Raza Rumi
There was a Lahore that I grew up in, and then there is the Lahore that I live in now. Recovering from an exile status for two decades, I find myself today turning into something of a clichéd grump, hanging desperately on to the past. Yet I resist that. Writing about Lahore is a [...]

Adil Najam
Massachusetts - where I currently live - takes its Fall (Autumn) season very seriously. The main attraction is ‘Fall Foliage’; the changing of leaf colors as autumn sets in. The official Massachusetts website proudly proclaims that, “Fall is a glorious time to visit Massachusetts. The trees wear magical coats of crimson, gold, and scarlet [...]

Adeel Khan
When I was boarding Emirates’ EK623 to Karachi, Pakistan, I was so not looking forward to endless electricity shortages, carbon-polluted air and the crass conversations that are punctuated with materialistic garble, so typical of Pakistan’s upper-middle class. I knew little that this trip would be the most fascinating, mentally relaxing trip that will be [...]

Umar Shah
Clicking on photos in this article will take you to their high resolution and large size images.
Nine hundred and forty eight years after Hijra,
A great fort was built by a ruler,
The emperor, the lion from whom the world flees,
Whose good fortune is reflected in his grandeur
These words, now faded, are inscribed in Persian on [...]

Owais Mughal
The ‘Good’:
A small news item appeared recently in Dawn which captured the imagination of quite a few people. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), a constituent of Government of Pakistan, on September 17, 2008, approved 51 development projects and among them was also included the approval for Karachi Circular Railway.

The ‘Bad’:
On September 23, [...]

Owais Mughal
Most of our readers may know that K2, the world’s second highest peak, is also called Mount Godwin-Austen. It is named after Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen (1834-1923) who was an Assistant on the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. He was the first one to survey the area in modern times (1860s).
He wrote [...]