Adil Najam

This photograph, was taken yesterday (Nov. 2) by Khalid Tanveer of the Associated Press. Take from a different angle, it continues to boggle the mind. It is a train coming back from Multan after a religious congregation. Was this just a photo-op or were they actually traveling like this.

Did anyone call the Gunniess Book of World Records to count the number of people stuck to the train?

Asma Mirza

Few days back I spotted this picture in DAWN, taken in a family park of Lahore.

I had to look closer to get an idea of merriness in the Merry Go Ride. Clinging at a good 180 degree the risk is just too evident.

Considering the usual state of maintenance at such parks, I personally won’t opt for riding one. Would you?

Image Courtesy: Dawn

Adil Najam

These pictures from the Associated Press need no commentary. They demand our attention. Our empathy. And, wherever we can, our action.

Yasser Latif Hamdani

Ours is a mismanaged country but one with potential to amply fulfill the needs of its citizenry. In so far as our economy goes, there is nothing that is wrong with it structurally.

Prima facie Pakistan’s current economic difficulties emerge out of high import bill and corresponding lack of investment.  The huge rise in the oil price internationally over the last few years along with an international crisis of agriculture production has affected this country just like it has affected all countries around the world.   For us, it also has to do with the unique geo-political role that we are forced to play without an effective negotiator on the top.

The recession in the West has given us breathing space. The oil price is now back down into the US$60 to a barrel range on the international market.  This is – as with all capitalist systems- an automatic correction of what was an unusually high increase in the costs of fueling the global economic system.

Darwaish

A powerful earthquake has hit different parts of Balochistan this morning. The current confirmed death toll is 165 and thousands of people have been injured who have been shifted to local hospitals. Thousands of homes have been completely destroyed leaving at least 15,000 people homeless in extremely harsh cold weather.

Officials are saying there were two tremors, striking at about 0409 and then 0510 PST followed by at least three aftershocks. While the memories of devastating earthquake of 2005 are still fresh which killed more than 73,000 people in NWFP and Kashmir, this one seems to be of slightly lesser magnitude of 6.4. I was watching Geo Tv and the worst-hit area appears to be Ziarat, about 50km north of Quetta, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses have been destroyed in five villages. Although the city of Ziarat is relatively safe but some nearby villages have been complete destroyed and many homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake. It follows on the heels of the devastating 2007 cyclone in Balochistan (also here) and the continued political tensions in the province that have all taken a cumilating toll on the population.

Owais Mughal

The scene below is from June 01, 2008 where people are seen pushing a broken down bus near S.M. College, Karachi. The photo is a very good representative of our society in literal as well as philosophical way.

Let me tell you why I think so..

Zakintosh

Continued from Part 1, here.

When you have had the benefit of a 25-year stint at sea (1959-1984), there is bound to be much that is narratable and shareable, with some of it even of interest to a few people outside your immediate family.

But this post is, primarily, about Gupta Cha (and his family) - so I shall make only brief references to the other parts which will be covered in greater detail in “Ships and Shoes and Sealing Wax” (if that “book+” ever gets completed).

However, as indicated at the end of my previous post, the real conclusion to the tale - which took place last year - will make up the second half of this post. The first will be spent breezing through the intervening years.

Ok, so it’s 1947, the last day of September.