Owais Mughal

(1) A Punjabi/Arabic poem on basant

And there is a lot more to this post below – to make your weekend.

Deeda-e-Beena

The entire discussion on the so called Kerry-Lugar aid package has hardly touched on its most important aspects: The Money and its “development” Aid implications for the People!

Much has been said about the political, nationalistic and mostly circumstantial aspects of this event. Here views are expressed to focus on a few of the substantive matters of this aid, ostensibly for human development. Aid, of which the stated beneficiaries are the common people – the so called Awam has to be reviewed in that context.

Up to $ 7.5 Billions in 5 years through periodic/annual reviews of which Up to $ 1.5 Billion a year may be committed for the betterment of the people of Pakistan under the Law just signed by the US President.

Raza Rumi

As I hold the recently published “The Oxford Book of Urdu Short Stories” in my hands, I cannot help bemoan the fact that Urdu literature has been almost invisible from the arena of global literature. Admittedly, translation is difficult; the tediousness of translation daunts many a brave heart. Having said that, there have been a handful of remarkable translators such as Khalid Hassan, Alamgir Hashmi, CM Naim, Aamer Hussain, Umer Memon and Rakhshanda Jalil, to name a few. But a wide corpus of Urdu literature lies forlorn and hidden from global readership, which alas is dominated by English language readers. For this very reason, Amina Azfar has done a remarkable job of compiling a collection of Urdu short stories. Her earlier translations have been competent and quite often lyrical. For instance, Akhtar Hussain Raipuri’s Gard-e-Rahh (the dust of the road) and Sajjad Zaheer’s Roshnai ( the Light ) are noteworthy for their tone.