Adil Najam

I have been to The Second Floor (T2F to friends) twice. First, in September 2007 when I tagged along with Teeth Maestro Awab Alvi to a Karachi bloggers meetup there while passing through Karachi. Next, more recently, in December 2008, when invited by Zakintosh Zaheer Kidvai and Sabeen Mahmud to give a talk there on democracy in the Muslim world (here for how I got there; here for what I did there).

Each time I left enthused and invigorated. Felling good that such a place not only existed, but seemed to be thriving, in Karachi. I have mentioned to many that the fact that it did was testimony to the intellectual vibrancy of Pakistan and Pakistanis. A sign, even if a small one, that all has not been lost. A sign, more importantly, that the young in Pakistan are not ready to give up. Not just yet.

Pakistaniat

There were a number of reasons that made me think before putting this picture up. Not least of which is that we try to stay away from bathroom humor here at ATP. However, I have been laughing so hard since I first saw this photograph at Adnan Siddiqi’s blog that I just had to share it with our readers.

Adil Najam