editorial - Give Respect to Pakistani Travelers</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A bomb attack exposed the travails of the traveling citizens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-in-pakistan-there-are-no-discos.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "There Are No Discos in Lahore"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A young man discusses the “scene in colleges” and in other "intimate hideouts"; talking with Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-correct-way.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – The Correct Way</strong></a><br />If you wish to go further, get married; by Usman<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-i-prefer.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "I Prefer the Oriental <em>Ishq</em>"</strong></a><br />Where do young people meet in Lahore? And how things eased following Musharraf’s takeover; conversations with Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/exclusive-feature-making-love-in.html"><strong>Making Love in Pakistan: An Introduction</strong></a><br />On this Valentine's Week, a special series on the mixed-sex dynamics of the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-survive-taunts-and-sneers-of.html"><strong>How To Survive The Taunts And Jibes Of Pakistani Columnists?</strong></a><br />Reading Pakistani newspaper columns in the times of Pervez Musharraf; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/viewpoint-what-is-wrong-in-being-muslim.html"><strong>Viewpoint – What Is Wrong In Being A Muslim Fundamentalist?</strong></a><br />A Taxila teacher reacts to columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed's interview with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Syed Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/exclusive-interview-with-ishtiaq-ahmed.html"><strong>Exclusive Conversations with Pakistani Columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed</strong></a><br />An eminent Pakistan-born intellectual on his native country, and on Islam as practiced in his adopted nation – Sweden; Interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/photo-report-running-for-pakistan.html"><strong>Photo Report - Running for Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A recent marathon in Pakistan made a political statement of its own; by Usman Ahmed and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/editorial-pakistan-and-india-will-never.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan and India Will Never be Friends</strong></a><br />The dividing wall of mistrust between these two nations won't come tumbling down anytime soon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/blocking-blogs-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Blocking Blogs in Pakistan</strong></a><br />While Time magazine makes bloggers the People of the Year 2006, Pakistan government is blocking access to blogs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-pakistani-economy-its-time-to.html"><strong>The State of Pakistani Economy – It’s the Time to Party</strong></a><br /><br /><strong>Acknowledgement</strong>: <em>This blogsite is the ongoing consequence of constant inspiration and gentle prodding of my friend Gaurav Sood</em>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8829880827534328168?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-84215720398453619442011-03-19T22:25:00.000-07:002011-03-19T22:43:41.707-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5542230584/" title="Karachi Diary - The Discovery of a City by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/5542230584_9877b1e171.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Diary - The Discovery of a City" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The sum total of its people.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">[Text by Rakhshanda Jalil, photo of the T2F cafe by Mayank Austen Soofi]</span><br /><br />It appears to be a truism much acknowledged that Delhi and Lahore are soul sisters. Yet, I must confess, I saw no such striking resemblance between the two cities on my first visit a couple of years ago. A recent visit to Karachi, however, struck a chord in my born-in-UP but raised-in-Delhi heart. <br /><br />Here was a city that was brimming with joie de vivre, was sassy and smart, strangely known and familiar. Despite being festooned with banners showing a hauntingly brooding Benazir Bhutto (I was there during the last week of December when the city was observing her second death anniversary and her husband, the President, was visiting the city), there was nothing haunting or brooding about the city itself. My fears about Kalashnikov-toting Taliban and marauding Muhajirs proved to be entirely unfounded as I discovered a city not unlike my home, Delhi.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Weight of expectations</span><br /><br />My first visit to Pakistan — to Lahore, Faisalabad and Sargodha, to read papers at the universities — three years ago had reminded me, more than anything of rural Punjab, our Punjab that is. And while I remember being struck by the keenu-laden trees of Sargodha and the pretty women of Faisalabad, I must confess to being oddly un-struck by Lahore itself. Perhaps, it was the hype and expectation. Perhaps, it was the weight of expectations. Or, perhaps, it was being told to look for similarities between the so-called twin cities. Yes, there were the wide, tree-lined avenues and grand colonial-style buildings. Yes, there was the Jama Masjid and parts of the old city. Yes, there was the profusion of tombs, pavilions, mosques and dargahs. And, yes, there were the tall, well-built, good-looking people. But still, something was missing.<br /><br />On my second visit to Pakistan, this time to Karachi — again to read a paper but this time at a seminar organised by an NGO called Tehrik-e-Niswan — I found that elusive connect when I was least expecting it. For one, I heard the most immaculate Urdu, the sort one would in a provincial town of Upper India. For another, there was the city's in-your-face chutzpah and cosmopolitanism that reminded me in many ways of Delhi. Yes, there were no Mughal tombs and pavilions. Yes, there were fewer leafy avenues and parks. And, yes, the salt of the sea breeze and the dockyards were more reminiscent of Bombay. But, like Delhi, this city of migrants had brought bits and parts of their old selves from different parts of undivided India – from Goa, Delhi, Kutch, Saurashtra, Madras, Hyderabad not to mention large swathes of United Provinces, Bihar and Bengal. And while they named their enclaves after their cities back home, where they sold Dilli ki nihari or Bihari kababs or Hyderabadi biriyani, they had also created other spaces, spaces that are liberal and secular.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Common ties</span><br /><br />Walking into the seminar room of the Oxford University Press building in Korangi, I feel I could be at any book launch back home. Women in silk saris and men in natty blazers, and the ebb and swirl of the usual chatter among writers, publishers, journalists and book reviewers tells me how artificial borders can be sometimes.<br /><br />Sheema Kirmani, the indomitable driving force behind the Tehreek-e-Niswan (The Women's' Movement), is a woman of many parts — a trained Bharatanatyam dancer, a teacher and choreographer, a street theatre veteran and a battle-scarred activist. She has collaborated with Ameena Saiyed, the dynamic managing director of Oxford University Press, to gather a bunch of eclectic delegates – writers, activists, women's rights experts and theatre persons – to celebrate ‘Tees aur ek saal' (Thirty and One Years) of the Tehreek's existence.<br /><br />The conference begins with a ‘Tilla' performed by a young man from Baltistan with slanting eyes, high cheekbones and near-perfect footwork followed by a ‘ Pushpanjali' by one of Sheema's 11-year old pupils.<br /><br />The feisty Urdu poet, Fahmida Riaz, reads a scholarly paper on being a woman, a writer and an activist soon after we have watched a dramatic re-enactment of her seminal poem, Chadar aur Chaar diwari (The Veil and the Courtyard). I am intrigued by the way in which performances are interspersed with academic presentations all through the two-day seminar.<br /><br />My paper on ‘Rashid Jahan: Communist Doctor and Writer' is accompanied by an enactment of two of her plays by the Tehreek's troupe. Rashid Jahan's plays and stories, written in the 1930s and 1940s, transcend their time and age and still speak to us with the same urgency.<br /><br />Moreover, they remind us yet again of the commonalities, of the ties that bind, ties of history and culture, which transcend the ties of religion or nationhood.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Slice of history</span><br /><br />Zafarullah Poshni is a spry, immaculately dressed 83-year-old. He works for ‘Manhattan', a posh advertising agency in the upscale neighbourhood of Old Clifton. Long years ago, he had shared a jail cell with Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the legendary Urdu poet. Then a young captain in the Pakistan Army, he, along with 16 others, had been jailed in the infamous Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. Charged by the Liaqat Ali Khan regime of a conspiracy to overthrow the government and destabilise the country at the behest of left-leaning intellectuals and foreign powers, Poshni, Faiz, Sajjad Zaheer and other fellow-accused faced an uncertain future as the threat of death hung over their hapless heads. Convicted of high treason in a trial that was a travesty of justice, Poshni recalls those days that marked the death of democracy in Pakistan. Unlike the case of Georgi Dimitrov and the Reichstag Fire Trial that had seized the imagination of the world in the early 1930s, the curious case of Zafarullah Poshni and others had been cloaked in secrecy and conducted behind the high walls of the Hyderabad (Sindh) jail. Eventually released in 1955 for want of evidence, the accused had walked away to build new lives; 50 years later, as Pakistan reels from coup to catastrophe, no one remembers the details of the so-called conspiracy. Poshni sahab's parting gift to me, his memoir Zindagi Zinda Dilika Naam Hai ( The Meaning of Life is Being Lively), bears witness to the indomitable courage and strength of character I found etched in every line and wrinkle of his still-handsome face.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Welfare states</span><br /><br />Asif Noorani, veteran journalist for The Dawn, takes me on a drive around his city. He draws my attention to a crowd sitting under a tent with a van, which functions as a mobile kitchen, parked beside the road. It belongs to the Chhipa Welfare Association, which harnesses the goodwill of local businessmen with the ingenuity and drive of one man – Ramzan Chhipa. Where the government cannot — or does not —intervene, civil society groups, philanthropists and do-gooders step in to run what is virtually a parallel welfare state; what matters is the slack gets picked up and, as Asif Noorani tells me, no one sleeps hungry in the city. Edhi's ambulances ferry the sick and ailing to hospitals and relief and rehabilitation programmes are undertaken by intensely-driven young people such as Adnan Asdar. And so, while the city has its oases of privilege, such as the Raj-era gymkhanas and clubs where the blue-rinse set play bridge and mah-jong, it also has men like the Magsaysay winner Edhi and Asdar, Relief Coordinator of The Citizen's Foundation, who devote their lives to filling the cracks between the system and the people.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hangout zone</span><br /><br />On my last evening in Karachi, I find myself at T2F, the city's most radically hep hangout zone. Café-cum-bookstore-cum-art gallery it also has a small performance/lecture space for an invited audience. I talk about Angarey, an Urdu anthology published in 1932 and banned three months later by the imperial government on charges of being subversive and blasphemous. My audience – a healthy mixture of young and trendy, and grizzled and sedate – represent the liberal face of Pakistani civil society. They know, perhaps better than most, the politics of proscription. The people I meet here, such as Sabeen Mahmud, the owner of T2F, are true-blue Karachites. They are also globalised citizens of the world. They enjoy their cappuccinos almost as much as they savour the poetry of a master such as Mirza Ghalib or a contemporary Karachi icon such as Zehra Nigah. Moreover, they speak Urdu and English with almost equal aplomb. I leave Karachi convinced that a city is not made of parks and promenades, clubs and colonies, malls and monuments; instead, it is the sum total of its people.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8421572039845361944?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-87016643924097005272010-09-26T17:07:00.000-07:002010-09-26T17:10:57.539-07:00<em>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</em><br /><strong>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <em>Daily Times</em> and <em>The Friday Times</em></strong><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098398085786647714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5027315233_e53d716a8d_m.jpg" width="160" height="240" /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/09/special-interview-kazim-aizaz-alam.html">Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US</a></strong><br />How are Americans treating him, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/letter-from-london-why-i-love-pakistan.html">Letter from London - Why I Love Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pyaasa for Pakistan, by Catriona Luke<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/08/pakistan-floods-is-indian-media.html">Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's tragedy doesn't move India, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/sign-of-times-terror-attack-in-daata.html">Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine</a></strong><br />Requiem for the dead, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/karachi-landmark-t2f-defence-housing.html">Karachi Landmark - T2F, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />Karachi's coolest cafe, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-diary-reading-chicklit-in.html">Pakistan Diary - Reading Chicklit in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/karachi-guide-sunday-market-defence.html">Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority</a></strong><br />The world of old books, by Yasir Malik<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-at-home-in-lahore.html">Pakistan Diary - At Home in Lahore</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-dancing-girl-of-heera.html">Pakistan Diary - The Dancing Girl of Heera Mandi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-karachi-kartography.html">Pakistan Diary - The Karachi Kartography</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-jinnahs-mausoleum.html">Pakistan Diary - Jinnah's Mausoleum</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/pakistan-diary-is-karachi-unsafe.html">Pakistan Diary - Is Karachi Safe?</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-first-karachi-literature.html">Pakistan Diary - The First Karachi Literature Festival</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakistan-diary-my-first-evening-in.html">Pakistan Diary - My First Evening in Karachi</a></strong><br />A trip to the fatherland, by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/karachi-scene-musical-world-of-saffia.html">Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg</a></strong><br />A Karachite’s passion for Hindustani classical, by Junaid Zuberi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/dateline-karachi-pakistans-first.html">Dateline Karachi - Get Ready for Pakistan's First Literature Festival</a></strong><br />Three cheers for Pak-lit; by <i>The Independent</i>'s Andrew Buncombe<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-review-two-indians-in-isloo.html">Blog Review - Two Indians in Isloo</a></strong><br />They are blogging on life in Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/viewpoint-and-how-are-things-for-you-as.html">Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?”</a></strong><br />Novelist Sehba Sarwar in a round table chat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-feature-face-to-face-with-asma.html">Special Feature - Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir</a></strong><br />The symbol of a brave Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/photo-essay-pakistans-bright-stars.html">Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars</a></strong><br />The people who constitute Pakistaniyat; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-review-coffee-house-of-lahore-by.html">Book Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz</a></strong><br />Coffee, tea and revolution; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-feature-indian-who-loves.html">Special Feature – The Indian Who Loves Pakistan</a></strong><br />Author Khushwant Singh's home is always open to Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html"> "Today Islamabad, Lahore Feel Like War Zones, and Karachi is Calm" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part IV; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html"> "I Would be Lost Without My Laptop" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part III; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">"Houston is as Ugly, Polluted, Hot as Karachi" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part II; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">"My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community" - Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Interview with the Karachi-born novelist - Part I; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its artists; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/karachi-life-gay-mans-diary.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part II</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-feature-911-day-mr-jinnah-died.html">Special Feature – 9/11, The Day Mr Jinnah Died</a></strong><br />The final day in the life of Pakistan’s founder; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/personal-history-karachi-quotient.html">Personal History – The Karachi Quotient</a></strong><br />Growing up in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Imran Ahmed<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/islamabad-have-diplomats-politicians.html">"Islamabad have diplomats & politicians, but also philosophers and scholars" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-IV with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/majority-who-buy-my-art-are-still-not.html">"The Majority Who Buy My Art Are Still Not Pakistanis" - Faiza Khan, Artist</a></strong><br />Interview-III with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-not-wise-to-exhibit-on-political.html">“It’s not wise to exhibit on political themes" – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-II with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-bothered-by-everything-that-snatches.html">“I’m bothered by everything that snatches away my rights” – Faiza Khan, Painter</a></strong><br />Interview-I with an Islamabad artist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/freedom-day-special-series-faiza-khan.html">Freedom Day Special Series – Faiza Khan; Celebrating an Artist’s Life</a></strong><br />Understanding Pakistan through its people; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/family-portrait-karachi-family-in.html">Family Portrait – A Karachi Family in an Indian Mall</a></strong><br />A slice of their Delhi afternoon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-writing-is-older-than-creation-of.html">"Our writing is older than the creation of Pakistan itself" - Ali Sethi, Novelist</a></strong><br />Exclusive interview with a new Pakistani novelist; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-life-pakistani-in-sri-lanka.html">High Life – A Pakistani in Sri Lanka</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain finds a new home; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/dateline-karachi-citys-first-monsoon.html">Dateline Karachi – The City’s first Monsoon Rain</a></strong><br />When the tough weather surrendered to the people’s will; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/karachi-diary-arundhati-roy-in-pakistan.html">Karachi Diary - Arundhati Roy in Pakistan</a></strong><br />India's literary terrorist wows its 'enemy'; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/05/viewpoint-insult-to-my-pakistan.html">Viewpoint - An Insult to My Pakistan</a></strong><br />Remember why we created Pakistan; by Sehar Tariq<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/special-hello-taliban.html">Special – Hello Taliban</a></strong><br />Background of the Swat peace deal; by Amir Hashim Khakwani, translation by Kazim Aizaz Alam <br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/obituary-khalid-hasan-journalist-writer.html">Obituary: Khalid Hasan, Journalist & Writer</a></strong><br />He died of cancer, aged 74; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/02/eminent-pakistani-naz-ikramullah-artist.html">Eminent Pakistani - Naz Ikramullah, Artist</a></strong><br />Snooping around a sari-clad Pakistani in the Indian capital; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-my-wish-list.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Kamran Shafi's Wish List</a></strong><br />Pakistani’s wittiest columnist shares an exclusive with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-yes-we-can.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Yes We Can!</a></strong><br />A Karachi blogger writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-no-hope-here.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – No Hope Here</a></strong><br />Eminent Karachi columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-finding.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Finding Comfort in a Sindh Village</a></strong><br />Author Sehba Sarwar writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2009-happy-pakistan-series-5-hopes-for.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – 5 Hopes for the Nation</a></strong><br />Academic Hassan Abbas shares his hope with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-happy-pakistan-series-get-out-of.html">2009 Happy Pakistan Series – Get Out of Self-deception</a></strong><br />Columnist Irfan Husain writes exclusively for <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/special-editorial-happier-pakistan-in.html">Special Editorial – A Happier Pakistan in 2009</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis to share their optimism with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/remembrance-616-pm-december-27-2007.html">Remembrance - 6:16 pm, December 27, 2007</a></strong><br />On Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s first death anniversary; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/karachi-diary-in-love-with-arundhati.html">Karachi Diary - In Love with Arundhati Roy</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani besotted with an Indian passport holder; by Kazim Aizaz Alam<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-should-pakistan-handover.html">Viewpoint - Should Pakistan Hand Mumbai Suspects to India?</a></strong><br />A look at the costs and benefits; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/12/viewpoint-pakistan-after-bombay-2611.html">Viewpoint - Pakistan After Bombay 26/11</a></strong><br />Policy shift needed, not war; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-dostana-in-pakistan.html">Exclusive - 'Dostana' in Pakistan</a></strong><br /><em>Dawn</em> newspaper refused to print this op-ed on homosexualism in Pakistan; by Irfan Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/11/capital-culture-making-music-in.html">Capital Culture - Making Music in Pakistan</a></strong><br />Claiming back our heritage; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/only-country-where-i-am-non-muslim-is.html">"The Only Country Where I am a Non-Muslim is My Own" - Interview with Saira Wasim</a></strong><br />Chatting with a Pakistani artist who happens to be an Ahmadi Muslim; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/10/special-life-love-lahore.html">Special - Life, Love, Lahore</a></strong><br />Life and times of Pakistan's premier monstropolis; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/scoop-when-mr-zardari-met-ms-palin.html">Scoop – When Mr Zardari Met Ms Palin</a></strong><br />All he wanted was a hug; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-mourning-once-was-marriott.html">In Mourning - Once Was Marriott</a></strong><br />Terrorist attack kills more than 40 people in the Islamabad hotel; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/special-mr-zardari-youve-got-mail.html">Special – Mr Zardari, You've Got Mail</a></strong><br />A Pakistani student writes to the nation's new Prez; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/09/xclusive-how-asif-zardari-courted.html">Xclusive – How President Zardari Courted Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Revealing excerpts from Benazir’s memoirs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/photo-essay-lawrence-garden-memories.html">50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die - Lawrence Garden, Lahore</a></strong><br />Listening to the sound of trees; pics by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/obituary-pervez-musharraf-1999-2008.html">Obituary – Pervez Musharraf, 1999-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s former CEO and a friend of George Bush; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/14th-august-series-bina-shah-im-not.html">14th August Series: Bina Shah - "I'm Not Free"</a></strong><br />Pakistan's celebrated author on Independence Day<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/capital-notes-once-was-islamabad.html">Capital Notes - Once was Islamabad</a></strong><br />Mourning the demise of Pakistan's greenest city; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/memoir-pakistan-paindabad-blogged-me-to.html">Memoir - Pakistan Paindabad Blogged Me to Fame</a></strong><br />This blogsite has changed my life; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/08/bina-shahs-review-pakistan-paindabad-s.html">Bina Shah's Review - <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>'s Intentions are Good, the Execution Clumsy</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent author discusses this blogsite<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/special-pakistan-paindabad-in-news.html"><strong>Pakistan Paindabad in News</strong> </a><br />This blogsite has reached a milestone; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/07/series-50-pakistani-destinations-before.html"><strong>New Series - 50 Pakistani Destinations Before You Die</strong> </a><br />Your guide to beautiful Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-goodbye-shahzadi-shyam.html"><strong>Book Review – Goodbye Shahzadi, Shyam Bhatia</strong> </a><br />An Indian journalist’s disappointing biography of Benazir Bhutto; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/06/viewpoint-lahore-delhi-hip-factor.html"><strong>Viewpoint -- Lahore-Delhi Hip Factor </strong> </a><br />Young life in both cities is a blend of cafe culture, cool music and retail nirvana; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/travel-journey-to-pakistan.html"><strong>Travel – Journey to Pakistan</strong> </a><br />When an Indian goes to Lahore with excess baggage; by Rakhshanda Jalil<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/reading-urdu-outside-pakistan.html"><strong>Trends - Reading Urdu Outside Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The homesick diaspora has online Urdu as refuge; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/04/dateline-lahore-poetry-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Dateline Lahore - Poetry in Pakistan</strong> </a><br />Poetry is a part of everyday life, including politics; by Henry Chu<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/lahore-diary-club-sandwich-was-invented.html"><strong>Lahore Diary - Club Sandwich was Invented in Lawrence Garden!</strong> </a><br />Amazing stories you never knew about this city landmark; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-tuesday-311-lahore.html"><strong>Black Tuesday – 3/11, Lahore</strong> </a><br />Folks die, stuff happens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/literature-love-poem-by-faiz-ahmad-faiz.html"><strong>Literature - Love Poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz</strong> </a><br />Ghazal by Pakistan's great Urdu poet; by Shaheen Sultan Dhanji<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/03/special-william-dalrymples-cool-n-sexy.html"><strong>Special – William Dalrymple’s Cool ‘n’ Sexy Pakistan</strong> </a><br />The best-selling author has finally fallen for the country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/viewpoint-mr-zardari-mr-sharif-audacity.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Zardari & Mr. Sharif, The Audacity of Hope</strong> </a><br />Their new friendship might not be good for the democracy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/musing-losing-east-pakistan.html"><strong>Musing - Losing East Pakistan</strong> </a><br />A young Pakistani do a remembrance of things past; by Hassan Masud<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/pakistan-elections-morning-after.html"><strong>Pakistan Elections – The Morning After</strong> </a><br />Life goes on after the landmark mandate; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/mourning-benazir-bhutto-shehr-i-qatl-ke.html"><strong>Mourning Benazir Bhutto - Shehr-i-Qatl ke Log</strong> </a><br />Marking the end of the 40-day mourning period of Ms. Bhutto’s death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/02/xclusive-who-is-general-ashfaq-parvez.html"><strong>Xclusive - Who is General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani?</strong> </a><br />Is Mr. Kayani the right guy for Pakistan Army; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/personal-history-fish-out-of-water.html">Personal History – Fish Out of Water</a></strong><br />A Pakistani-American returns home to re-discover her culture, language and religion; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/parda-faash-britney-spears-pak-hearts.html">Parda Faash – Britney spears Pak Hearts</a></strong><br />Benazir is gone, Britney is coming; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/opinion-sufi-links-of-benazir-bhutto.html">Opinion - The Sufi Links of Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Benazir Bhutto displayed the sufi trait in her death; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/viewpoint-benazir-is-dead-long-live.html">Viewpoint - Benazir is Dead, Long Live Pakistan</a></strong><br />A young Pakistani remains hopeful even after Benazir's assasination; by Salman Ravala<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/exclusive-616-pm-2712-benazir-bhutto-is.html">Exclusive - 6:16 pm, 27/12, Benazir Bhutto is Dead</a></strong><br />Eminent Pakistanis–Begum Nawazish Ali, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Khalid Hasan, Shandana Minhas, Kamran Shafi, Raza Rumi–relive the moment with Pakistan Paindabad<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2008/01/bibi-special-my-life-with-benazir.html">Bibi Special - My Life with Benazir Bhutto</a></strong><br />Eminent columnist and Bibi's friend looks back on the late leader; by Khalid Hasan<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-benazir-bhutto-1953-2007.html">Obituary: Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2008</a></strong><br />Pakistan's future Prime Minister and convent-educated mother of three teenagers; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-column-courage-in-time-of-chaos.html">Special Column - Courage in a Time of Chaos</a></strong><br />Pakistan will survive the tragedy of Benazir's assasination; by Bina Shah<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-pakistan-paindabad-gets-good.html">Special - Pakistan Paindabad Gets Good Press</a></strong><br />Mullah Radio Quiz attracted 6000 visitors on a single day; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/obituary-ismail-gulgee-1926-2007.html">Obituary –Ismail Gulgee, Pakistani Artist</a></strong><br />Abstract expressionist and portraitist of the Afghan royal family; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/special-top-10-pakistani-blogs.html">Special - Top 10 Pakistani Blogs</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad fails to make it; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/satire-special-quiz-on-pakistan.html">Satire – Special Quiz on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Jemima’s memoirs, Sharif’s symbol, halaal sex, and more; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-praise-and-criticism-of-pakistan.html">In Praise and Criticism of Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />Message from readers<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/commentary-three-musketeers-of-pakistan.html">Commentary - The Three Musketeers of Pakistan</a></strong><br />A not-for-dummies guide to the trinity of Benazir + Nawaz + Musharraf; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/12/exclusive-gay-planet-in-karachi.html">Exclusive – Gay Planet in Karachi</a></strong><br />A homosexual man’s guide to Pakistan’s biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-what-is-to-be-done.html">Satire – What Is to Be Done?</a></strong><br />A few readymade revolutionary deals for Mr. Musharraf & Co.; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/culture-specie-called-pakistani-art.html">Culture - A Specie Called Pakistan Art</a></strong><br />Excursions into a little known world; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/travel-mr-razas-tips-on-pakistan.html">Travel - Mr. Raza’s Tips on Pakistan</a></strong><br />Counseling by Pakistan’s most lovable travel writer; compiled by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/writing-novel-is-like-ejecting-infant.html">“Writing a Novel is Like Ejecting an Infant from Your Uterus” – Interview with Shandana Minhas</a></strong><br />Frank talk with the Karachi-based author of <em>Tunnel Vision</em>; interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/emergency-column-pervez-musharraf.html">Emergency Column - Pervez Musharraf Arrested My Mother</a></strong><br />But he is losing the match; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/opinion-iqbal-islam-and-emergency.html">Opinion - Iqbal, Islam, and the Emergency</a></strong><br />Our poet had envisaged a different Pakistan; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/society-diary-of-gay-man-from-karachi.html">Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary, Part I</a></strong><br />Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis; by Jalaluddin<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/repressive-measures-have-led-to-some.html">“Repressive measures have led to some spectacular literature in Pakistan” – Interview with Rakhshanda Jalil</a></strong><br />The editor of a anthology of Pakistani short stories on the country’s vibrant writing scene; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/honey-how-we-shrunk-musharrafs.html">Honey, How We Shrunk Musharraf's Emergency</a></strong><br />Ripping apart international media's mis-coverage of Pakistan's crisis; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/satire-full-text-of-mr-musharrafs.html">Satire – Full Text of Mr. Musharraf’s Emergency Proclamation</a></strong><br />Illegally obtained by Pakistan Paindabad; by Gaurav Sood and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-in-search-of-sister.html">Book Review – Searching for Sister Pakistan</a></strong><br />neither night nor day, 13 stories by women writers from Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/indian-bloggers-website-on-pak-creates.html">Indian blogger's website on Pak creates waves in cyberspace</a></strong><br />Pakistan Paindabad is being noticed; by Rezaul Hasan Laskar<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/recollection-heartbreak-in-lahore.html">Recollection - Heartbreak in Lahore</a></strong><br />A play that moved both Indians and Pakistanis; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/viewpoint-on-pakistan-paindabads-first.html">Viewpoint - On Pakistan Paindabad's First Anniversary</a></strong><br />The blogsite needs a Pakistani collaborator; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/memoirs-confessions-of-grass-eater.html">Memoirs – Confessions of a Grass Eater</a></strong><br />Living a vegetarian life in Lahore; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/opinion-fight-to-end.html">Opinion - A Fight to the End</a></strong><br />Pakistan's eminent opinion maker on BB's bloodied return, exclusively for <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-editorial-blasts-blitzkrieg-and.html">Special Editorial - Blasts, Blitzkrieg, and BB</a></strong><br />Is Benazir Bhutto’s second return as hopeful as her first; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/pride-prejudice-and-pakistanis.html">Pride, Prejudice, and Pakistanis</a></strong><br />What does Pakistan Paindabad’s Indian readers think of <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/accolades-for-pakistan-paindabad.html">Accolades for Pakistan Paindabad</a></strong><br />The <em>Daily Times</em> newspaper has something to say about this website<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/photo-essay-celebrating-lahores-canal.html">Photo Essay - Celebrating the Canal of Lahore</a></strong><br />Honoring the city's most precious treasure; <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em> revisits an old story on its first birthday<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-makes-pakistanis-laugh.html">Pakistan Paindabad Exclusive - What Makes Pakistanis Laugh</a></strong><br />Paksitan's celebrated writer Bina Shah investigates<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/10/special-survey-what-do-young-americans.html">Special Survey - What Do Young Americans Think of Pakistan</a></strong><br />Pakistanis in the perceptions of their greatest ally; by Raymond Lee<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/time-out-karachi-sunbathing-in.html">Time Out Karachi - Sunbathing in the Metropolis</a></strong><br />Imagine Karachi without its beaches; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/karachis-anarchy-leads-me-to-question.html">"Karachi's Anarchy Leads Me to Question Things” - Interview with Amin Gulgee</a></strong><br />Pakistan’s most celebrated sculptor talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/memories-once-so-many-hindus-lived-in.html"><strong>Memories - Once So Many Hindus Lived in Taxila</strong></a><br />An old lady recounts the time when Pakistan came into existence; by Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/dateline-wagah-pakistan-versus-india.html"><strong>Dateline Wagah - Pakistan Versus India</strong></a><br />Eyewitness report from Ground Zero; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/09/naan-keema-k2-and-cricket-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Naan, Keema, K2, and Cricket in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In love with my land; by Merium H. Kazmi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/m-hanif-raza-mister-borat-of-pakistan.html"><strong>M. Hanif Raza - Mister Borat of Pakistan</strong></a><br />A travel writer too naive to be true; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-indian-intellectuals-cant.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Indian Intellectuals Can’t Accept Pakistan</strong></a><br />Exposing the anti-Muslim attitude of Indian writers like Ramachandra Guha; by Ali Eteraz<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/viewpoint-jiye-gandhi.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Jiye Gandhi</strong></a><br />We need more Gandhians in Pakistan; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/azaadi-at-60-we-pakistanis.html"><strong>Azaadi at 60 – We the Pakistanis</strong></a><br />A young Karachite demands a new not-so-moth-eaten Pakistan; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/writing-columns-often-moves-me-to-tears.html"><strong>"Writing columns often moves me to tears" - Independence Day Interview with Kamran Shafi</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most acclaimed columnists sits down with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/pakistani-riddle-speaking-hindi-reading.html"><strong>A Pakistani Riddle – Speaking Hindi; Reading Arabic</strong></a><br />Making sense of our Pakistani identity; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/08/reading-karachi-understanding-pakistan.html"><strong>Understanding Pakistan in Karachi</strong></a>i<br />A single city defines the ethno-political dimensions of an entire nation; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/exclusive-review-pervez-musharraf-and.html"><strong>Exclusive Review – Pervez Musharraf and the Deathly Hallows</strong></a><br />We’ve read the unreleased book purchased illegally from a Karachi store; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/karachi-chronicle-slow-journey-to.html"><strong>Karachi Chronicle – Slow Journey to Nationhood</strong></a><br />Tracing the nation’s struggle for a common identity; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/time-out-lahore-dancing-smoking-and.html"><strong>Time Out Lahore - Dancing, Smoking and Crashing Out in Pakistan’s Sin City</strong></a><br />Sharing a slice of the most happening city this side of the Indus; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/lahore-karachi-tale-of-two-cities.html"><strong>Lahore &amp; Karachi – A Tale of Two Cities</strong></a><br />Two cities both alike in dignity; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/viewpoint-mr-musharraf-stuck-in-golden.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Mr. Musharraf Stuck in Golden Temple Trap</strong></a><br />Lal Masjid farce is over but it could have devastating results; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/lal-masjid-editorial-flushing-out.html"><strong>Lal Masjid Editorial – Flushing Out the Religious Blackmailers</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s government finally showed its belated courage in dealing with the fanatics; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/07/bina-shah-i-want-to-foster-future.html"><strong>Bina Shah - "I Want to Foster Future Booker Prize Winners"</strong></a><br />Pakistan's most promising young writer talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; interview by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-readers-on-gay-life-in.html"><strong>Letter to the Readers- On Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />In response to accusations of maligning Pakistan's reputation; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/open-secrets-gay-life-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Open Secrets- Gay Life in Pakistan</strong></a><br />It's risky but easy to be a homosexual in this country; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/satire-president-musharrafs-little.html"><strong>Satire - President Musharraf’s Little Khaki Book</strong></a><br />Exclusive excerpts from Pervez Musharraf's new book; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/bapsi-sidhwa-i-wrote-naturally-about.html"><strong>Bapsi Sidhwa: "I wrote naturally about sexuality..."</strong></a><br />The grandmother of Pakistani writing in English talks to <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; special interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/five-things-i-love-about-pakistan.html"><strong>Exclusive - Five things I love about Pakistan</strong></a><br />One of Pakistan’s most respected opinion-makers on the country’s better side; by Irfan 'Mazdak' Husain<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/editorial-pervez-musharraf-gags-media.html"><strong>Editorial – Mr. Musharraf Gags Media, Ruins His Own Legacy</strong></a><br />Can Pakistanis be pushed back to the bad old dictatorial days; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/because-heart-hai-pakistani.html"><strong>Because Heart Hai Pakistani</strong></a><br />A Pakistani, living in America, muses on her land; by Nahal S<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-report-pink-purdah-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Special Report - Pakistan's Pink Purdah</strong></a><br />Two women in love married each other and are now in jail; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-jiye-pakistan.html"><strong>Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Jiye Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Karachi-based photojournalist loves his country and how; by Ameer Hamza<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/book-review-city-of-sin-and-splendour.html"><strong>Book Review - City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore</strong></a><br />Bapsi Sidhwa's Lahore is a lovingly embroidered family heirloom; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/favourite-five-why-i-am-proud-pakistani.html"><strong>Favourite Five – Why I Am a Proud Pakistani</strong></a><br />Khalid Hasan, US correspondent of <em>The Friday Times</em>, lists his reasons.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-editorial-pakistans-soul-is-not.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan’s Soul is Not for Sale</strong></a><br />Searching and finding hope in these anxious times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/chacha-chaudhry-and-papa-pervez.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Chacha Chaudhry and Papa Pervez</strong></a><br />Musharraf blunders, Karachi burns but is Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry all clean; by Gaurav Sood<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/panch-pakistani-power-points.html"><strong>Panch Pakistani Power Points</strong></a><br />An eminent columnist shares his reasons for loving Pakistan; by Ishtiaq Ahmed<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-5-reasons-for-loving-pakistan.html"><strong>Top 5 Reasons for Loving Pakistan</strong></a><br />Explaining the pull in terms of rating and ranking; by Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-heroes-of-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Heroes of Pakistan</strong></a><br />Five Pakistanis who make me proud to be a Pakistani; by Hassan Abbas<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/fiver-for-father-land.html"><strong>Fiver for the Fatherland</strong></a><br />Gosh, I love my Pakistan; by Jawad Zakariya<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-stars-to-pakistan.html"><strong>5 Stars to Pakistan</strong></a><br />Here's why I'm proud of my nation; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pakistan-top-5.html"><strong>Pakistan Top 5</strong></a><br />Freedom, thrill, family, smartness, and girls; by Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/5-best-things-about-pakistan-difficult.html"><strong>5 Best Things about Pakistan – Difficult to List!</strong></a><br />Is there anything beautiful about this country; by Saeeda Diep<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/khyber-pass-memoirs.html"><strong>Khyber Pass Memoirs</strong></a><br />A retired British RAF Pilot discloses ‘Pakistan Paindabad’ was the first Urdu phrase he learnend; by Tony Connane<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/heera-mandi-dream-house-of-whores.html"><strong>Heera Mandi - The Dream House of the Whores</strong></a><br />Midnight excursion in the alleys of Lahore's red light district; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-about-hindus-of-pakistan.html"><strong>New Dawn for Pakistan's Least-Loved Citizens?</strong></a><br />Pakistan has started taking note of its Hindu legacy; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/lahore-sight-seeing-fun-on-road.html"><strong>Lahore Sight-Seeing - Fun on the Road</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Passing instant judgments while driving in Pakistan's great city; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/04/pervez-musharraf-100-percent-superstar.html"><strong>Pervez Musharraf – The 100 Percent Superstar</strong></a><br />Mr. Musharraf’s passion for “percentage-analysis” makes him a unique statesman of our times; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/viewpoint-is-it-okay-for-western.html"><strong>Viewpoint – Should Westerners Visit Pakistan?</strong></a><br />The country has unleashed an ambitious "Destination Pakistan 2007" tourist campaign, but is the place safe; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/basant-photo-essay-kat-gayi-kat.html"><strong>Basant Photo Essay: Kat Gayi, Kat Gayi...Patang Kat Gayi!</strong></a><br />Lahore went rangeela but debate continues on Basant’s legitimacy in Pakistan; Pictures by Usman Ahmed and Viewpoint by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-ardeshir-cowasjee-grand.html"><strong>Interview with Ardeshir Cowasjee - The Grand Old Man of Karachi</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>One of Pakistan’s most respected citizens spills it out – about his beloved city of Karachi.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-outrage-and-unrest-in.html"><strong>Editorial - Outrage and Unrest in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Mr. Musharraf fires a judge and falls in trouble. Here is what he should do next; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/exclusive-photo-essay-spy-camera-at.html"><strong>Wagah Photo Essay - Spying in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>When an Indian, armed with a secret digicam, crossed into Pakistan; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/rang-de-red-spring-time-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Rang De Red - Spring Time in Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Love and longing in the time of "Enlightened Moderation"; Poetry by Ajit Shenoy, pictures by <a href="http://flickr.com/people/manitoon/">Usman Ahmed</a><br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/03/editorial-changing-face-of-pakistan.html"><strong>Editorial – The Changing Face of Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>Is it merely skin-deep; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/viewpoint-culture-shock-in-hip-pakistan.html"><strong>Viewpoint - Culture Shock in Hip Pakistan</strong></a><br />A Lahore girl, living in US, returns home to find a changing society; by Maryam Arif<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-liberal.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "Liberal Parents Allow Arranged Love Marriages"</strong></a><br />How western impact affect inter-generational relations; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-good-girls-not.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan - "Good Girls Not Available"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A non-resident Pakistani recalls his non-dating days in Karachi; an interview<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/samjhauta-express-editorial-give-more.html"><strong>Samjhauta Express Editorial - Give Respect to Pakistani Travelers</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A bomb attack exposed the travails of the traveling citizens; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-in-pakistan-there-are-no-discos.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "There Are No Discos in Lahore"</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A young man discusses the “scene in colleges” and in other "intimate hideouts"; talking with Tehman Lall<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-correct-way.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – The Correct Way</strong></a><br />If you wish to go further, get married; by Usman<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/dating-scene-in-pakistan-i-prefer.html"><strong>Dating Scene in Pakistan – "I Prefer the Oriental <em>Ishq</em>"</strong></a><br />Where do young people meet in Lahore? And how things eased following Musharraf’s takeover; conversations with Raza Rumi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/exclusive-feature-making-love-in.html"><strong>Making Love in Pakistan: An Introduction</strong></a><br />On this Valentine's Week, a special series on the mixed-sex dynamics of the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-survive-taunts-and-sneers-of.html"><strong>How To Survive The Taunts And Jibes Of Pakistani Columnists?</strong></a><br />Reading Pakistani newspaper columns in the times of Pervez Musharraf; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/viewpoint-what-is-wrong-in-being-muslim.html"><strong>Viewpoint – What Is Wrong In Being A Muslim Fundamentalist?</strong></a><br />A Taxila teacher reacts to columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed's interview with <em>Pakistan Paindabad</em>; by Syed Kamran Safdar<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/exclusive-interview-with-ishtiaq-ahmed.html"><strong>Exclusive Conversations with Pakistani Columnist Ishtiaq Ahmed</strong></a><br />An eminent Pakistan-born intellectual on his native country, and on Islam as practiced in his adopted nation – Sweden; Interview by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/photo-report-running-for-pakistan.html"><strong>Photo Report - Running for Pakistan</strong></a><strong><br /></strong>A recent marathon in Pakistan made a political statement of its own; by Usman Ahmed and Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/editorial-pakistan-and-india-will-never.html"><strong>Special Editorial - Pakistan and India Will Never be Friends</strong></a><br />The dividing wall of mistrust between these two nations won't come tumbling down anytime soon; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/01/blocking-blogs-in-pakistan.html"><strong>Blocking Blogs in Pakistan</strong></a><br />While Time magazine makes bloggers the People of the Year 2006, Pakistan government is blocking access to blogs; by Mayank Austen Soofi<br /><br /><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-pakistani-economy-its-time-to.html"><strong>The State of Pakistani Economy – It’s the Time to Party</strong></a><br /><br /><strong>Acknowledgement</strong>: <em>This blogsite is the ongoing consequence of constant inspiration and gentle prodding of my friend Gaurav Sood</em>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8701664392409700527?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-78803094674339579982010-09-26T16:11:00.000-07:002010-09-26T17:16:00.318-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4439611827/" title="Happy Families Are Alike by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4439611827_8a5ee17fa8.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Happy Families Are Alike" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">How are Americans treating him?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">[Interview by Mayank Austen Soofi; pictures by Kazim Aizaz Alam unless specified]</span><br /><br />Are Pakistanis considered pariahs in the world? How is a Pakistani treated in the West, especially the US? <span style="font-style:italic;">Pakistan Paindabad</span> talked to Karachi’s Kazim Aizaz Alam, 25, who is in the US as a Fulbright student. I wanted to know from him if America - thanks to the growth of its ultra-nationalist Tea Party Movement and Islamophobia et cetera - is indeed becoming an intolerant society. Read this interview and find out yourself.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How you managed to get into the US?</span><br />One of my seniors at <span style="font-style:italic;">The News</span>, the newspaper I was working in, got Fulbright scholarship in 2009. I thought of giving it a try. I took two English language tests -- GRE and TOEFL – and scored quite poorly. Still, the Fulbright Commission selected me for the 2010 master’s program. I'll be here for a year.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Where are you living?</span><br />I live in Hamden, which is in the state of Connecticut. The town offers both rural and urban lifestyles. The most striking thing is its greenery and scenic landscape. My landlady once aptly described this place as a “slice of heaven”. I cycle to university every day. On one side of the road is a 600-acre farmhouse that includes a golf course and a polo ground while on the other is the Sleeping Giant State Park, two miles of mountaintop that resembles a sleeping giant.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What are you studying?</span><br /> I am doing Master of Science at Quinnipiac University in Journalism that includes courses on print, TV and radio journalism, besides studies on ethics, society and opinion journalism.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What do you miss about Karachi?</span><br />I want to go back now and stay with my father – he misses me a lot. I miss Javeria, my best friend and wife-to-be. I miss my colleagues and the heated debates we used to have on political issues. I miss office gossip.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What you don’t miss about Karachi?</span><br />It’s poor public transport system. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">It’s your first time in the West? How is this new world?</span><br />Very kind and helpful. I live in a cozy apartment and the landlady’s family is my immediate neighbor. They handed me a fully furnished home. Refrigerator, microwave, stove, kitchen utensils, TV, lamps, food stuff for a week, everything I could need. Free of charge. They gifted me a cycle too. I don’t even have to purchase warm clothes for the approaching winter. One of their family friends has given me lots of winter clothes (that fit me well), which are going to last for the whole season. They invite me for dinner every now and then take me to parties, ice cream parlors, shopping etc. In short, they really care about me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Yeah?</span><br />I had an evening class today and I was at university when it started to rain. I couldn't apparently cycle for at least an hour. It was already 9:00 p.m. And guess what? Mike (my landlady's husband) came in his jeep, put my bicycle in the back and drove me safely to my apartment. My landlady also left home-made delicious dinner in my refrigerator!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">They are nice people.</span><br />Indeed. I never expected an American family could do THAT (sic) much for a stranger from Pakistan. Don't forget that the man behind the failed Times Square bombing bid (Faisal Shahzad) lived in the neighboring town -- and he was a Pakistani. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Are there Indian students too? Have you made friends with them or they have horns on their head?</span><br />On my first day in the University I was sitting in the library when an Indian-looking teenager came to me and said, “Hi”. We hit it off right there. Time is considered the most precious commodity in America, yet this stranger from India took me on a whirlwind tour of the campus and showed me around different departments. Akash was born in Karachi and his family moved to India in the ’90s because of the threats to successful Hindu businessmen from different mafias operating in the city. I was somewhat embarrassed by his kind and cheerful attitude towards me. After all, I belong to the city his family was forced to leave at a few hours’ notice.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How different are Pakistanis when they are abroad than when they are in their country?</span><br />I haven’t interacted with any Pakistanis here so far.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How different is Pakistan from this new world?</span><br />In Pakistan, car drivers don’t stop to let the cyclists go first – in America they always do.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How were you treated at the airport?</span><br />Politely. No one talked to me rudely. No one harassed me. No one bullied me. Immigration officials were all very nice and helpful. And the best thing that happened at the Bradley International Airport, Hartford, CT, was the presence of the host family members who had come all the way from Hamden to receive me in the state capital. I had boarded four planes in 25 hours and was about to faint. It was 10 minutes to midnight when I landed. They drove me to my apartment.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How is the behavior of Americans towards you? Are they eager about Pakistan? </span><br />Everyone is curious about Pakistan. From neighbors to professors, everyone wants to know more and more about my country. Sadly, all that the Americans get to hear about Pakistan in the mainstream media is bomb blasts, Talibanization and terrorism. They ask me about the lawyers’ movement that ousted Pervez Musharraf in 2008. They are often curious about the state of women in South Asia.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What do you wear? What do you eat?</span><br />I wear the clothes I used to wear in Pakistan: Blue jeans, shirts, sweaters and joggers. I miss home food a lot. Breakfast comprises bread with butter and tea. For lunch and dinner, there’s rice and pizza. You know what? Once I’m back in Pakistan, I’ll never touch pizza. I hate it now.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mr Alam (right) in Jinnah's Memorial, Karachi (picture by Mayank Austen Soofi)</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5027315233/" title="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5027315233_e53d716a8d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Somewhere in Quinnipiac University, Hamden</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5027914654/" title="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/5027914654_6dc212ccd3.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Somewhere in Hamden</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5027924346/" title="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5027924346_7ac2551b10.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Somewhere in Hamden</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/5027302315/" title="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5027302315_fd0fc102a6.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Special Interview – Kazim Aizaz Alam, A Young Karachi Man in the US" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mr Alam (left, sitting on the floor) with friends in Karachi (picture by Mayank Austen Soofi)</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4439611827/" title="Happy Families Are Alike by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4439611827_8a5ee17fa8.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Happy Families Are Alike" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-7880309467433957998?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-76020572778052003632010-08-29T21:23:00.000-07:002010-08-29T21:34:14.237-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565675/" title="Jiye Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4458565675_62620ffc32.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Jiye Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><i>Pyaasa for Pakistan.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text by Catriona Luke; picture by Mayank Austen Soofi ]</b><br /><br />I've worked in Mumbai and been in India many times, but have always had an ill-concealed soft spot for Pakistan, which sits in the west of the subcontinent.<br /><br />Pakistan has a much longer history than its three-generational link to 1947 -- it's the land of Gandhara Buddhism, Ashoka and his pillars, the lovely city of Lahore and the archaeological remains of Mohenjo Daro as well as the Indus Valley civilisation. And, like India, it's a land of stunning landscapes, peaceful farming lands and a tight bond between land and people.<br /><br />It is also at this moment a troubled part of the world. Like India, Pakistan has been able to do little about the rising poverty of its rural poor. Unlike India, it has a long way to go to expand the educated middle class which, over the border, has been responsible in great measure for a buoyant and expanding economy.<br /><br />Pakistan trains fantastic lawyers (often called to the Bar in London), doctors, engineers, bio scientists, economists and statisticians, teachers and IT specialists, but they often struggle to find the rewarding careers that would be theirs in the west. However, this is beginning to change, largely due to the return of a young generation of American-educated go-getters.<br /><br />Crucially, the middle classes have also found it difficult to penetrate politics through the National Assembly, where zaminder (landowning) interests and opaque power deals between the army and religious parties predominate. As in India, you need deep pockets and good connections to enter politics. As Salman Rushdie said in Shame (1983): "You can get anywhere in Pakistan if you know people, even into jail."<br /><br />If India mutters about the ever-present "foreign hand" interfering -- with justification, as both the KGB and the CIA have held sway in New Delhi at different times -- Pakistan has it for real.<br /><br />Saudi Arabia's charming export of Wahhabism (latterly in the form of the Taliban and al-Qaeda) has been wreaking havoc in the region for decades, destroying the indigenous and centuries-old subcontinental Sunni Sufi mysticism and putting pressure on Pakistan's courtly and aristocratic Shia intelligentsia as well as its Ahmadi, Hindu and Christian minorities.<br /><br />It would have needed an exceptionally strong, moral, good, worldly and intelligent leader of Pakistan in the 1970s to avoid the lure and trap of Saudi money, which was accepted to improve the country's infrastructure and real estate. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was not it.<br /><br />While Pakistan's international image has suffered immeasurably in the intervening years, I would urge all who love the subcontinent to look past the headlines and the international analysis, and see a country which, for the moment at least, is cut off from its continental neighbour. Here are my own reasons for loving Pakistan:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1.</span> Women are noisily at the centre of Pakistani life. Challenging and vocal, they sit at the heart of the family and have made good progress into professional and political life.<br /><br />Declan Walsh reported the terrible attack on the Ahmadi community in June, and noted that it was three women from different parties -- ANP's Bushra Rehman, MQM's Khushbakht Shujaat and PPP's Farahnaz Ispahani -- led by the former PPP minister Sherry Rehman, who crossed the floor in the National Assembly and made sure the legislature said "no".<br /><br />In human rights and the state's nurturing of all religions and religious minorities, Pakistan has never gone far enough. But with 30 per cent of seats in the National Assembly occupied by women (India has 10 per cent), they are playing a more significant role in the legislature. That may help bring the country back to Jinnah's original ideals of a tolerant, secular nation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2.</span> Pakistan has a line in very attractive men, from old heart-throbs such as Tariq Ali and Imran Khan to a younger generation such as Lahore's most happening export to Bollywood, Ali Zafar.<br /><br />Outlook India recently ran a fascinating piece about the film history of Peshawar: Shashi Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan's families were from this region. I very much hope that Sanjeev Bhaskar won't mind if I put his handsome features down to west Punjab, where his family lived for centuries (his father's ancestral village was Badhoki Gosaiyan).<br /><br />And you will be hard pressed to find sweeter coverage than the respectful and affectionate writing about women in the weekend papers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">3.</span> Pakistan has a varied and lively media, though perhaps not always on the side of the angels. But probably more than India, it has a range of sophisticated English-language newspapers (firmly on the side of the angels), including Najam Sethi's PEN Award-winning Friday Times and Karachi's Dawn. (Their closest competitors in India are Vinod Mehta's Outlook India and the Hindu.) Both are written in classic, poised prose and boast incisive columnists as well as world-class books, arts and cultural coverage.<br /><br />In Mohammed Hanif, Ali Sethi, Mohsin Hamid and Kamila Shamsie, Pakistan has a growing raft of writers (some of them Harvard-educated) who explore political and social themes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">4.</span> The country survives daily life on humour, a curious cross-blend of the subcontinental and something rather like Oxbridge Private Eye. But if in the west the well of ribaldry comes from the misfortune of others, in Pakistan, the humour is rather more subtly how people try to find their way out of that misfortune.<br /><br />It's a richer hoard altogether that provides endless material at social gatherings, as well as for TV star transvestites such as Begum Nawazish Ali.<br /><br />Over the border in India, the vaudeville slapstick of Mr Bean appeals greatly to audiences. Pakistan finds itself closer to Yes Minister.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">5.</span> Pakistanis adore their children: to be born into a settled family in the subcontinent is to enter a very happy world of love and adoration. Only Italians compare in their child-worship. It's not such a strange thing to mention, because in the west there are still hints of Victoriana in our upbringing -- don't talk with your mouth full, don't point, it's rude to stare, say you're sorry.<br /><br />If you're a boy in Pakistan or India, you're on a winning ticket. Not only will be you adored and pampered, but you'll be allowed just as rich an emotional life as the girls. By contrast, British boys are expected to rein it in. Pakistani fathers are proud as Punch of their girls and their ability to outshine the boys with top marks at school and university.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">6.</span> It is a country that thrives on mixed metaphors. So, for those to the west of the border, the song I choose for you is the hauntingly beautiful "Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai" ("What Is This World to Me?").<br /><br />It comes from the film about mistaken identity and lack of life's essentials <span style="font-style:italic;">Pyaasa</span> (Thirsty, 1957), directed by and featuring Guru Dutt, a Hindu whose melancholy perhaps made him an honorary subcontinental Muslim. The melody was written by S D Burman (a Bengali Hindu), the lyrics were written by the Urdu poet Saahir (Abdul Hayee, a Punjabi Muslim) and they were sung by Mohammed Rafi (another Punjabi Muslim). You can watch it here.<br /><br />It's worth remembering that although the song does not have a happy ending, the film does.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-7602057277805200363?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-4419811038478223142010-08-25T10:27:00.000-07:002010-08-25T10:41:57.978-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4926577855/" title="Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/4926577855_664f8b3fd2.jpg" width="500" height="356" alt="Pakistan Floods - Is Indian Media Blacking Out Pakistan’s Worst Natural Tragedy" /></a><br /><br /><i>Pakistan's tragedy doesn't move India.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi; picture by Faisal Mahmood of Reuters; the man is consoling his family members after they returned to find their homes destroyed after heavy floods in Nowshera, located in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, August 3, 2010. ]</b><br /> <br />On the evening of August 16th, 2010, I was in Delhi’s Ambassador Hotel. The Indian capital’s leading opinion makers, including the Prime Minister’s wife, gathered to celebrate the launch of author Khushwnat Singh’s yet another book. If somebody mentioned Pakistan’s harrowing humanitarian flood crisis over cocktails, I did not hear it.<br /> <br />The same night I got this distress e-mail from Navaid Husain, an architect friend in Karachi. “The floods have knocked Pakistan to the absolute bottom. 20 million displaced people. So many houses, schools, roads, bridges, factories knocked out. Loss of so many cattle, goats will push up the price of milk & meat. On the pictures taken by satellite shows so much water all over. Much of this water will stay stagnant & will take months to settle down. Lack of clean drinking water is already causing sickness.” <br /><br />I immediately called Saeeda Diep, my activist friend in Lahore. She had just returned from Amritsar, the biggest city of the Indian side of Punjab, where she had gone to light candles in the border post of Wagah. Diep was shocked that the biggest tragedy of her country was not causing even a whimper with the neighbour. “Except Lahore and Karachi, my entire country is gone. Pakistan is being wiped out. It’s worse than the Indian Ocean tsunami and Haiti quake but for two days I read the Indian newspapers and found nothing, absolutely nothing, on Pakistan’s flood crisis. The Indian news channels were busy bashing Pakistan on terrorism.”<br /> <br />Is it true that Indian media is silent on Pakistan’s worst natural disaster?<br /> <br />"Understandably, there is a considerable coverage of the flash floods in Leh but so little space has been given to a far far greater natural disaster across the western border,” says Andrew Buncombe, the Independent’s Delhi-based Asia correspondent who had just returned from flooded central Punjab. “There may be several reasons for this. One of which is that Indian and Pakistani journalists have difficulties of obtaining visas to visit and work in each other’s countries. However, it does seem as if there is a blind spot within the Indian media towards the current, obvious suffering of the Pakistanis. Instead, the stories that have come out have largely focused on issues such as the weakening of Pakistan’s civilian government, the increased power of the military and procedural difficulties in processing India's donation of $5 million – which, while something, is not a massive amount given the scale of the floods.”<br /> <br />Indian journalists may not agree. “In Hindustan Times, we are carrying 7-8 column space daily on the floods,” says Samar Halarnkar, the Delhi-based newspaper’s editor-at-large. “You can’t do more because your readership doesn’t care about calamities such as floods, unless it’s happening in their own backyard. This is a modern media issue. It’s not about Pakistan. How many people know that Bihar is reeling under a severe drought currently?”<br /><br />I then e-mailed Indian Express columnist Taveel Singh known for her harsh views on Pakistan. “The truth is that there is very little sympathy for Pakistan in India after 26/11,” she wrote referring to terrior attacks in Bombay by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2008. “With the floods in Leh causing considerable loss of life people are more concerned about that. Also you may not be aware that after the Kashmir earthquake Indian construction companies working on rebuilding houses on our side offered their help to the Pakistani government and it was rejected. As far as I know the Indian government's offers of aid this time have also been turned down.”<br /> <br />I checked out the latest issue of India Today, the country’s leading news weekly. There was no story on the floods in its thick 152 pages. The last page, though, had a small anecdote on Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani being an admirer of Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar. The other reference, on page 22, had a weekly column by the magazine’s Editor-at-Large, S. Prasannarajan, in which he blamed the ongoing Kashmir unrest being “played out under the gaze of Pakistan, which has unarguably become the unofficial headquarters of jihad.” <br /> <br />“The fact is that the tragedy has stuck an enemy. The corporate media is there to serve the market or so they say. The market demands jingoism and that they focus on our ‘own problems’, you know ‘Peepli Live’ and Aamir Khan kind of Bollywood subjects,” says Gaurav sood, a Stanford University scholar.<br /> <br />I logged onto the website of Tehelka magazine, known for its activist-ridden stories that dares the establishment by presenting the alternative truth. I searched for the word ‘flood’ and found nothing.<br /> <br />“In Amritsar, I watched the live telecast of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 40-minute-long speech in Delhi’s Red Fort,” says Diep. “If only he had mentioned about our tragedy… just one line on how sad he is… it would have made us Pakistanis think that yes, Indians care.”<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-441981103847822314?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-36511566443422631832010-07-01T22:02:00.000-07:002010-07-01T22:06:45.157-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580653/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4753580653_535f1f41e9.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><i>Requiem for the dead.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />On the night of July 1, 2010, three suicide bombers struck in quick succession at the Sufi shrine of Daata Darbar in Lahore, Pakistan. 35 people died, 175 were injured. I consider the courtyard of this dargah as his home. I have spent a night there. May the loved ones of the dead find comfort in Daata Saheb's love.<br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753583275/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4753583275_e1a72f195b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753583269/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4753583269_46abd677d9.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580649/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/4753580649_8e27576bbf.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580651/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/4753580651_787e3f0405.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580653/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4753580653_535f1f41e9.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580661/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/4753580661_cb6498dcb8.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580663/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4134/4753580663_a157b2bb25.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753580667/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4753580667_b4b97e73a2.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Maula Mere Maula</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4753583283/" title="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4753583283_05ec96ab7c.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sign of the Times - Terror Attack in Daata Darbar, Lahore's Sufi Shrine" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-3651156644342263183?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-81290017447572579472010-05-13T19:54:00.000-07:002010-05-13T20:01:32.767-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468981686/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4468981686_ceed932e8b.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><i>Karachi's coolest cafe.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Most regulars to The Second Floor, or T2F, are young and speak with an American accent. If this were some other city in some other country, T2F would have gone unnoticed. But this pricey café with a rather unimpressive bookstore and an art gallery is unique. There is no other hangout in Karachi — or in Pakistan — that brings such a crowd of writers, poets, painters, filmmakers, musicians, bloggers, book-lovers and trans-gender people to one place. <br /><br />“This is an alternative space,” says Karachi-based author and former editor of the Internet magazine SPIDER Bina Shah whose new novel, <i>A Season For Martyrs</i>, has just been translated into Italian. “It’s not a pro-establishment place. It’s a little subversive.”<br /><br />This isn’t Islamabad or Talibanland. The wall opposite Shah is decked with a painting of two nude men. “It was part of a mural done by the gay artist Asim Butt who committed suicide early this year,” says Sabeen Mahmud, who co-runs T2F. “I have queer people saying to me that this is the only place in Karachi where they feel safe.” <br /><br />Opened in 2007, T2F, operated by — like most things in Pakistan — a non-profit organisation, quickly became the place for Karachi’s cool set to hang out. Urdu poet Zehra Nigah came here to recite her verses on America’s war against terror. A session on Mirza Ghalib attracted an unexpectedly large crowd after the 19th century poet was marketed as ‘the original hippie’.<br /><br />T2F has also held events in the past that were not calculated to please the Pakistani establishment. It invited author Ayesha Siddiqa to talk about her book <i>Military Inc.</i>, an expose on Pakistan’s military institution, screened a film on the country’s missing people while its director was being hounded by the Inter-Services Intelligence. Call it Pakistan’s radical chic spot.<br /><br />This silent chattering class is also the set of people who make up Pakistan’s liberal, urban, globalised civil society – sandwiched invisibly between the politicians, lawyers, the generals and the Taliban-types. The hijab is non-existent in this layer of Pakistani society, but it’s still tucked away from the usual ‘international’ images of a country buttressed by violence and disorder.<br /><br />In the past, Pakistan’s liberal ‘café society’ had more influence than it has now. In Karachi’s rival city Lahore, the now-closed Pak Tea House was an artistic hub frequented by poets and writers such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Saadat Hasan Manto. In Karachi’s Irani cafés, politics was dissected over tea and patties. “A modern successor to old-world cafés, T2F caters to a new generation that has grown up in the so-called ‘liberalism’ of the Musharraf era,” says journalist Beena Sarwar. “Here people come in with their guitars or laptops. They care about the state of the world and also like their coffee well-brewed.” <br /><br />In keeping with T2F’s high-brow USP, TV journalist Insiya Syed is reading a Michael Ondaatje on the terrace. “The impression that Pakistani women come out only in a burqa or a dupatta is bullshit,” says Ms Syed, wearing skin-tight jeans and a t-shirt. “I usually wear jeans to office, which is on the busiest road in Karachi, which I cross ten times a day and no one frowns.” <br /><br />In a city that hosted Pakistan’s first fashion week in 2009, the women wear is coming into its own after years of hibernation called ‘Chaadar and chaardiwari’. Dupatta is no longer necessary. Girls on streets are seen in hipster jeans and long skirts. In evenings, society ladies wear strapless dresses, long flowing gowns and even short cocktail dresses at charity balls and club dinners. Sarongs are popular in beach parties. <br /><br />In Karachi lingo, you are either a ‘Burger’ or a ‘Bun Kebab’. ‘Burger’ kids live in the posh areas of Defence and Clifton, speak accented English, date in Zamzama Boulevard cafés, and party at the secluded ‘French Beach’ on weekends. ‘Bun Kebabs’ live everywhere except in the posh bits of Karachi, speak Urdu-peppered English, hang out at Jinnah’s mausoleum and meet extended relatives for social dos. Burgers feel at home at T2F, Kebabs don’t.<br /><br />T2F’s posh reading tastes come out strongly. “We don’t accept John Grishams,” says Mohsin Siddiqui, a blogger who selects books for the café. “The point of this place is to encourage discussions. Trash literature such as the <i>Twilight</i> series won’t be able to do that. We keep Robert Fisk, not Dan Brown.” Literary snobbery in a country where a book is a bestseller if it sells 5,000 copies. “I wish Pakistan had a Chetan Bhagat and a Shobhaa De,” says Ameena Saiyid, managing director of Pakistan’s Oxford University Press, which, organised the Karachi Literature Festival with the British Council.<br /><br />Wearing an embroidered salwar kurta, graphic designer Tehmina Fatima, is waiting with Ms Syed for a gig to be performed at the T2F by Karachi band, Look Busy, Do Nothing. As she lights up a cigarette, the talk veers towards terrorism. “Yesterday three people died in a blast in Saddar Bazaar but it was not breaking news as the number [of people killed] didn’t reach 30,” says Ms Syed.<br /><br />“Sometimes it gets really depressing and then you come to T2F where you meet people who feel the same way as you. ” Ms Fatima butts in, saying, “You can’t imagine it in other hangouts. There, everyone lives in a bubble and talks about beach parties and boyfriends.”<br /><br />But isn’t that also important? “Yes, sometimes I go to other cafés to talk crappy stuff,” says Ms Syed with a laugh. “It’s a release valve.” <br /><br />Meanwhile the three-member band has swung into action. The pencil-thin Talha Asim is playing the lead guitar. The curly-haired Kayzad is beating his drums so fiercely that the cymbal falls on the floor with a crashing noise. Daniyal, the bassist, stops to look up but then resumes with his guitar. As the evening ends, everyone claps. A few hugs later, they all get into their BMWs. Most probably to the beach.<br /><br /><b>A T2Fite</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4466488320/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4466488320_d9e2f2b69f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Novelist Bina Shah</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468220359/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4468220359_844edbb67a.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Journalist Insiya Syed</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4465746007/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4465746007_05bd09f98d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Graphic designer Tehmina Fatima</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4442772020/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4442772020_960b19060f.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>T2F's co-owner Sabeen Mahmud</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468952758/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4468952758_fc22b41520.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Blogger Mohsin Siddiqui</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468952748/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4468952748_12504f0ebc.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Like-minded T2Fites</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468952754/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4468952754_257d4b541c.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>A fellow T2Fite</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468970308/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4468970308_6f748b015d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Outdoor scene</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468970312/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4468970312_0e0e29d183.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Look busy, do nothing</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4465746013/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2779/4465746013_81e7f2a295.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Are they looking busy?</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468981648/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4468981648_db32e7ee55.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><br /><br /><b>Another world is possible</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4468981692/" title="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4468981692_e46e0b2cd4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary - T2F, Karachi's Coolest Café" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8129001744757257947?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-79158210719576056262010-05-03T18:13:00.000-07:002010-05-03T18:18:11.876-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4449656110/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2788/4449656110_76bf17dd52.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Pakistanis love reading Chick Lit as much as Delhiites. <i>The Delhi Walla</i> discovered it while attending the two-day Karachi Literature Festival. Held on on March 21-21, it was organised by Pakistan's Oxford University Press (OUP) in collaboration with the British Council. <br /><br />In the festival, rather than seeking appointments with novelists and critics, I was more interested in finding out the reading taste of young Pakistanis. So, between the sessions, I caught up with youngsters who said that they feel deeply for novels such as the <i>Twilight</i> series. <br /><br />“I love India’s Shobaa De,” said Falak Abbas, a college student, referring to a bestselling Bombay-based novelist. “She is old and yet looks so sexy and her books are so easy to read.”<br /><br />On the second day, I met Karim Aman, a Master's student of Karachi’s Aga Khan University who has studied Ms De more closely. “When Shobhaa De writes a novel, she brings in certain words which are pregnant with cultural symbols to which ordinary Indians can relate to,” he said. “For instance, she doesn’t translate ‘mirchi’ as ‘pepper’. However, Pakistani writing in English is still evolving. We still are tempted to translate ‘surahi’ into ‘pot’.”<br /><br />Pakistani writing in English is making waves in the global literary circuit. Bestselling novels such as <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i> and <i>A Case of Exploding Mangoes</i> are read widely by Pakistanis who take their reading seriously. But the country has no home-grown trash writers. For instance, Pakistan has no Chetan Bhagat, the wildly popular Indian novelist whose quickies are lapped up by the non-reading youngsters. <br /><br />Quite a few Karachiites were frank in confessing that while they had come to the festival to look at famous authors such as Bapsi Sidhwa and Mohammed Hanif, they don’t care much for reading. “My girlfriend’s Facebook status never says that she is reading a book,” jokes Saquib Shaikh, an engineering student. “Our generation doesn’t read. We don’t like books. Even our university lectures are saved on the laptop.” <br /><br />That said, romantic shairis are popular in Pakistan. Famous verses of great poets such as Ahmed Faraz, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Sahrar Ansari are routinely forwarded as text messages. “Sometimes, we save their entire collected works on our iPhones,” says Sultan Abbas Rajput, a business student. <br /><br />One of the first sessions in the festival was dedicated to a creative writing workshop. Noor Ussana, a literature student and an aspiring poet, had specially come to attend it. “There is currently so much negativity in Pakistan and the world,” she said, referring to the unending terror attacks in her country. “To escape, one draws peace from nature and that’s why I want to write on the secluded world of forests and flowers.”<br /><br />When a college student named Fatima Ansari, who had come to attend the festival, discovered that <i>The Delhi Walla</i> is from India, she said, “You must tell your countrymen that Karachi is as normal as any other city. We have no caves. Yes, there is instability and our parents get worried for us when we go out but we know how to have fun.”<br /><br />Indeed, the popular weekend time out in Karachi is having nightlong parties on the city’s beaches. “French Beach is most prized,” says Saquib. “And when there’s a beach, there’s also booze.” Eh, why care for the books?<br /><br /><b>First day in the fest</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448913797/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4448913797_0e4e515da8.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>Novelist Mohammed Hanif signing copies of his novel</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448038843/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4448038843_002ebda840.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>Shh</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448930205/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4448930205_5f061cce84.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>All ears</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448887455/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4448887455_491f216e69.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>Author Sadia Shepherd</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4449643028/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2771/4449643028_f9d3d1c766.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>Columnist Irfan Husain</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454848318/" title="In Search of Lost Time by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4454848318_5e2fd3e684.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="In Search of Lost Time" /></a><br /><br /><b>Engrossed</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454839986/" title="In Search of Lost Time by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4454839986_f20f3bbf83.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="In Search of Lost Time" /></a><br /><br /><b><i>Friday Times</i> editor Raza Rumi with OUP's Ameena Saiyid</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4466601352/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4466601352_180c6446fe.jpg" width="455" height="500" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>Lost in the literature</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454848342/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2774/4454848342_d08860bf34.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><br /><br /><b>The rest is lit</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4465746017/" title="Karachi Literature Festival by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4465746017_b0618bb540.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Literature Festival" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-7915821071957605626?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-1907643739927667062010-04-27T17:03:00.000-07:002010-04-27T17:26:07.936-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920158/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3300/4557920158_37276d6da2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><i>The world of old books.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Yasir Malik]</b><br /><br />For those of us born and brought up in Karachi, the Sunday Market has been a regular feature for household shopping ranging from ripe tomatoes to buckets and brooms. Given its success, Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has upped the ante by transforming this dusty market into a well organized shopping place with proper paving, security & parking for a hassle free Sunday shopping. Such is the diversity of clientele that one can see rich begums stepping out of their imported cars as well as a family of six somehow saddled on a rickety CD70 bike. Anyway, the purpose of this blog is not to wax lyrical about the Sunday Market in general but about the hidden treasure of old books up for sale in particular.<br /><br />If you are a book lover then maybe we have rubbed shoulders at the Liberty Book Shop or many other glittering shops in the few malls of this city. However, not everyone is privileged to buy books prized at more than the daily wage of most of this country’s population. What to do when the addiction to read is strong but the pocket does not allow a visit to the tempting bookshops in the city? Or what if the desire to get in touch with Mr. Dickens to remind you of English Literature assignments strikes and you would rather read it from an early 20th century edition that carries the smell of history rather than a neatly printed version of the 21st century? The answer is simple. Grab your bike, car, rickshaw or whatever means of transport you would like to employ and head for the Sunday Market.<br /><br />There are quite a few bookstalls at the market but there are some that stand apart. The one run by Hussain Bhai is definitely the best when it comes to offering classic books dating to the early 20th century. He tells me that he has been in this business for 35 years and operates a shop in Khori garden, off I.I. Chundrigarh Road. Most of the classic books are imported from the UK in containers and the books are declared as paper waste and hence attract zero duty by the customs. These are then sold to people like Hussain Bhai who then sifts them and sells them to people like us. <br /><br />I am not sure who in the UK is sending this treasure as trash but I have been able to get a book dated as old as 1917. Another book was a gift to a certain student in form IV for being the first in Latin exam in 1922. Upon researching the school in question, I wrote an email to the headmaster who was very happy to hear of my find and promised to get in touch with the town newspaper and try searching for the heirs of the gent in question. I thought to myself if they were interested in the gent’s life then would they have thrown away his treasured books? Leafing through some of these classic books, one finds odd tid bits like a small chit containing the grocery list inside. Oh what pleasure to go a hundred years in history!<br /><br />There are a number of books on varied subjects available here. Though I personally do not condone pirated books, these are also available in abundance. However to be fair, it would be hypocritical to claim that I did not enjoy some pirated novels in my youth when these were the only things I could afford.<br /><br />Hussain Bhai is a bit sad when I talk to him and says that people in this country do not read. They will spend the whole day in front of the idiot box watching cricket or some insane TV anchor but will not spend 30 minutes reading something that can shape up their character. He asks me to write something to convince people to come down and buy these books. He might not be very educated but he can certainly differentiate his Rudyard Kipling from Anton Chekhov. Can you? <br /><br /><i>[The author was born in Lahore under Mars-speckled skies. He lives in Karachi, where he works for an Oil Major and is one of the geniune booklovers of this world.]</i><br /><br /><b>Turn right</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920120/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/4557920120_e107b0b8cf.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>All piled up</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920108/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/4557920108_1aeef49d53.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>That's Dickens</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920096/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/4557920096_9c18f11651.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Take your pick</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920114/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/4557920114_ee6e941b13.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Mr Shaw's rare edition</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557920124/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/4557920124_7acba0bcc9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Penguin power</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557930498/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/4557930498_bb081b3466.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Looks like pulp</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557930514/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/4557930514_f49203ae36.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Get the Doyle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557930518/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4557930518_0ce18fc146.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><br /><br /><b>Ruined by reading</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4557930522/" title="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3392/4557930522_455f879705.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Guide - Sunday Market, Defence Housing Authority" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-190764373992766706?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-68296803103000248802010-04-23T21:22:00.000-07:002010-04-23T21:27:45.319-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565683/" title="Somewhere in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4458565683_c0787b1d5d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />In Lahore, I pretended to be a Lahori. I travelled in an auto rickshaw. I rode on a bike. I boarded a city bus.<br /><br />As in Delhi, I walked all over the town. I strolled in the Mall Road. I purchased an antique Shakespeare from a second-hand bookstore near Regal Chowk. I had fresh musambi juice at a stall in Hall Road. <br /><br />I watched people play cricket opposite the Tollinton Market building. I saw a biker waving Pakistan’s flag. I stood outside the now-closed Pak Tea House, a legendary café once frequented by great intellectuals. <br /><br />Outside the ticket stall at Shahi Quila, I purchased the Rs 10 ticket that is given to Pakistani nationals, and not the Rs 100 ticket for foreigners. Since we were all brown, the man at the counter didn’t take me as an outsider.<br /><br />At noon, I walked in the shaded corridor of the grand Badshai Masjid and took a siesta in its cool prayer hall. <br /><br />Later, I had Peepal leaves falling on me in the ground around Minar-e-Pakistan. I then took a rickshaw to Lahore Museum where I ordered Pepsi at the canteen. Next, I attended the 79th martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh at Shadman Chowk. <br /><br />I also roamed around in the campus of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan’s most prestigious business institute. I hang out with students who dressed, behaved and spoke like the baba-log Stephanians of Delhi University.<br /><br />While taking photographs on the Mall Road, a cop stopped me and asked for my <i>shinakht</i> (identity). When he discovered that I hold an Indian passport, he asked, “Do you know the trouble between India and Pakistan and still you are so openly taking pictures?” I said, “But I’m your friend.” Satisfied, he let me take his picture. <br /><br />At night, I passed by Lahore’s lovely canal. As part of the Basant season festivities, it was lit up with decorations. There were giant models of lotus flowers floating on the water. At one point I came across the figures of the whirling dervishes of Maulana Rumi. <br /><br />In the end, I went to Bhati Gate and paid my <i>haziri</i> at the sufi shrine of Daata Durbar. Its sprawling courtyard had pilgrims sleeping, praying and sitting meditatively. I was among my own people.<br /><br /><b>Sweet dreams, sir</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565691/" title="Somewhere in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/4458565691_10cfbfa62d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>Jesus!</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565667/" title="Somewhere in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4458565667_ac2bc0795e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The trusting cop</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459351096/" title="Hands Up by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2694/4459351096_d8a3a0a1c8.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Hands Up" /></a><br /><br /><b>Bhagat Singh Zindabad</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459351100/" title="Remembering Bhagat Singh by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2778/4459351100_3a4d58e57c.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Remembering Bhagat Singh" /></a><br /><br /><b>Life at Tollinton Market</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4464395722/" title="Pakistan Diary – At Home in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4464395722_f10f2a2087.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – At Home in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>Pakistan Paindabad</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565675/" title="Jiye Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4458565675_62620ffc32.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Jiye Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><b>The tower of Badshahi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458540259/" title="Old Relic by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4458540259_439faaf97e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Old Relic" /></a><br /><br /><b>Badshahi's shaded corridor</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459308324/" title="Sightseeing by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4459308324_b38cd56873.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sightseeing" /></a><br /><br /><b>That's Shahi Quila</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458519549/" title="Been There, Done That by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4458519549_6ab1acb033.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Been There, Done That" /></a><br /><br /><b>Domestic tourism at the fort</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458519537/" title="Domestic Tourism by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2785/4458519537_1794979cb2.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Domestic Tourism" /></a><br /><br /><b>So Bollywood, Shahi Quila</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458519525/" title="Valley of Flowers by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2758/4458519525_4765d2d799.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Valley of Flowers" /></a><br /><br /><b>Bored of the ruins, Shahi Quila</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458519495/" title="Siesta Hour by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4458519495_6036fb8492.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Siesta Hour" /></a><br /><br /><b>Gone with the wind</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4464395724/" title="Pakistan Diary – At Home in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4464395724_12914bff1e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – At Home in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The second-hand book seller</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4469051698/" title="The Book Seller of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4469051698_f6c3d66440.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="The Book Seller of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The LUMS people</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459288204/" title="Cool Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/4459288204_96fc7a4141.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Cool Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><b>Smoking is OK, LUMS</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459288242/" title="Cool Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/4459288242_1dd29b4f40.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Cool Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><b>Men at work, Lahore Museum</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565705/" title="Somewhere in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4458565705_fd8d722a84.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>Waiting for the bus</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458565719/" title="Somewhere in Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/4458565719_7777836190.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>By the canal side</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459351114/" title="Canal Side by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4459351114_10925be882.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Canal Side" /></a><br /><br /><b>Maula Mere Maula, Daata Durbar</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459356722/" title="Maual Mere maula by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4459356722_fab076ed9b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Maual Mere maula" /></a><br /><br /><b>At home</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454159099/" title="Urban Life by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4454159099_7eb351433e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Urban Life" /></a><br /><br /><b>I love Lahore</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4459351106/" title="Lahore Wallas by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2459/4459351106_b996f6d7b7.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Lahore Wallas" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-6829680310300024880?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-35718823993437586522010-04-15T18:41:00.000-07:002010-04-23T21:24:28.258-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4458584851/" title="The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4458584851_e10529ee3d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Heera Mandi, Lahore’s fabled red light district, is almost dead. Most dancing establishments have shut down. The courtesans no longer pretend to be mere dancers. Operating as full-fledged sex workers, they have set up discrete bases in the city’s other areas where they solicit clients on cell phones. <br /><br />However, tonight as I'm walking in a Heera Mandi street, while the moon is rising above the minaret of the grand Badshahi Mosque, I can hear the music of dholaks and harmoniums, and the tinkling of womens' pajebs (anklets). <br /><br />Stepping into an establishment, I find a lady sitting on a sofa. Her face is gleaming with layers of makeup. Dressed in a parrot-green kurta and mullah shalwar, she is wearing one necklace and two finger rings. On the floor, her musicians are waiting for customers. I try talking to her but she is refusing to tell me her name. She is not saying where she has come from. But now she is getting up to dance for me. She is the last of the Heera Mandi legend.<br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460863819/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4460863819_fb8326b256.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460868939/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4460868939_1d138437c6.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460876149/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4460876149_36bed821f3.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460882491/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4460882491_57aa31954d.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460887463/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4460887463_0e59c99177.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4461670540/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4461670540_16fb82103e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4461677940/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4461677940_e55a7b7930.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460906959/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4460906959_8be54449d6.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><br /><br /><b>The Heera Mandi chronicle</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4460912485/" title="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2771/4460912485_8a8e60393c.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The Dancing Girl of Lahore" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-3571882399343758652?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-81400153336671104882010-04-12T18:24:00.000-07:002010-04-12T18:30:46.985-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454832308/" title="I Love Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2761/4454832308_dba9129700.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="I Love Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />With its sultry days and breezy evenings, Karachi is cosmopolitan like Bombay, class-driven like Delhi and edgy like Baghdad. It is rich, poor, good, bad, beautiful, ugly, generous, mean. <br /><br />Karachi is the city of lights. Karachi is the city of load shedding. Karachi is colonial. Karachi is Islamic. Karachi is the site of terror attacks. Karachi is the site of mushaira sessions. Busy and diverse, Karachi is Pakistan at its best. Violent and divided, Karachi is Pakistan at its worst.<br /><br />Karachi has fiction writers, fashion designers, globetrotting businessmen, TV actors and glamourous socialites. Karachi has Taliban terrorists, underworld dons and gun-wielding thugs. But most people in Karachi are like me and you. They go to offices. They watch films in multiplexes. They download the latest chartbusters on cell phones. They text romance-shayiris to their lovers. They take camel rides on the beach. They go crabbing on the sea. They drink Vodka, snort cocaine and hook up sex dates on the Internet. In daily wear, they wear shalwars as well as shorts. <br /><br />Like people of other cities, Karachiites buy Robert Fisks as well as John Grishams. However, they are most riotous when it comes to the language. Some speak English with an American accent. Some write in classical Urdu. Some think in Baluchi. Some dream in Sindhi.<br /><br />Most Karachiites hate Karachi. Most Karachiites love Karachi<br /><br />Long live Karachi.<br /><br /><b>City of Lights</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454887050/" title="Karachi Lights by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4454887050_e46d761dec.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Lights" /></a><br /><br /><b>Karachi Fried Chicken</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454887018/" title="Karachi Lights by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4454887018_f7b181b379.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Lights" /></a><br /><br /><b>Night out on the beach</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4449993762/" title="Sea View by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4449993762_ed78ac718a.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sea View" /></a><br /><br /><b>Music on the street</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4447997083/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/4447997083_44f4871903.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Just another day</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448654776/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4448654776_6c28cb9f14.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Cool mix</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4444510191/" title="Portrait by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4444510191_fbe758a18a.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Portrait" /></a><br /><br /><b>Don't disturb, I'm thinking</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4442772020/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4442772020_960b19060f.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Karachi sweets</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454887004/" title="Are You Diabetic? by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4454887004_8367e12804.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Are You Diabetic?" /></a><br /><br /><b>Midnight bhangra</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454089015/" title="Midnight Beats by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4454089015_2d4577af19.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Midnight Beats" /></a><br /><br /><b>Family values</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454856478/" title="Family Values by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4454856478_53c8c3f0f6.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Family Values" /></a><br /><br /><b>Don't tell my dad</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454856468/" title="Karachi Kids by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2684/4454856468_be3c8a1264.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Kids" /></a><br /><br /><b>I love Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4454832316/" title="I Love Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4454832316_620da42c81.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="I Love Karachi" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8140015333667110488?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-15320304483597716262010-04-09T15:10:00.000-07:002010-04-12T18:30:33.198-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448731856/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4448731856_9a7c2ff838.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Mazar-e-Qaid. Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah lies buried here. I'm accompanied by Asim Ghani, a Delhi-born Karachiwalla.<br /><br /><i>On the eve of Pakistan’s first Independence Day anniversary (August 14th, 1948), the founder of Pakistan, weighed only eighty pounds. He was seriously ill and was being looked after by his devoted sister Fatima and a team of doctors - not in Karachi, Pakistan’s then capital where Mr Jinnah had his official residence, but in Quetta in Baluchistan.</i><br /><br />At the entrance, the guard warns us not to take pictures of women. Nearby is a food stall selling Pepsi and burgers. "What a beautiful place Delhi must be," says Mr Ghani. "Is Rajghat (where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated) also like this?"<br /><br /><i>Lying in bed quiet all day, Mr Jinnah was surviving on a few cups of tea, coffee and plain water to swallow his pills. Both his lungs had been consumed by tuberculosis and lung cancer. When the doctor examined his pulse, he found that every tenth or fifteenth beat was missing. Mr Jinnah who was used to smoke an average of fifty Craven A cigarette daily was asked to reduce the intake to just one.<br /><br />The doctors suggested him to move to Karachi. Mr Jinnah desired otherwise. He did not want his Karachi staff to see him being taken around in a stretcher. “Don’t take me to Karachi on crutches,” Mr Jinnah said. “I want to go there when I can walk from the car to the room. You know, from the porch you have to pass the A.D.C’s room and then the Military Secretary’s before you reach mine. I dislike being carried on a stretcher from the car to my room.”</i><br /><br />The Qaid-e-Azam's tomb is in the middle of a large grassy ground. It looks like Delhi’s Lotus Temple, minus the petals. But why is the path so badly lit? “Load shedding,” says Mr Ghani. <br /><br /><i>By September, Mr Jinnah needed an oxygen mask to breathe. He also caught pneumonia. He had to be flown to Karachi.<br /><br />At 2 pm on September 11th, a Viking plane took off from Quetta carrying a feeble Mr Jinnah to the nation's Capital. A bed had been made up in the front cabin and oxygen cylinders and gas masks were kept at hand. The plane landed after about two hours at the Air Force base at Mauripur. This was the same place where Mr Jinnah had arrived from New Delhi about a year ago to take over the reins of the new Pakistan. There were thousands who had come to greet him then. But on September 11, there was no one at the airport.</i><br /><br />As we walk we spot a man in shalwar kurta sleeping under a lamppost. Nearer to the building we find groups of Pathan men huddled together on the lawn. A song from the Bollywood film <i>Silsila</i> is playing somewhere. Hawkers are selling potato chips and fruit juices. <br /><br /><i>Mr Jinnah was carried into an army ambulance, which then sped south of the highway towards Karachi. After about four or five miles, the ambulance came to a stop. There was a breakdown due to some engine trouble. It could not start. The afternoon was humid, the September heat was oppressive and flies buzzed around Mr Jinnah’s face. He had no strength left to brush them off though his sister Fatima helped by fanning him. Meanwhile Mr Jinnah’s pulse started becoming weaker and irregular even as hundreds of cars, trucks and buses rumbled by. The highway was lined with huts belonging to refugees who had come from India. They had no idea that their Qaid-e-Azam lay dying right there on the road.<br /><br />One hour passed this way.</i><br /><br />The main platform is reached by climbing a flight of stairs. A few guards are standing erect outside the four entrances to the tomb. Inside, the hall is washed in a greenish light. A huge chandelier is hanging over Jinnah’s grave. <br /><br /><i>Finally another ambulance came and Mr Jinnah reached the governor-general’s mansion at 6.10 pm. Four hours and ten minutes later he was dead. The last word he uttered was to his sister Fatima – ‘Fati’.</i><br /><br />Mr Ghani is visiting Jinnah’s mausoleum after 32 years. “Isn’t it a nice building?” he says. “Wasn’t Jinnah a good man?”<br /><br /><i>Mr Jinnah's remains, weighing seventy pounds, were buried the next day, covered in a simple shroud.</i><br /><br /><b>The traditional view</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4447971847/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/4447971847_e5befb894f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><b>Hello, Mr Jinnah</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4448715242/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4448715242_85bec53b06.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><b>Saying a little prayer for you</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4447933991/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2708/4447933991_b51f1f2285.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><b>Your glory, Your heritage</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4447919411/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4447919411_32abce782b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><b>Jiye Jinnah</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4447926511/" title="Jiye Jinnah by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2777/4447926511_4d76c873bc.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Jiye Jinnah" /></a><br /><br /><b>Mr Ghani</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4449752246/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4449752246_dd66b456a3.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-1532030448359771626?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-61746608032410154662010-04-04T05:30:00.000-07:002010-04-04T05:37:31.596-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4445269780/" title="Somewhere in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2714/4445269780_c2c5d29313.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Somewhere in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />It is 7 am. The room is lined with old paperbacks. Tiger, the house dog, is looking out of the grill into the garden. Rosemary, the maid, is calling me for breakfast. But I’m listening to the sound of birds.<br /><br />This is a friend’s bungalow in a Karachi neighbourhood called PECHS. The friend is in Lahore and this big house - with its three staff members and thousands of books – is feeling like my one-room staffless apartment in Delhi.<br /><br />Soon the day will grow warmer and I will venture out. Although this is a foreign country and the city is reluctant to share its secrets with a week-long visitor, I’m bent on making it accept me. <br /><br />I'm trying to catch up with its rhythm since the evening I landed in Jinnah Terminal. In Defence Housing Authority’s T2F cafe, I listened to a gig by the band ‘Look Busy, Do Nothing’. In Zamzama Boulevard, I dined at Copper Kettle. In a Clifton bungalow, I met fashion designer Umar Sayeed. <br /><br />A day ago, I had lunch in the book-lined house of a poet whose living room was decked with paintings by MF Hussain. Later I took an afternoon nap in the poet’s guestroom. The bedside table had the Urdu hardbound of <i>The Complete Poems of Mirza Ghalib</i>. On the shelf, I spotted: <i>The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova</i>.<br /> <br />That night I stood outside the heavily-secured Bilawal House, the Karachi residence of the Bhutto dynasty. A few minutes later I was purchasing Hillary Mantel’s novel <i>Wolf Hall</i> at the Liberty Bookstore in Clifton.<br /><br />However, this is not enough. I want to meet people in the streets, eavesdrop on the conversations in the chaikhanas and buy books at the second-hand bookstalls. But I’m told Karachi is an unsafe city. The well-meaning Karachiwallas have adviced me that:<br /><br /><i>Don’t take out your cell phone in streets.<br />Don’t dangle the camera around your neck.<br />Don’t go out accompanied.<br />Don’t talk to strangers.</i><br /><br />Concerned friends watch over me. They demand to know where I'm going and whom I will be meeting. One friend’s car drops me. Another friend’s car picks me up. I'm being constantly watched.<br /><br />Yesterday evening I escaped. I walked freely. I had French fries from a street stall in I. I. Chundrigar Road. I ordered Coca Cola at Khairabad café in Shaeen Complex. I sat at an empty bus stop opposite the Supreme Court. At the Empress Market in Saddar, I took pictures of hazrats and smiled at khawatins.<br /><br />In the night, I took an auto-rickshaw for back home. The driver had a beard. His head was turbaned. He said he was from Swat, in the northern region of Pakistan. Was he a Taliban militant? <br /><br />The driver took the rickshaw to unlit streets. He drove past abandoned parks. After half-a-dozen turns – left and right, he stopped the rickshaw at an intersection and walked to a man standing under a lamppost. They talked for a few minutes and then they both looked towards me. Would I be kidnapped? The driver returned and we again resumed our journey. He said that he has lost the way. After ten minutes, the rickshaw crossed a road that I recognized. “This is Khushal Road,” I exclaimed. Soon we stopped outside the friend’s bungalow. The driver said, “Son, God is great.”<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-6174660803241015466?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-82206631481085447142010-03-27T19:10:00.000-07:002010-03-27T19:16:07.489-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4440404000/" title="Portrait by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4440404000_f3fae0b7e9.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Portrait" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Reeling under unending terror attacks, Pakistan hosted its first major literary event on March 21, 2010. The budget of Karachi Literature Festival was less than the film-signing amount charged by Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor, whose face is seen in billboards all over Karachi. “We are doing it in Rs 50 lakhs (Pakistani rupees),” says Ameena Saiyid (see picture), managing director of Pakistan’s Oxford University Press, which is organizing the event in collaboration with the British Council. <br /><br />Ms Sayid hit upon the idea of hosting such a carnival after attending the fourth Jaipur Literature Festival in 2009. “I had never before seen such a big gathering of writers at one place,” she says. “When I returned to Karachi and discussed the possibility of having a similar kind of event, not one person was discouraging.”<br /> <br />The two-day festival saw 50 authors from Pakistan, India, the US and the UK. They included Bapsi Sidhwa, Muhammed Hanif, Kishwar Naheed, Mohsin Hamid, Sadia Shepard, Fauzia Syed and Fahmida Riaz. India’s presence was marked by only two Urdu writers, though many were invited. “William Dalrymple (the co-organiser of the Jaipur festival) is not coming because the date is clashing with his birthday,” says Sayid. <br /><br />From south Karachi’s Carlton Hotel, the mostly Pakistani origin novelists, poets, playwrights and newspaper columnists hoped to divert the world attention to the other Pakistan. “Our nation has come to be identified with Taliban and terrorism,” says Ms Saiyid. “But there is more to the country.” Karachi-based columnist Irfan Husain who will be moderating a session says, “This festival will help in dispelling the notion that Pakistan is just full of the military and mullahs. The world will realize that the country has readers, writers and other people living normal lives and that the current terrorism, hopefully, is a passing aberration.”<br /> <br />In a country where a book is a bestseller if it sells 5,000 copies, the reading culture is hardly vibrant. ‘Bestselling’ novelist Mohsin Hamid will not be mobbed if he goes for a coffee in Karachi’s fashionable Zamzama Boulevard. “For millions of people even a cheap book costs double their daily wage. Millions more can't even read because we never bothered to educate them. So reading is mostly a pastime for a middle class minority who some how acquired the habit at an early age,” says Mohammed Hanif, the author of the international bestseller <i>A Case of Exploding Mangoes</i>.<br /> <br />“The reading scene was more depressing till some time ago,” says Junaid Zuberi, a financial analyst in Karachi’s posh Clifton neighbourhood, who describes himself as a lover of arts and literature. “There weren’t many readers. Bookshops were closing down. Libraries could be counted on fingertips. The arrival of the Internet further dampened the book-reading culture.” However, publishers are now taking more initiatives to organize literary gatherings through book launch parties. Karachi has also seen the opening of a few literary cafes that hold at least one book-related event every week.<br /> <br />"Pakisan had a thriving popular fiction scene in the seventies but that is being replaced by political rants and pseudo-religious texts,” says novelist Hanif. “Islamic publishing is going through a boom period. You can find books on Islamic medicine, Islamic banking, Islamic parenting... But I have seen some young people who are very very keen readers and I keep hoping there'll be more of them.”<br /> <br />The domestic readers may be indifferent to the Pakistani authors writing in English, but they are becoming a rage in the global literary circuit. Short story writer Daniyal Mueenuddin is regularly published in the prestigious <i>New Yorker</i> magazine. Journalist Ahmed Rashid is a fixture in <i>The New Yorker Review of Books</i>. Young novelists such as Ali Sethi have become the darlings of the Western press that is hungry to know more about the inner life of a country frequently described as “the world’s most dangerous place.” In the Jaipur Literature Festival held in 2010, Sethi was flooded with interview requests from American journalists. In fact, he won’t be able to make it to Karachi due to his book promotional tour in the US.<br /> <br />Perhaps it is the renewed interest in the country that Pakistan’s Diaspora writers have started returning to the country. Daniyal Mueenuddin whose stories subtly unravel the life of the feudal society graduated in the US but now he runs a farm in rural Punjab. In 2008, Muhammed Hanif returned to Karachi after 12 years in London. “Our writers are coming home to find stories and collect materials so they can present themselves to the West as insiders,” Saiyid says. “The credibility is not the same if they write from abroad.”<br /> <br />Since the festival was planned on a short notice and lacks any government or corporate sponsorship, it didn’t even have a PR firm to do its publicity. In a bookstore in Karachi’s glitzy Dolmen Mall, browsers were unaware of it. “Not one of us knows about it,” says Yumna Zia, a business student of the city’s Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology who had come to buy books with college friends. “But the idea is good.”<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-8220663148108544714?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-7870196713125652852010-03-24T15:27:00.000-07:002010-03-24T15:36:44.428-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4438319132/" title="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2654/4438319132_11f9e08402.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><i>A trip to the fatherland.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /> <br />I’m standing outside McDonald’s at Park Towers shopping mall. The sea wind is breezy. The evening traffic is moving at a snail’s pace. Suddenly, a bearded man comes running from Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Park, just across the road. A blinding flash of light. A huge bang. <i>Bum phatt gaya</i>. All is black. Am I dead?<br /> <br />This is my first evening in Karachi. The Pakistan International Airlines A-320 airbus landed at Jinnah Terminal at 5 pm. Two hours later, at the most, I should have been killed in a bomb blast. The evening before I flew to Karachi, a friend in Jorbagh had hugged me tight. She asked for my parents’ contact details so that she could attend the funeral once my dead body is flown back to Delhi. The week before when I finalized my trip to Karachi, my parents were puzzled by my sudden 'suicidal mood'. Other acquaintances shrugged their shoulders in resignation and said, “Be careful.”<br /> <br />Pakistan is described in the international media as the world’s most dangerous country. Karachi, its financial capital, is considered a focal point of various conflicts: ethnic, religious and political. Worshipers are killed in the mosques. Bombs go off in 5-star hotels. Commuters are robbed at gunpoint in traffic lights. <br /> <br />As I was going out to soak in the city lights, my host told me: “Don’t be adventurous. Pakistan is under siege.” <br /> <br />An hour later, over fish fillet with tarragon sauce, a friend said, “Oh no, it’s not like that. Yes, we must be careful. But life goes on.”<br /> <br />We were dining at an art-house café called Koyal, in Defense Housing Authority, an upscale neighborhood in south Karachi. On one table, young women were smoking cigarettes with their male friends. On another, a society diva was lording over her wide-eyed admirers. The restaurant manager, a woman in black trousers and white jacket, was cheerily bossing around her team of very professionally-trained stewards.<br /> <br />This could have been any hip place in Delhi, Bombay or Bangalore. But this was Karachi in Pakistan. I wanted to get up from my table, shake the shoulders of these stylish diners and ask them, “Aren’t you afraid that bombs can go off here? Why are you risking your lives? Why not eat at home?”<br /> <br />Later the friend drove me through Zamzama Road, the glittery district famous for its showrooms and cafés. Whooshing past the walled mansions of Old Clifton, he showed me the ‘massage boys’, or ‘men prostitutes’, sitting discreetly on the roadside. A little later he pointed out 70, Clifton, which was the residence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s most charismatic politician. The friend then took me to the sufi shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in the same locality. He later talked of taking me to farm-house bashes and beach parties later in the week. He talked of Clifton Bridge and Kala Pul, the landmarks that divide the snobbish part of the city (Clifton and Defense) from the rest. <br /> <br />The day ended uneventfully. I was still not dead. Karachi seemed like just any boring international metropolis. But is it really like any other city? I will soon find out.<br /><br /><b>A mastkalandar</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4438308464/" title="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4438308464_713b8a4544.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>The café crowd</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4438319138/" title="IMG_0407 by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4438319138_24091064fc.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_0407" /></a><br /><br /><b>Abdullah Shah Ghazi's sufi shrine, Clifton</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4438308446/" title="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2741/4438308446_c01bf9d45e.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi" /></a><br /><br /><b>Happy in Pak</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4438308454/" title="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4438308454_09cf7b23e9.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Pakistan Diary – The First Evening in Karachi" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-787019671312565285?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-91636689022007046972010-02-21T06:07:00.000-08:002010-02-21T06:30:40.249-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4375235139/" title="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2696/4375235139_a9f1200b25.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg" /></a><br /><br /><i>A Karachite’s passion for Hindustani classical.</i><br /><br /><b>[By Junaid Zuberi]</b><br /><br />For the last few years, Pakistan's name has become synonymous with fanaticism, religiosity, Taliban and terrorism. To outsiders, the country may appear as a haven of hate-mongers and terrorists. But all is not wrong.<br /> <br />Amidst the mayhem, some people are trying to keep the colors of life bright and shiny. One such person is Saffia Beyg, affectionately called Saffia Apa. Her sole mission in life is to promote classical music as our cultural and musical heritage. <br /> <br />At 77, Saffia Apa is single-handedly doing what many deem unthinkable. But before I delve into her current passion - Sampurna - let me give you her brief background. Born and brought up in Burma, Saffia was 20 when she married Sa chemical engineer in Bombay. After a few years, the couple moved to Karachi. Saffia Apa's husband joined a private enterprise and she too started working to help the family settle down in the new city. With her Burmese upbringing, Saffia Apa was totally alien to Urdu and Hindustani classical music. However, music was a part and parcel of her life. Heavily into western music, she played guitar and often sang.<br /> <br />It was when Saffia Apa was 40 that she met Ustad Hamid Husain, a well-known sarangi nawaz. His music changed her life. She said adios to western music and started learning Indian classical from her Ustad. Barely three years after she had begun, her Ustad died. However, he had given Saffia Apa enough taste of Hindustani classical for her to find her own way into the world of tals and ragas. Saffia Apa began listening to the great maestros such as Ustad Amir Khan, Parveen Sultana and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and improvised her singing on her own. All throughout this period, she kept her search for an Ustad but to no avail. <br /><br />During Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government in the 1970s, Saffia Apa was made in charge of Pakistan Academy of Performing Arts in Karachi that she ran successfully for six to seven years till the Islamist government of General Zia disbanded it. She continued her musical pursuit nevertheless. <br /> <br />In 1999, Saffia Apa formed an organization - Sampurna (seven notes that completes a raaga) - at her home. The idea behind Sampurna was to introduce classical music to Karachi, promote and preserve classical music, musicians and instruments as our artistic heritage and save this art from dying. Quite an uphill task! But Saffia apa is one person who doesn’t believe in giving up. <br /><br />Since inception, Sampurna has been organizing monthly programs based on classical music. These include vocal recitals, instrumental performances, video presentations, lecture demonstrations, ghazal and qawwali singing and classical dance etc. Through Sampurna, Saffia Apa not only promoted established musicians from Pakistan and India but also gave a platform to lesser-known but talented local musicians whose bread and butter is their music.<br /> <br />Since Sampurna aims at promoting classical music and musicians, Saffia Apa made it a policy to pay every artist well. Using Sampurna's platform, she embarked upon a program of providing sustainable financial aid to deserving artists and their families, focusing specially on the education and health of musicians' children. She coordinated with other organizations like the Infaq Foundation and SAARC Womens Association to help in this program of economic sustenance for the musicians.<br /> <br />Till date, Sampurna has hosted over 120 programs in Karachi, all based on Hindustani classical music. In its eleventh year, the organization is carrying on without any financial help from any government or private enterprises. Contributions from members form the only source of finance that helps Sampurna move from one event to the other. <br /><br />Saffia Apa’s friends had told her that she was flogging a dead horse, but that did not deter her. Thank God for that. It is because of people like her that our musical heritage is alive still. But Sampurna needs active support from all those who believe in the cause to continue. Saffia Beyg and Sampurna can be contacted through the website <a href="http://www.sampurna.org.pk/">www.sampurna.org.pk</a>.<br /><br /><i>[This appreciation was exclusive written for</i> Pakistan Paindabad<i>.]</i><br /> <br /><b>A Sampurna concert</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4375235133/" title="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4375235133_10ece64a2a.jpg" width="500" height="353" alt="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg" /></a><br /><br /><b>A Sampurna concert</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4375235129/" title="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4375235129_d722e09df7.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg" /></a><br /><br /><b>Saffia Apa</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4375235123/" title="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4375235123_a2f46706a4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Karachi Scene – The Musical World of Saffia Beyg" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-9163668902200704697?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-41342837654567405232010-02-17T20:20:00.000-08:002010-02-17T20:32:34.529-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3236522298/" title="Portrait by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3381/3236522298_48ae6cfa6d.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Portrait" /></a><br /><br /><i>Three cheers for Pak-lit.</i><br /><br /><b>[First reported by UK's <i>The Independent</i> newspaper Asia correspondent Andrew Buncombe, it first appeared <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/new-karachi-literary-festival-hopes-to-turn-page-on-bombs-1903018.html">here</a>; picture is of the Pakistani writer Nadeem Aslam]</b><br /><br />Amid a booming interest in Pakistani writing, the sprawling and often chaotic city of Karachi is poised to host its first literary festival.<br /><br />Just months after the city held its first fashion show – an event at which the organisers spoke of their desire to cock a thumb to the fundamentalists who more often dominate Pakistan's headlines – Mohammed Hanif, the author of the critically acclaimed <i>A Case of Exploding Mangoes</i>, will headline an international festival showcasing Urdu and English writers.<br /><br />"Karachi is a huge city. It probably needs a dozen literary festivals and although there are lots of poetry readings, book launches and an annual Urdu literary conference, it's about time it had an international literary festival," said Mr Hanif. "We want to tell the world that Karachi is not just about what you read in the headlines, there are people here who read and write books."<br /><br />Karachi is Pakistan's largest and most diverse city, frequently plagued by religious and political turmoil, and those headlines will not go away. This week it was in the spotlight when it was revealed that the Taliban's military leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been seized by Pakistani and US operatives in a slum on the city's edge.<br /><br />But Hanif and his collaborators have a different vision of the city. Their venture means Karachi will become the latest in a number of Asian cities that host increasingly high-profile festivals, with best-selling authors participating in talks and discussions at locations ranging from Shanghai to the Sri Lankan port of Galle. One of the best known, held every January in Jaipur, is organised by the British historian William Dalrymple.<br /><br />Indeed, the organisers of next month's event in Karachi hit upon the idea after attending last year's festival in Jaipur, which has itself highlighted a number of Pakistani writers. While the programme has not yet been finalised it is understood that Ali Sethi, Mohsin Hamid and the British-based Pakistani writers Nadeem Aslam and Aamer Hussein are to take part.<br /><br />Raheela Fahim Baqai of the Oxford University Press in Karachi, which is putting on the event with the support of the British Council, said: "We have got international recognition for some of our writers writing in English, but the Urdu tradition also has such rich literature. A number of our sessions will be in Urdu. In the future, it could be that we are also looking at Sindhi and Punjabi writing."<br /><br />News of the festival comes at a time of mounting interest in Pakistani literature. The trend was perhaps sparked by the publication in 2007 of Hamid's novella, <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i>, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. That was followed by Hanif's dark <i>A Case of Exploding Mangoes</i> and a collection of short stories, <i>In Other Rooms, Other Worlds</i>, by Daniyal Mueenuddin. A copy of the latter was given to the US President, Barack Obama, by his regional envoy Richard Holbrooke, who said of the collection of interwoven stories: "It's beautiful." Meanwhile, Kamila Shamsie, whose fifth novel, Burnt Shadows, was published last year, has also received international acclaim.<br /><br />For a long time, Pakistani literature was overshadowed by that produced by Indian writers such as Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh. But regional publishers say the current buzz in regard to the new crop of Pakistani authors is similar to that about Indian writing a decade ago.<br /><br />Ravi Singh, head of Penguin India, which also distributes in Pakistan, said: "I think it is just one of those things. I think that it has acquired a critical mass. This has been the buzz for a year now." Some say the explosion in writing may have been helped by the growth in media in Pakistan that has taken place as a result of liberalisation after 2002. But Hanif disagrees.<br /><br />"I don't think lack of freedom ever stopped writers and other creative artists in Pakistan. In fact, some of the best literature in Pakistan has been produced during the worst military dictatorships," he said. "The boom... is basically half a dozen writers getting published worldwide, winning awards and getting good reviews. And because they write in English, in a globalised world they get much more attention than their counterparts writing in Urdu or Punjabi or Pashto. But I do hope they are getting this attention, because they are telling some good stories."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4134283765456740523?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-43547643999077747402010-02-13T19:37:00.000-08:002010-02-14T04:47:57.121-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4355423958/" title="Two Indians in Isloo by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4355423958_a24d99b70b.jpg" width="500" height="421" alt="Two Indians in Isloo" /></a><br /><br /><i>They are blogging on life in Pakistan.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />When London-based writer Peter Mayle rented a cottage in the south of France, he came out with a passionate memoir full of wine, cheese, truffles and the mistral. In October, 2007, two Delhi-based writers rented a house in the north of Pakistan. They have come out with a passionate blogsite that is… not full of Kashmir, Taliban, Zardari or anything else that you read on Pakistan in most websites and blogs.<br /><br />Set up in February, 2010, by an Indian couple in Islamabad, <i> <a href="http://indiansinpakistan.blogspot.com/">The Life and Times of Two Indians in Pakistan</a></i> is a diary of how two intelligent and sensitive people – in possession of some gentle humor – are making sense of a country, which many of their countrymen think is the root cause of all evil. The bloggers – Lamat and Rezaul Hasan – have no agenda to propose except to share the little nuggets of daily life in Pakistan’s capital. One of them is the Pakistan correspondent of an Indian news agency.<br /><br />In an e-mail interview with <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>, Lamat said, “We started this blog because we wanted to document our experiences which we think are unique. It's also a fun way to connect with friends and family, who always worry about us having to "live in (arguably) the most dangerous part of the world". We also want to shatter stereotypes about Pakistanis, their lives, and fill them in on the pluses and minuses of being Indian in Pakistan.”<br /><br />Each blog post (the blogsite shows ten at the time of writing this review) is deceptive simple: taking out the little nieces of domestic helps to Pizza Hut; bringing home a cat (and asking her if she is an Indian or a Pakistani); riding a scooty; spotting the bootleggers. Chattily written, these posts provide a peek into the Other Pakistan, a land where real people tumble through joys and concerns that won’t be out of place in Delhi, Dallas, Dublin or Durban. <br /><br />This must not be misunderstood as if the bloggers are inside a steel bubble. They are not out of touch with certain realities that unfortunately makes Pakistan unique in the community of nations. Scroll down the site and you would discover that these Indians are regularly followed by “shalwar-kurta clad, Yamaha-riding shadows”. Once a musical soiree in a diplomat’s drawing room was interrupted by a bomb blast that took place not far away in the town.<br /><br />Such cheerless affairs are not ignored. These expats don’t crib, don’t complain – they cope with it, like the Pakistanis. The dismal facets are presented the way in which people experience them in real life. Almost all the followers of this site are Pakistanis.<br /><br />With a photo gallery on the right-side bar, the blogsite offers a visual sense of the place. If the images focus less on sunsets and countryside and more on streets and people, the browsing experience would be richer. The absence of picture captions is felt. But this is a minor squabble. A few more months, or even weeks, and indiansinpakistan.blogspot.com may emerge as one of the must-read blogs on the Alternative Pakistan. <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> is already smelling a book deal.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4354764399907774740?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-46094572391448299182010-02-04T18:26:00.000-08:002010-02-04T18:54:26.380-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4331750180/" title="Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?” by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4331750180_bd971cea55.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Viewpoint - “And How are Things For You as a Woman?”" /></a> <br /><br /><i>Novelist Sehba Sarwar in a round table conversation.</i><br /><br /><b>[This discussion is a part of virtual round table discussion between three writers from Pakistan, Nigeria and Philippines that is taking place on the webforum, <a href="http://www.mantlethought.org/">The Mantle</a>. Click <a href="http://www.mantlethought.org/roundtable/pens-and-swords">here</a> for more meat; picture by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/40774343@N04/">Partylicious</a>]</b><br /><br />“A woman’s body is no longer her own after she becomes pregnant,” says the protestor as she pickets outside the Planned Parenthood headquarters in Houston, USA. “It’s our job to give women other options.” She looks straight in my eyes. “I know a girl who went into Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test, and she was forced to have an abortion.”<br /><br />The woman pauses. When she speaks again, her voice is lower. “I mean, we’re here to tell women there are other choices. If they choose to go with us, we take them to get tested. We walk them through their pregnancy. Once the child is born, we make sure that a healthy family adopts the child. And the woman can go on with her own life. That’s our duty. And that’s the duty of the mother who bears a fetus.”<br /><br />“And what if the woman was raped?” I ask.<br /><br />The protestor widens her eyes: “Like I said, we promise to look after the woman until the child is born. After that, she can carry on with whatever she was doing before. Just because wrong was done to her doesn’t mean that she takes another life.”<br /><br />The protester is part of a group of Christian extremists who gather each year for 40 days prior to Easter to protest against Planned Parenthood. On this particular Tuesday morning, there are only a dozen or so men and women holding up posters and walking the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood’s fenced entrance on Fannin Street. Most Saturday mornings—when many of the abortion services are provided—the protestors assemble in large droves, and patients have to be escorted through epithets and rants before they can reach the building safely. Planned Parenthood is one of the few health agencies that provides not only abortion services (which comprise only five percent of their overall health services), but also affordable health care for everyone. All Planned Parenthood clinics, however, are subjected to extremist protestors.<br /><br />Almost 40 years ago, a landmark ruling was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court; it gave women in this country the right to choose to bear a child. Today, the battle is still not over, as each year more doctors who provide abortion services have either been killed, threatened to be killed, or have simply been pushed out of communities. Over the last decade—nearly all of which was presided over by former President George W. Bush—providing abortion services became an increasing challenge. In Texas, abortion services are only available in seven percent of the state’s 254 counties. Each year, across the U.S., abortion laws are getting increasingly tighter, and slowly, the battle won in 1973 is losing ground, as has been seen in recent months with the so-called Stupak “amendment.”1<br /><br />This past fall, I was invited to serve on the Board of Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. It was a difficult decision to make, mostly because my life is very full: I have an active writing career; I serve as Founding Director for Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB), an activist arts organization in Houston for which I create multidisciplinary arts productions, fundraise, and do everything else that goes with running a non-profit; I maintain strong roots in my home country, Pakistan where I was born and raised, and where I spend several months each year; and I have a demanding family life with a five-year old daughter. I am also involved with Houston’s Pacifica Radio Station where I host monthly programs. After deeply weighing the decision, I chose to accept the invitation. My choice rested heavily on my commitment to fight for women’s rights wherever I happen to be, and because I believe that women’s sexual and reproductive issues are at the heart of women’s struggles around the world.<br /><br />As a teenager growing up in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, I marched on the streets with the then fledgling Women’s Action Forum—or WAF as it is known—which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, WAF was one of the grassroots organizations that spoke up against the dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (supported by the Reagan administration, which was also engaged in a covert war in Afghanistan—the impact of which continues to have global ramifications thirty years later). In 1979, General Zia succeeded in passing the Shari’a law-inspired Hudood Ordinance, under which many women were falsely imprisoned for adultery and faced the punishment of death by stoning.2 In cases of rape, women had to produce four male witnesses who were willing to testify on their behalf.<br /><br />During that time (and after completing my secondary education), I interned for nine months at a radical, now defunct, English evening newspaper, <i>The Star</i>. Much of my political writing emerged during those months. All publications were subject to government overview prior to going to press, and often censors removed entire sections. There was a sense of danger, and even at a young age, I learned how important it was to strategize when speaking out. I also learned the urgency and importance of using one’s words to express protest and to share information.<br /><br />I was raised in a home that was the hub of much literary activity. Many prominent Urdu poets of our time—Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Fehmida Riaz, Ahmed Faraz to name just three—visited our home to give readings, or simply dropped by for a visit. Most of those same poets and writers spent time in prison or in exile for speaking out against military dictatorships. My models for living were also forged by my mother, an educator, who founded her own non-profit organization to train teachers; my aunts and cousins who pursued higher education and professional careers; my sister, a recognized journalist; and my father, who spent a year in a Karachi jail during the 1950s for leading a student movement.<br /><br />After completing my internship in Karachi, I arrived in the United States to obtain a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, one of the first women’s higher education institutions in the U.S. It did not take me long to join an international community of women activists. Together, we participated in anti-apartheid protests and were able to push our college to divest funds from South Africa. I remember intense 4:00 a.m. conversations when we debated whether those of us with international visas should step back if police were to arrive, or risk deportation by remaining on the frontline. That fear did not stop us from participating in Take Back the Night rallies in New York City, or picketing in Springfield, Massachusetts against President George H.W. Bush’s bombings of Libya.<br /><br />Since graduating more than two decades ago, I have been moving back and forth between the U.S. and Pakistan. In recent years, I have noticed that every time I return from Pakistan to the U.S, I am asked the same question: “How is everything over there?” And the follow-up question is usually: “And how are things for you as a woman?”<br /><br />While I appreciate people’s concern and interest, I find it draining to explain that Pakistan is a large country. My home, Karachi, is on the coast, 800 miles away from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where most of the violence is erupting. Today, insurgencies are penetrating deeper into the country, and there is a larger sense of fear. In Karachi there was a major suicide attack on December 28, 2009, where more than 35 people were killed, and hundreds of shops burned. At the same time, it is critical to recall that Karachi has endured enormous turmoil: During the 1990s, the city was torn apart by a civil war between the Muhajirs, who relocated to Pakistan after the 1947 splintering of the subcontinent, and the indigenous Sindhis, but that information went unreported by international media.<br /><br />And when it comes to freedom for women, again, it is exhausting to explain that just as in the U.S. where gender equity remains a struggle, in Pakistan there is a continuous struggle. But there are also many progressive women—Anita Ghulam Ali, Rehana Hakim, Salima Hashmi, Asma Jahangir, Sheema Kirmani, Mukhtar Mai, to name just a few—who have paved the path for future generations in the judiciary, education, government, arts, media, social services, and activist communities. This said, it is important to recognize that educated women move through society without experiencing the same limitations that affect those from lower-socio economic brackets. In Pakistan, just as in other countries, the struggles for class, gender, and ethnic equity are multi-layered and there are no simple solutions. For example, abortion is illegal in Pakistan, and it is reported to be widely practiced in back alleys. But the issue is not on the front burner, since other struggles take priority. (Across the border in India, abortion is legal, and ultrasounds are banned because families were choosing to abort female fetuses—but families with wealth continue to have access to illegal gender screenings.)<br /><br />Today, however, because Pakistan is at the frontline of conflict, there is much interest focused on events unfolding in the country. The country is projected onto the world through a Western lens, one that expresses fear that the country will be overtaken by “terrorists” and that all women are oppressed. What is not reported in the media is that Pakistan is largely a secular country, with only a small percentage of followers of extremist Wahhabi Islamic practices. The general public, especially as suicide bombings and violence increase, largely supports the elected government’s actions against the Taliban, and believes in education for men and for women.<br /><br />Early in our lives, my parents made sure that my siblings and I understood that conflict is a part of life, emphasizing that no matter where one lives, there are issues to expose, address, and a need to organize. I choose to engage with the world around me, and I choose to recognize that there is conflict no matter where I am based. And ultimately, I choose to tackle women’s issues, no matter where I am—Karachi and Houston where I have already lived and worked, or Palestine, or the Juarez-El Paso border where I hope to take VBB productions—through my art and my writing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4609457239144829918?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-10261061118426632112010-01-25T08:43:00.000-08:002010-01-25T11:11:32.599-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4304499296/" title="Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4304499296_66d9d64005.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir" /></a><br /><br /><i>The symbol of a brave Pakistan.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Asma Jahangir, Pakistan’s celebrated human rights activist, came to India in January, 2010, to participate in the fifth Jaipur Literature Festival. It was the first time that <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> was face-to-face with her. <br /><br />This 58-year-old lady was limping. There was a bandage on her feet. She was using a walking stick.<br /> <br />However, even without the leg injury, Ms Jahangir hardly looked like a woman who has been constantly attacking the powerful military establishment of her country. Believe it or not, this frail-looking woman has been battling many wars over many years. Take this: Beside the generals, Ms Jahangir has been against her nation’s religious extremists. She fights for the rights of Pakistan’s minorities. No wonder then that Ms Jahangir has been to jail many times. Receiving death threats is also not out of the ordinary in her life. <br /><br />But if an ignorant person comes across Ms Jahangir in real life, he could mistake her for a harmless retiring aunt. The lady laughs a lot. She is always ready to smile. She is likely to call any young man she comes across – whether he is a driver or a famous author – as ‘beta’ (son). <br /><br />Unlike most famous people, Ms Jahangir throws no attitude. She talks in an easy way to everyone. She is very friendly. If two people next to her are animatedly discussing something passionate, she would show interest by throwing a smile at them.<br /><br />Of course, there must be moments when Ms Jahangir might be occupied with grave issues, such as India-Pakistan rift. Still, she hasn’t forgotten to take pleasure in small things in life. (<i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> overheard Ms Jahangir and her friend in the lobby of a Jaipur hotel where she was fixing the afternoon shopping expedition.)<br /><br />But readers are suggested not to take this lady as their aunt. Ms Jahangir is no bua or mausi. She is a living symbol of everything that is beautiful and brave about Pakistan. During a discussion on India’s patronizing attitude towards its western neighbour in the Jaipur festival, Ms Jahangir emotionally said, “Sometimes you (Indians) treat us (Pakistanis) as if we are not humans. As if we do not have feelings. We have risked our lives in talking of democracy and faced the kind of religious intolerance that you in India cannot even begin to imagine. And in that atmosphere our poets have written on secularism, on democracy... Stop talking about us with such disdain, when we are risking our lives. You are us."<br /><br />The largely Indian crowd applauded and Ms Jahangir’s eyes went misty.<br /><br /><b>Ms Jahangir</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4303760895/" title="Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2734/4303760895_56e65f7a4f.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Face-to-Face with Asma Jahangir" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-1026106111842663211?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-15974538236438119702010-01-13T04:32:00.000-08:002010-01-13T04:54:44.788-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837479/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2766/4270837479_99ccefeb53.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><i>The people who constitute Pakistaniyat.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />Seen the politicians. Seen the bureaucrats. Here <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> captures the people that make up the spirit of Pakistan. The novelists, the painters, the bloggers. They write books. They paint on canvasses. They transcend passport boundaries on the net. <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> have met them all. They all are wonderful folks. Here’s three cheers to them.<br /><br /><b>Nadeem Aslam, novelist</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837477/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4270837477_1218d07780.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Amin Gulgee, sculptor</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837475/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4270837475_ca90d7639a.jpg" width="397" height="500" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Naz Imramullah, painter</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837487/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4270837487_db046749d6.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Shandana Minhas, novelist</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837489/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4270837489_2bfe8be001.jpg" width="500" height="386" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Ali Sethi, novelist</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270837491/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4270837491_9b67dc01d7.jpg" width="500" height="479" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Raza Rumi, blogger</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270839781/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4270839781_eef95e84a2.jpg" width="342" height="500" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><br /><br /><b>Daniyal Mueenuddin, short story writer</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4270839787/" title="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4270839787_56898a2e75.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Photo Essay – Pakistan’s Bright Stars" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-1597453823643811970?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-41312998399594896672009-11-18T17:05:00.000-08:002009-11-18T17:14:39.920-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4115652539/" title="ook Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/4115652539_399fa09475.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="ook Review - The Coffee House of Lahore; by KK Aziz" /></a><br /><br /><i>Coffee, tea and revolution.</i><br /><br /><b>[By <a href="http://www.razarumi.com">Raza Rumi</a>]</b><br /><br />Before his death in July 2009, KK Aziz had accomplished one mission that he had set for himself, i.e. to write about the Lahore Coffee House, the glorious nursery of ideas. Luckily, despite his failing health, Aziz finished a draft that was meant to be a shining part of his autobiographical kaleidoscope. <i>The Coffee House of Lahore: A Memoir, 1942-57</i> was published in 2008 and Aziz, in the opening chapters, tells us about the genesis of his passion to document this memorable phase of our contemporary history.<br /><br /><i>Whenever an intellectual, cultural and literary history of Lahore (or the Punjab and Pakistan) is written, the diverse circles which met and discoursed in the Coffee House will have to be described in detail and the ever-widening waves of their influence recorded. As nothing has been written so far on the subject and I don’t see anything in the offing, I give below a list of the important persons who I can recall.</i><br /><br />Quite diligently, Aziz sets forth to list two hundred and six names that would include a wide array of thinkers, scholars, artists, writers and even some CSPs who obviously changed their life course despite the influence of their Coffee House days. For those who want to know about Lahore and its not-so-old diversity, KK Aziz’s memoir is a must-read. It is perhaps the only serious work on this important institution. Aziz has rightly mentioned in his book that the names he lists and the personae he describes in his biographical sketches aim to achieve four objectives.<br /><br />First, that such a remembrance proves the ‘age of talent’ as it existed in Lahore. Second, a faithful picture of Lahore in the 1940s and 1950s emerges from the text. Third, that it provides the cultural historians of the future with a primary testament; and finally at a personal level, it shows how Aziz the historian and thinker was influenced by this exciting and vibrant milieu. During the early part of the 20th century, Lahore emerged as perhaps “the most highly cultured city of North India”, to quote Aziz. With a wide range of educational and cultural institutions and a composite society comprising all faiths and religions and political ideologies, the Lahore of today is no longer what it once was.<br /><br />This eclectic mood of Lahore was best captured and represented by the Coffee House. As Aziz tells us, the Coffee House was “for over 30 years, the single most important and influential mental powerhouse which moulded the lives and minds of a whole generation, and its legacy affected the careers of the succeeding generation”. It is odd that the tea-drinking British were to introduce coffee houses in India. Aziz takes us through the history of coffee-drinking as to how it inspired the world to switch to coffee as a beverage of intellectual invigoration. One aspect that he omits is that coffee drinking was popularised by the Sufis who found the drink conducive to their meditation and mystical elation. It is said that in the 1930s, the Government of India created a Coffee Board to promote the sale and consumption of coffee beans which were grown in South India, and hence a coffeehouse was established in every large city of the Indian subcontinent. Aziz comments that this was also the period of a resurgence of communism and the rise of the Progressive Writers’ Movement.<br /><br /><i>The British were tea-drinkers, so were the Russians and the Chinese. But the leftists chose to issue their exhortations over a cup of coffee. Even the otherwise cataclysmic partition of India in 1947 could not break this radicalism-coffee bond.</i><br /><br />Thus in Lahore, the India Coffee House and India Tea House, situated 150 yards apart, became the two most popular meeting places of the literati and the radical intellectuals. Little wonder that Aziz states that the Coffee House of Lahore, “entertained more leftists than I found on the Communist Party office on McLeod Road”. We find out from the book that before 1947, the leftist visitors of the Coffee House included luminaries such as Sajjad Zaheer, Syed Sibt-e-Hassan, Abdullah Malik, Safdar Mir, Zaheer Kashmiri and many others. The Coffee House changed many sites but remained at the Alfred building till the end. Its old site, off Mall Road, was later the location for Pak Tea House , which survived until the turn of the last century, before commercial imperatives became paramount and intellectualism had to be abandoned in favor of greed.<br /><br />The best part of this book, of course, is plain writing that sketches the lives and personae of its regular habitués. For instance, my favorite, Safdar Mir, the towering intellectual of our times, finds a prominent place in the narrative. Aziz paints a rather intimate portrait: <i>unafraid of authority and uneducated public opinion, he spoke his mind freely and persuasively. While a lecturer at the Government College, he had his head shaved and smiling down the frowns and boos of his 2nd-year students, continued to lecture calmly and suavely. He was the best-read journalist of his age, and I know no other man whose reach and understanding encompassed so many fields: English, Urdu and Punjabi literature, Marxism, politics, the way a society works and modern history. His hall-mark was a resounding laugh which could be heard three rooms away. His eyes glittered with merriment behind his thick lenses while narrating a funny story or narrating a point in his argument, as if throwing a challenge to his audience to produce a better one.</i><br /><br />While browsing through the book, other eminent habitués of the Coffee House also came to life. Men of letters, such as Chiragh Hassan Hasrat, Zaheer Kashmiri, Aashiq Hussain Batalvi, Syed Abid Ali Abid (whose biographical sketch is candid and a wee bit un-sparing) are found walking on the streets of Lahore, sipping coffee at their favourite joint and indulging in the world of ideas and discourses.<br /><br />The death of the Coffee House and the burial of Pak Tea House have coincided with the demise of discourse in Pakistan. We have done well to acquire nuclear weapons and thousands of madrassas that preach violence and hatred. But we have lost a culture that was based on tolerance, peace and amity.<br /><br />KK Aziz has done a great service to Lahore, Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent by documenting an era that will never return.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4131299839959489667?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-39766222686715440662009-11-08T20:48:00.000-08:002009-11-09T04:20:17.400-08:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4088777028/" title="The Indian Who Loves Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/4088777028_18fe74bbf9.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="The Indian Who Loves Pakistan" /></a><br /><br /><i>Author Khushwant Singh's home is always open to Pakistanis.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />The celebrated Delhi-based author Khushwant Singh loves Pakistan, a nation often looked at with suspicion, and sometimes even with hatred, by a majority of Indians. <br /><br />One winter evening in 2009 at a rare public appearance, the 94-year-old novelist, facing a select audience that included the Indian prime minister’s wife, said, “I wish more Indians realise that most Pakistanis are nice people.” <br /><br />Mr Singh’s views and preferences matter. Born in what is now Pakistan, he had migrated to India after the Indian Partition. His first novel, <i>Train to Pakistan</i>, is considered a masterpiece among the several books dealing with that part of the subcontinent's history. He has served as editor of some of India’s most prestigious newspapers and journals. He was close to prime ministers and presidents. Even at this ripe age, he writes a weekly column that is very popular. <br /><br />A former member of the Indian parliament, Mr Singh lives in Sujan Singh Park, an old money neighbourhood in south Delhi. He has a board outside his drawing room door that famously says, “Don’t ring the bell unless expected.” The rule applies to all, including the VIPs, including the ‘self-important’ visitors from the West who send in chits saying “I’m so-and-so from the University of Chicago or Harvard.” No one is welcomed without a prior appointment, not even the President of India. However, Pakistanis - important people or not - are an exception. “For them, my doors are always open,” Mr Singh said, rather emotionally. “They never need an appointment to meet me. After all, Pakistan is the land I come from.” God bless the old man.<br /><br /><b>Khushwant Singh said it at this rare public appearance in New Delhi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/4088777030/" title="The Indian Who Loves Pakistan by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2595/4088777030_e737d4bac5.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="The Indian Who Loves Pakistan" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-3976622268671544066?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-49917803757741433512009-10-23T19:05:00.000-07:002009-10-24T06:10:33.871-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3972973141/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2421/3972973141_1eaf943122.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><br /><br /><em>Interview with the Karachi-born novelist, part IV.</em><br /><br /><strong>[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</strong><br /><br />Sehba Sarwar’s first novel, <i>Black Wings</i>, was published in 2004. Presently, besides working on her new novel, she is also the director of a multi-media arts organisation in Houston. There she lives with her husband and daughter. She also has a <a href="http://www.sehbasarwar.com/about.shtml">website</a>. This is the fourth and final part of the interview Ms Sarwar gave to <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, the second <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a>, the third <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a>. This exclusive feature is an <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">attempt to understand</a> the alternative reality of Pakistan.<br /><br /><b>Ms Sarwar, you also work for <i><a href="http://www.vbbarts.org/calendar.shtml#pakistanlive">Pakistan Live Broadcast</a></i>, a video installation project that tries presenting ‘an alternative image of events unfolding in Pakistan’. What is this alternative image?</b><br /><br />I'm employed by the arts organization that I founded, <a href="http://vbbarts.org/index.shtml">Voices Breaking Boundaries</a> (VBB). Through VBB, I'm working on a production that I visualized called Pakistan Live Broadcast. The show premieres in November, 2009 with a new title, <i><a href="http://www.vbbarts.org/calendar.shtml#livingroompakistan">Honoring Dissent/ Descent</a></i>. I'm using footage that I collected about my father - he passed away in May 2009 - and will be honoring his history, his work. I'll also be showcasing an activist in Houston. I did a short piece to kick off the production last fall, and you can see it on my blog <i><a href="http://sehbasarwar.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html">Daily Noise</a></i>. I created this short video piece using a format I call video collage through which I weave together different layers of sound, stills, video and poetry. (I wrote the poem for this piece after seeing an ex-student of mine walk out of a gun show).<br /> <br /><b>In the winter of 2008-09, you travelled in Pakistan? How and what places did you travel? </b><br /><br />I mostly stayed in Karachi, but traveled into Sindh to Bhit Shah and Sehwan Sharif. Both were amazing trips, and I plan to use footage from those experiences for the November production. I also flew to Lahore and Islamabad, where I led workshops and several readings. <br /><br /><b>What new things you noticed in the country?</b><br /><br />New things? Mostly that both Lahore and Islamabad felt like war zones, while Karachi felt calm. It was interesting to see that flipped around. But, as you know, things change fast. And hopefully, some of the fear that was affecting Lahore and Islamabad has shifted, now that the situation in Swat is slightly better. <br /><br /><b>Ok, Ms Sarwar, some final questions. When you close your eyes and think of Karachi, what images do you see?</b><br /><br />Sea spray. Kites (the birds). Jasmine flowers. Open trash. Donkey carts. My mother. <br /><br /><b>And when you close your eyes and think of Houston, what do you see? </b><br /><br />Rain. Bayous. Freeways. Our daughter. 
 <br /><br /> <br /><b>[The interview ends here. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, the second part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a>, the third part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a>. ] </b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4991780375774143351?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-61693580357985012612009-10-15T17:12:00.000-07:002009-10-23T19:26:17.159-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3972973101/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3972973101_30861646da.jpg" width="412" height="500" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><br /><br /><em>Interview with the Karachi-born novelist, part III.</em><br /><br /><strong>[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</strong><br /><br />Sehba Sarwar’s first novel, <i>Black Wings</i>, was published in 2004. Presently, besides working on her new novel, she is also the director of a multi-media arts organisation in Houston. There she lives with her husband and daughter. She also has a <a href="http://www.sehbasarwar.com/about.shtml">website</a>. This is the third part of the interview Ms Sarwar gave to <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, the second <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a>, the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>. This exclusive feature is an <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">attempt to understand</a> the alternative reality of Pakistan.<br /><br /><b>Ms Sarwar, what is your writing schedule? Where do you write?</b><br /><br />When I was working on <i>Black Wings</i>, I could only write in my study, and I mostly worked at night. Now, I can write anywhere, anytime. <br /><br /><b>Yeah?</b><br /><br />I have a young daughter, and my time is very precious. I also run a very demanding arts organization and am busy creating artistic work for our productions. So wherever I get a chance I write: study, bedroom, coffee shop, inside, outside, and at any time of the day. Now, mornings are my favorite writing time. I would be lost, though, without my laptop. <br /><br /><b>Woman, Pakistani, Pakistani-Anerican, South Asian, Muslim. Which of these identities have been most influential in shaping up your artist’s life?</b><br /><br />In a writing | blogging | video workshop I did in Houston for Pakistani college and high school women, the first question I asked them was: "How do you identify yourself? Write down the order of the words you use to describe your identity." I did the exercise with them and here's my order: woman, artist, mother, activist, Pakistani/ South Asian. <br /><br /><b>The greater truth lies where – fiction or non-fiction?</b><br /><br />Both. Depends on what you're writing. I generally rely on memory to create fiction, and then use my imagination to enhance, change, etc. I also write non-fiction for sometimes it's important to assert that a particular memory is the truth. It really just depends on the purpose for creating the piece. <br /><br /><b>Which authors you liked reading in the past and then stopped pursuing them? Who have stayed with you? Who are your present pursuits?</b><br /><br />I continue to follow certain writers including Rohinton Mistry, Bapsi Sidhwa (who I'm lucky to know since she lives in Houston), Anita Desai, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje and many more. Other writers I've recently enjoyed include Fan Wu, Alice Albania, Kiran Desai, Mohammad Hanif, Sorayya Khan... the list is long. I don't read British writers much any more, though I was a big fan of Virginia Woolf's while I was in college. <br /> <br /><b>How long did it take you to write your first novel <i>Black Wings</i>? How tough it was to get it published?</b><br /><br />I worked <i>Black Wings</i> on and off for a good eight years. I took time off in between to deal with an illness. In 2003, I acquired an excellent agent in the US, but she was unable to get Black Wings placed in the States. All the feedback that I got was that the novel and the characters didn't conform to the western image of Pakistan. After a year of trying (it was hard enough weeding through all the agent rejections), I went ahead and sought a Pakistani publisher, Alhamra. And I am so grateful to Shafiq Naz and to Alhamra Publishing. He is a remarkable man, and has done an amazing job with changing the face of publishing in English in Pakistan. Once I approached him, things moved very fast. <br /><br /><b>You are working on your second novel. Is it based in Pakistan? </b><br /><br />I can't talk much about my second novel yet. It's a work in progress and, like <i>Black Wings</i>, moves between countries. It'll probably dip more into India. <br /> <br /><b>What about Karachi inspires you most as a writer?</b><br /><br />I rely a lot on memory. My most life-changing moments have taken place in Karachi. It is my first home. I'll have to write about it quite a bit more before I am ready to move and adopt another space in the same way. I love the sea, the city noise, the landscape of a street scene. <br /> <br /><b>What will you like to share with young aspiring Pakistani writers?</b><br /><br />Keep writing. There's room for everyone. Be honest and tell your truth. <br /> <br /><b>[The third part ends here. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, the second part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a>, the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>] </b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-6169358035798501261?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-59104451924243807082009-10-06T21:24:00.000-07:002009-10-23T19:23:04.308-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3989464002/" title="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2533/3989464002_ef8632f68b.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar" /></a><br /><br /><em>Interview with the Karachi-born novelist, part II.</em><br /><br /><strong>[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</strong><br /><br />Sehba Sarwar’s first novel, <i>Black Wings</i>, was published in 2004. Presently, besides working on her new novel, she is also the director of a multi-media arts organisation in Houston. There she lives with her husband and daughter. She also has a <a href="http://www.sehbasarwar.com/about.shtml">website</a>. This is the second part of the interview Ms Sarwar gave to <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, third part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a>, the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>. This exclusive feature is an <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">attempt to understand</a> the alternative reality of Pakistan.<br /><br /><b>Ms Sarwar, what things do you like about Houston, your ‘adopted city’? </b><br /><br />Actually I frequently write on the similarities between Houston and Karachi.<br /><br /><b>Karachi and Houston – similar!</b><br /><br />You know, sometimes when I want to be provocative I say: I like Houston because it's ugly, polluted and hot - just like Karachi. But yes, Houston has open spaces like Karachi, and is very quirky. I published an essay about just these kinds of similarities in <a href="http://ricedesignalliance.org/press-room">CITE</a>, an architectural magazine that comes out of Rice University (in Houston). Of course, you have to know the city very well before understanding it. <br /><br /><b>This could be true of Delhi, too, where I live.</b><br /><br />Yeah? But the truth is that both Karachi and Houston have depth, and one cannot really appreciate the beauty of either city without exploring, or digging deeper. In Houston, there are many reminders of ‘home’. I can eat samosas, naan, chaat, or drink chai without going too far. I also like that I can navigate between different worlds because the city draws people from around the world: South Asia, different parts of Africa, the Middle East, South and Central America, and Mexico. <br /><br /><b>I see.</b><br /><br />You know, Mayank, one of the best things about Houston is that it's an open city, and I have been able to walk into the space - without any prior connections - and create my own non-profit arts organization, practice my art and get support (both funding and community) to do the work that I am driven to create. <br /><br /><b>Ms Sarwar, how different is your life in Karachi and Houston? What do you usually wear in Karachi? What in Houston?</b><br /><br />Life is very different, I suppose, in both cities. However, I don't act too differently in either place: I wear what I feel like wearing and that runs the gamut from jeans and skirts to shalwar kurtas and saris. <br /><br /><b>You never feel the pressure to dress or behave differently?</B><br /><br />Look, the communities in which I socialize and work in Karachi are generally open-minded. Also, because of the nature of my work - I'm deeply involved in the arts and activist communities in Houston - I don't feel any need to conform to a lifestyle that's not my own. And even though it's been a while since I've worked full-time in Karachi, I do run workshops when I'm in Pakistan, and have held many readings there. <br /><br /><B>Are you more a Houstonian than a Karachiite?</B><br /><br />I don't call myself a Houstonian nor do I aspire to. And I've never called myself a Karachiite either, even though I feel as if a part of the city lives in me. After all, that's where the heart of my writing emanates. Anyway I’m not committed to living in the States for good, and am working on increasing my time in Pakistan, and the region. <br /><br /><b>You would upset those with a high regard for passport boundaries.</b><br /><br />But I don't really like borders. I find them a bit superficial. Ever since I was a child, I've always been interested in exploring the Subcontinent as a region, rather than the countries defined by recent borders. <br /><br /><b>And you did explore this region...</b><br /><br />Yes. While raised in Pakistan, I have spent time in north, south and eastern India, and have traveled through Sri Lanka. I haven't been to Bangladesh, yet, though I've been very close. In 1987, while enrolled in a graduate program in Austin (US), I spent three months in Calcutta doing an internship at <i>The Telegraph</i> in Calcutta. I never went across the border, but would very much like to do so. <br /><br /><b>Gosh, you just don’t respect borders!</b><br /><br />History and human connections happen despite political borders. I've always loved travel, and over the years with my husband, have spent time many other countries including Thailand, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Australia.<br /><br /><b>[The second part ends here. You may read the first part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a>, the third part <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a> part, the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>.] </b><br /><br /><b>Her life in Houston</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3989463996/" title="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2615/3989463996_4d1ea63a44.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar" /></a><br /><br /><b>On the job</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3989464008/" title="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/3989464008_661678528d.jpg" width="500" height="399" alt="&quot;Houston is as Ugly, Polluted and Hot as Karachi&quot; - Novelist Sehba Sarwar" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-5910445192424380708?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-16769453874469887442009-10-01T17:57:00.000-07:002009-10-23T19:25:19.974-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3972973141/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2421/3972973141_1eaf943122.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><br /><br /><em>Interview with the Karachi-born novelist.</em><br /><br /><strong>[By Mayank Austen Soofi]</strong><br /><br />Sehba Sarwar’s first novel, <i>Black Wings</i>, was published in 2004. Presently, besides working on her new novel, she is also the director of a multi-media arts organisation in Houston. There she lives with her husband and daughter. She also has a <a href="http://www.sehbasarwar.com/about.shtml">website</a>. This is the first part of the interview Ms Sarwar gave to <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>. Click <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a> to read the second part, <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a> for the third part, and for the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>. This exclusive feature is an <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/09/special-series-interview-with-novelist.html">attempt to understand</a> the alternative reality of Pakistan. <br /><br /><b>Ms Sarwar, your writing focuses on women and explores lives that span two continents – Asia and North America. You yourself have homes in these two places.</b> <br /><br />All this shifting and moving homes affects me. Luckily, I use my art - writing, performance and video - to express all the joy and pain that comes with having two homes. An essay that I'm working on is called <i>Sliding Doors</i>. Through it, I'm trying to explore the loss that comes with leaving the 'home'. In many ways, Mayank, I was born with a lost home already: both my parents were raised in India. They had to migrate to Pakistan after the partition.<br /><br /><b>Is your life as dramatic as your fiction?</b><br /><br />I wouldn't say that. It is similar to that lived by many. One big difference, though, is that I married outside the Pakistani community. My husband is Mexican American and our daughter is ‘mestiza’, as they say in Spanish. I suppose that could be called dramatic. But then again, all of us are from mixed races. No one can truly claim to be of purely one race or another. <br /><br /><b>You married a Mexican-American? Isn't Pakistan a conservative land? How did your people took to it?</b><br /><br />Look, I come from a non-traditional home and so does my husband. Both our families were - and continue to be - very open to each other. We had a court marriage in the States, and a reception in Karachi. Though his family didn't make it to Karachi for our wedding, a Mexican friend and her Lebanese husband joined us. We traveled north together to Chitral, Hunza, Shandoor for our honeymoon, and he continues to join me in Karachi as often as he can.<br /><br /><b>You are from Karachi?</b><br /><br />Yes, I was born and raised in Karachi, off Jamshed Road, around a neighborhood called Guru Mandir. <br /><br /><b>Your parents?</b><br /><br />My father, <a href="http://drsarwar.wordpress.com/">Dr. Sarwar</a>, was a medical doctor and was heavily involved in the student movement during the fifties. My mother is an educator and worked in government colleges most of her life (now she runs her own NGO, <a href="http://www.spelt.org.pk/">Society for Professional English Language Teachers</a> (SPELT), that specializes in training English teachers). Both of them were activists and had a passion for the arts. <br /><br /><b>How was the childhood?</b><br /><br />At a young age, my brother, sister and I were enrolled in classical singing and dancing classes - though none of us stayed with those art forms. Our house was known for the gatherings our parents hosted, at which poetry, music and dance were performed. During my teens, when General Zia took over, my mother was involved with the Women's Action Forum (WAF), then just a collective of women organizing protests and rallies. My sister and I immediately also got involved with its activities. We would attend rallies, among other things. <br /><br /><b>How was Karachi then?</b><br /><br />Karachi was a very different city during the seventies, prior to the Zia years. There were night clubs where alcohol was openly served. Even during my teens, after alcohol was banned, we would go to parties at the 5-star hotels that held disco nights on Fridays. We frequented movie theaters with our classmates. When I turned fifteen, our family moved to Clifton, where we went for walks in the neighborhood. The city seemed much smaller back then. It seemed as if we knew everyone. <br /><br /><b>How is the city now?</b><br /><br />Today, even though Karachi's much more violent, and population continues to grow, there are some exciting changes. There are more institutions of higher learning such as the <a href="http://www.indusvalley.edu.pk/degreeprograms/archcourses.htm">Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture</a>, and the <a href="http://www.napa.org.pk/">National Academy for Performing Arts</a> (NAPA). There are also amazing cafés and gatherings where literary readings, film screenings and protests take place. 
 <br /><br /><b>Why you had to leave the city for USA?</b><br /><br />See, I was always inclined toward the arts, social studies and politics. If one was studying medicine or engineering, there were some good choices in Karachi, but in those days, if one wanted to major in the arts, there were few choices within Pakistan for higher education. Most of the students in our school - especially those in arts and social studies - went abroad for higher education. I got a good scholarship to a women's college in Massachusetts, and I ended up flying to the States to get my undergraduate degree. <br /><br /><b>That was your first foray into a foreign country?</b><br /><br />Till then the only other place I had visited outside of Pakistan was India. <br /><br /><b>India!</b><br /><br />Both my parents are from UP, and you know, I've visited Delhi, Aligarh, Allahabad, Kanpur and Bombay on two different trips. <br /><br /><b>What did you think of that country during your first visit?</b><br /><br />India was foreign, but then, again, it wasn't. Of course, we had to report to the police everytime we entered or exited a city, but that's the same for Indians when they visit Pakistan. That felt strange. But on the whole, everything around us was familiar. <br /><br /><b>So, it did not seem any different from Pakistan…</b><br /><br />We spent a lot of time with the Indian part of our family. My mother's chachas showed us around in Delhi, Agra, Aligarh. We also spent time with her first cousins in Kanpur, as well as my father's first cousin in Allahabad. In many ways our visits were just as we imagined. Our grandparents as well as our parents had already told us so many stories about them and it was wonderful to finally be in their houses. <br /><br /><b>Anything that made you feel India was some other land?</b><br /><br />We visited India during the Indira Gandhi days - so there were Ambassadors and Fiats everywhere - and that was the most visible difference between India and Pakistan, which was flooded with Japanese and German cars. We didn't start manufacturing our own till decades later. We also went to Bombay with our mother. <br /><br />When I went to India on my own during the late eighties to intern in a Calcutta newspaper, I remember being startled by the cycle rickshaws, which one never saw in Pakistan. Other than those minor differences, everything felt very familiar. The last time I was in India was in 2001, when my husband and I traveled around south India (Kerala, Chennai etc) - and that felt more 'foreign' because of the different languages spoken.<br /><br /><b>[The first part ends here. Click <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-is-as-ugly-polluted-hot-as.html">here</a> to read the second part, <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-be-lost-without-my-laptop.html">here</a> for the third part, and for the fourth <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/today-karachi-lahore-feel-like-war.html">here</a>]</b><br /><br /><b>Dr Sarwar with children - Beena, Sehba and Salman</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3972973111/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3529/3972973111_527a42de83.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><br /><br /><br /><b>The novelist</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3972973101/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3972973101_30861646da.jpg" width="412" height="500" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><br /><br /><b>The novelist with her family</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3975620337/" title="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot; by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3520/3975620337_1d8017fbee.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="&quot;My Life's Not Dramatic but I Married Outside the Community&quot;" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-1676945387446988744?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-30600362129283003932009-09-27T23:06:00.000-07:002009-10-23T19:37:07.156-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3961125191/" title="Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/3961125191_e83c1f517d.jpg" width="444" height="500" alt="Special Series - Interview with Novelist Sehba Sarwar" /></a><br /><br /><em>Understanding Pakistan through its artists.</em><br /><br /><strong>[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi]</strong><br /><br />To showcase the alternative reality of Pakistan, <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> presents an interview series with novelist Sehba Sarwar. This exclusive feature forwards the process that was started by holding exhaustive conversations with Islamabad-based painter Faiza Khan (read that interview <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/08/freedom-day-special-series-faiza-khan.html">here</a>). The idea was that by celebrating the country’s artists, this blogsite could throw a momentary light on the inner - and the Other - world of Pakistan.<br /><br />Ms Sarwar’s life that spans two continents is fascinating. Her parents were born and raised in Uttar Pradesh, now in India, and relocated to Pakistan a few years after the Partition. She spent her own teenage years in the Karachi of General Zia’s regime. Her childhood home was known for hosting artistic soirees. She then studied in USA; married a Mexican-American. She now has a daughter. <br /><br />In 2004, Ms Sarwar’s first novel, <i>Black Wings</i>, was published by Alhamra Publishing. Presently, besides working on her new novel, she is also the director of a multi-media arts organisation in Houston. <br /><br />While based in US, Ms Sarwar travels frequently to Pakistan. She has also spent time in India. No doubt her experience of Pakistan will interest all those who want a better understanding of this country. Ms Sarwar talked to <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i> about Karachi and Houston; about writing and writers; about boundaries and nations, and of course, about Pakistan.<br /><br /><b>Click <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-lifes-not-dramatic-but-i-married.html">here</a> to read the first part of the interview</b>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-3060036212928300393?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-61866049639315103432009-09-16T21:30:00.000-07:002009-09-16T21:58:46.296-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3927463267/" title="Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3927463267_dc8508a917.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Karachi Life - A Gay Man's Diary" /></a><br /><br /><em>Being gay in Pakistan's biggest metropolis.</em><br /><br /><strong>[Text by Jalaluddin; imaging by Mayank Austen Soofi; the picture is not of the author]</strong><br /><br /><em>These are edited excerpts from Jalaluddin’s <a href="http://jalaluddin.wordpress.com/">Tuzk e Jalali</a></em>.<br /><br /><strong>04 Rajab ul Murajjab 1430 <br />Slowing Down</strong><br />From now on I'll be blogging very irregularly. One of the reasons is the fear elicited by the fact that my blog has been quoted in the Indian and American online sites. The closet door is being banged at very hard. I have come out of the closet to my family and friends but that does not mean that I am ready to do it officially. Not in Pakistan. Sorry.<br /><br /><strong>22 Rabi ul Awwal 1430 <br />Good News</strong><br />Ok. Ok. Ok. Depression is over. Thank God.<br /><br /><strong>21 Zilhaj 1429 <br />Let Me Go</strong><br />I am in my depression phase again. I guess this has become so common for me that I can talk about it with a reasonable amount of detachment. With all the anger and hatred targeted at my parents, even though I came out to them, they keep pestering me to get married. They did not let me move out of the house, even though I could have. <br /><br />I don’t think I can forgive them. There is this feeling of having lost five years of my life fighting with my parents on this one topic. It is a very long period of life, and I felt I was caged. I want my time back. I'm angry with myself for not having the courage to tell my parents that even if it would hurt them, and they might disown me, I want to live alone.<br /><br />See, I wanted to be happy. I just thought that being parents they would allow me to make the choices that would direct my life. They did allow it, but on the other hand my mother cried every time I mentioned it. <br /><br />All I can hope for is that during this bout of depression, I don’t end up with cut marks on the wrist like the last time.<br /><br /><b>[Click <a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/2007/11/society-diary-of-gay-man-from-karachi.html">here</a> to read the first part of the diary]</b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-6186604963931510343?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-44809614490370446672009-09-13T16:55:00.000-07:002009-09-13T22:27:01.049-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3917820890/" title="The Day Mr Jinnah Died by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/3917820890_5e4ea1bc0a.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt="The Day Mr Jinnah Died" /></a><br /><br /><i>The final day in the life of Pakistan’s founder.</i><br /><br /><b>[Text by Mayank Austen Soofi]</b><br /><br />On the eve of Pakistan’s first Independence Day anniversary (August 14th, 1948), Mr Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, weighed only eighty pounds. He was seriously ill and was being looked after by his devoted sister Fatima and a team of doctors - not in Karachi, Pakistan’s then capital where Mr Jinnah had his official residence, but in Quetta in Baluchistan.<br /><br />Lying in bed quiet all day, Mr Jinnah was surviving on a few cups of tea, coffee and plain water to swallow his pills. Both his lungs had been consumed by tuberculosis and lung cancer. When the doctor examined his pulse, he found that every tenth or fifteenth beat was missing. Mr Jinnah who was used to smoke an average of fifty Craven A cigarette daily was asked to reduce the intake to just one. <br /><br />When doctors suggested him to move to Karachi, Mr Jinnah desired otherwise. He did not want his Karachi staff to see him being taken around in a stretcher. “Don’t take me to Karachi on crutches,” Mr Jinnah said. “I want to go there when I can walk from the car to the room. You know, from the porch you have to pass the A.D.C’s room and then the Military Secretary’s before you reach mine. I dislike being carried on a stretcher from the car to my room.”<br /><br />By September, Mr Jinnah needed a oxygen mask to breathe. He also caught pneumonia. He had to be flown to Karachi.<br /><br />At 2pm on September 11th, a Viking plane took off from Quetta carrying a feeble Mr Jinnah to the nation's Capital. A bed had been made up in the front cabin and oxygen cylinders and gas masks were kept at hand. The plane landed after about two hours at the Air Force base at Mauripur. This was the same place where Mr Jinnah had arrived from New Delhi about a year ago to take over the reins of the new Pakistan. There were thousands who had come to greet him then. But on September 11, there was no one at the airport.<br /><br />Mr Jinnah was carried into an army ambulance which then sped south of the highway towards Karachi. After about four or five miles, the ambulance came to a stop. There was a breakdown due to some engine trouble. It could not start. The afternoon was humid, the September heat was oppressive and flies buzzed around Mr Jinnah’s face. He had no strength left to brush them off though his sister Fatima helped by fanning him. Meanwhile Mr Jinnah’s pulse started becoming weaker and irregular even as hundreds of cars, trucks and buses rumbled by. The highway was lined with huts belonging to refugees who had come from India. They had no idea that their Qaid-e-Azam lay dying right there on the road. <br /><br />One hour passed this way.<br /><br />Finally another ambulance came and Mr Jinnah reached the governor-general’s mansion at 6.10 pm. Four hours and ten minutes later he was dead. The last word he uttered was to his sister Fatima – ‘Fati’.<br /><br />Mr Jinnah's remains, weighing seventy pounds, were buried the next day, covered in a simple shroud.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35228851-4480961449037044667?l=pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mayank Austen Soofihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777647007662163903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35228851.post-70709662807731848802009-09-06T17:51:00.000-07:002009-09-06T18:29:17.212-07:00<I>"Pakistan Paindabad has set others a model of what a blog/site should be."</I><br /><b>Late Khalid Hasan, US correspondent for the Lahore-based <I>Daily Times</I> and <I>The Friday Times</I></b><br /><strong><a href="http://pakistanpaindabad.blogspot.com/">GO STRAIGHT TO MORE STORIES</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894258481/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2664/3894258481_c32dd56071.jpg" width="500" height="338" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><i>Growing up in Pakistan’s biggest metropolis.</i><br /><br /><b>[This article by Imran Ahmed is written exclusively for <i>Pakistan Paindabad</i>; Pictures by Junaid Zuberi]</b><br /><br />Many years ago a highly regarded geomancer, Raymond Lo, told me that based on my ‘Feng Shui’ elements I should live near a large body of water.<br /><br />Given that I cannot afford a luxury condominium overlooking the Singapore marina, I make do with an HDB apartment that is near enough to the Singapore – Johor Causeway to satisfy his conditions!<br /><br />As a Karachite, I was born in a city by the Arabian Sea. I take the sea for granted. I only recently realized that in almost every city I have lived water has played a large role in its history.<br /><br />Karachi is special to me for many reasons.<br /><br />My father bought our first family home in the city in 1984. The house is now our family ‘ancestral home.’ Many family histories are young in South Asia.<br /><br />Our family is not the only family that chose to settle in Karachi. The Sindhi capital is like a mother who continually welcomes orphans – no matter that she has no food or shelter to provide them. It is in her nature to welcome and accept.<br /><br />At Partition, in 1947 the city had an estimated population of 400,000. Today it is north of 16 million. Over 90% of the city’s residents are migrants, including about 1-1.5 million Afghanis who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.<br /><br />I don’t call the Afghanis refugees anymore as they are not going home. (Their cuisine is delicious but very, very high cholesterol!) There are another approx. 500,000 - 1 million Burmese, Bengalis, Iranis and Africans permanently settled in the city. They are not refugees anymore either.<br /><br />But no more about Karachi’s history.<br /><br />The city provides me some of my earliest childhood memories. My initial recollections of Pakistan before my family moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates when I was ten. (Note that Abu Dhabi is a port city with a large body of water nearby!)<br /><br />Playland, an amusement park in Karachi, is where I first rode bumper cars. Although it disappeared in 2007 to make way for a large 130 acre public park many Karachites remember the theme park fondly.<br /><br />It is located adjacent to Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s mazar (mausoleum). The mausoleum has housed the tomb of Karachi’s protector and patron saint for almost 1400 years. The mazar is also the site where some pious soul relieved me of my wallet. I have no doubt that the pick pocket sought forgiveness for his actions by praying at the holy man’s grave soon after!<br /><br />In the mid-1970s our neighbourhood was not fully developed. By walking around I could easily find ‘swamplands’ which soon became my fishing ‘lakes.’ In hindsight, homemade fishing lines were pretty effective at catching fish (or swamp fish are just starving and will eat anything).<br /><br />The rocky open areas all around our residence made fantastic playgrounds for seven tiles and marbles. My best playmates were two Pashtun brothers who were the sons of a chowkidar (guard) at a neighbouring house.<br /><br />We played together almost every afternoon – as soon as my mother decided the sun was not too strong. The fear of heatstroke was used very effectively by my mother to control my outdoor activities. <br /><br />It’s funny but I never played cricket, hockey or any other field games. They just never appealed to me. I can’t say why.<br /><br />I live in Singapore now. It is a city near the sea.<br /><br />It is orderly, organized and well planned. In 2009, the resident population is approximately 5 million people. The government can tell you the exact number. The population became 5 million because the government had a target to achieve. The government also knows what the population (and ethnic mix?) will be in 2020.<br /><br />Who really knows what the population of Karachi is today. And what the population will be in 2020? And where the new migrants will come from?<br /><br />In my life I have learnt to respect the limitations of planning and the combined power of hope and faith. Karachi lives on hope and faith.<br /><br /><b>[The author runs a blog called <a href="http://imranwrites.blogspot.com/">The Grand Moofti Speaks</a>. The photographer is a marketing professional in a financial services company in Karachi]</b><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894258479/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2590/3894258479_e47ffaaa24_o.jpg" width="375" height="300" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894243451/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2583/3894243451_293f5f96b4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894243443/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2478/3894243443_247555d519.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894243439/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/3894243439_46d873a104.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayankaustensoofi/3894243435/" title="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient by Mayank Austen Soofi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/3894243435_e31f478df9.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Personal History – The Karachi Quotient" /></a><br /><br /><b>Total Karachi</b><br /><br /><a href="http://