Adil Najam

I have always been mesmerized by Rashma’s voice. It is a voice unlike any other I know. Truly it is the voice of the desert – unending in its breadth and unrelenting in its depth. A voice that comes from the heart and a one that always touches the heart.

Although she is probably best known for her film song lambi judai, I must confess that is not a particular favorite of mine. My favorite has always been her rendition of Shahbaz Qalandar; something that I have had the pleasure of listening to, from her, more than once.

A song that does full justice to the phenomenon that is Reshma is the Punjabi favorite Kithey nain na jourin. I have long felt that no one else could possibly sing this song. Nor should they try. But recently I saw this video of a young man singing this very song, with a beaming Reshma sitting in the audience and encouraging him along. He was no match to Reshma’s original but the tenor of the voice was unmistakable. This is Reshma’s son (I believe his name is Sawan) singing Kithey nain na jorien.

Adil Najam

We want to do a blogging experiment (which requires us to put all comments under moderation) and really let our readers write this post on Pakistan’s Elections 2008. What we are doing is not unique, but there is a twist to how we wan to do it.

First, here is the question we want you to answer for us:

Please tell us which political leader or party you support, or you think should be supported, in Pakistan’s elections 2008 and why?

Now, here are the rules – and we will implement these rules strictly, so please do read them carefully. All comments that meet these criteria will be published. Comments that do not meet these criteria will not.

Rule #1: It is not enough to say who you think should be supported, you need to tell us WHY you think they should be supported. In fact, getting to the WHY is the only real point to the exercise.

Rule #2: We understand the importance of comparison and competition in politics, but you are NOT allowed to say who should NOT be supported (or why they should not be supported). You can only tell us who should be supported and why. You can only tell us who you think is ‘good’ and what is ‘good’ about them. Any mention at all of who you think is ‘bad’ or what is ‘bad’ about others will disqualify the comment.

Rule #3. Please do not try to be too “clever.” We are sure you are all very bright and we also know that you are passionate about your preferences. All of that is very good. However, in our moderation we will err on the side of caution and delete any attempt at all to circumvent Rule #2. So, please read your comment carefully before submission to make sure that it cannot be inadvertently understood as an attempt to get around Rule #2.




Rule #4. This brings us to our last and final rule. All comments on this post are placed automatically in moderation and will appear only after a system moderator approves them as having met the rules laid out here. Over the next couple of days we will try to look at the moderation queue as often as we can to reduce the time that comments stay in moderation. However, do please expect some delays between your posting a comment and its appearing here. Also, if you feel that your comment has been moderated, you are welcome to repost the comment this time wording it in a way that meets all these rules, especially Rule #2. While commenters are welcome to post comments more than once – especially if they are building on someone else’s comment – we will remove multiple comments from the same person if the content is the same or very similar; please, do not try to spam us with such repeated comments.

If you think that your leader or party has not gotten a fair deal from us at ATP or the media or the electorate, here is your opportunity to make a case for them. You can make a case for anyone you want. You just cannot make a case against anyone.

I realize that we do often make choices based primarily on what or who we do not like, rather than who or what we like. There is nothing wrong per se with that, but for our purpose we are taking that option off the table.

Too many of us take too much please, too often, in being cynical. Therefore, I suspect that focusing on our positive energies might turn out to be rather difficult for some of our readers. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.

Darwaish

Everyone these days seems to be talking about the elections, the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto and its impact on federation of Pakistan, the ever high anti Pakistan and anti Army sentiment in Sindh, Balochistan and FATA. The ordinary Pakistanis, middle and lower class in particular, are faced with a long list of other serious crises (making their daily lives a misery) which, unfortunately, have got very little attention. Latest in the list are the Power crisis/Load-shedding, water, Sui Gas and Flour or Wheat crisis.
The Power crisis or Load-shedding has been so severe since last 2 weeks or so that here in Lahore, we feel like living in caveman’s era. After every 30 minutes electricity goes off and we have to sit in the candle lights (except for the 5% who have generators:)) and wander around in the darkness. There are many areas of old city which are often without any electricity, gas or water for entire day in this extremely cold weather.