Asma Mirza

sadd rang meri mauj hay, main tab’ey rawaa’n hoon

This verse always crosses my mind whenever the name of Ibn-e-Insha is mentioned around. A poet, columnist, humorist, and travelogue writer loved for past five decades by Urdu language readers around the globe.

I still remember the first time I got introduced to Insha Ji’s witty writings. Twelve or thirteen years back while going through my sister’s Urdu text book, I came across a lesson taken from a strangely named book “Urdu Ki Aakhri Kitab”. The name of book was catchy enough for me, I read the whole lesson within few minutes. From then on, there was no stopping to the admiration nurtured within me for this great unique writer.

Born as Sher Muhammad Khan on June 15, 1927 in Jalandhar (Indian Punjab), he did his BA from Punjab University and MA from Urdu College Karachi (Federal Urdu University of now). Then, remained associated with Radio Pakistan – a strong medium of Mass Communication in 50’s and 60’s. Later, he joined UN for some time and from that association came the travelogues widely read and liked, such as Awara Gard ki Diary, Duniya Gol Hay, Ibn e Batuta kay Taa’qub May, Chaltay ho tu Cheen ko Chaliyay and Nagri Nagri Phira Musafir.

Owais Mughal

Following is a collection of Clock Tower (ghanta ghar) images from Pakistan. Can you tell us where are they located? Once part of every major public building, Clock towers have now gone out of fashion from modern architecture. For Quiz purposes let us number following images from (1) through (9) starting from top left, then going across and then down the rows. Answers to the quiz are given at the end of this post below.

Hints: The clock Tower photos in this post are from 3 provinces of Pakistan and from 10 different cities. Some Clock Towers may have multiple images included in this post.

Adil Najam

The much-anticipated, and now posthumus, new book by Benazir Bhotto – Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West – is to be released soon and excerpts were printed today in the Sunday Times (London).

I have read the excerpts but have not read the book yet. I am very eager to read the book and just placed an order for an advance copy. I will, therefore, hold my judgment on the book until I have actually read it.

It seems, however, that others are not willing to do so. My email in-box is full of messages already of all sorts of people claiming how this or that line in the excerpts “conclusively” proves that so-and-so killed her. Even if the book will point towards motivations and even though the extracts released relates to the first attack on her, days before her assassination, such speculations seems presumtious.