Adil Najam

We have had some fascinating discussions about on ATP about buildings and architecture. A few days ago Pervaiz Munir Alvi took us through a tour of Pakistan’s architectural history (here). His concern about architectural neglect was not unsimilar to that expressed by Raza Rumi (here) and SAJ Shirazi (here) earlier. Earlier we have looked in detail at the architectural legacies of various cities, including Lahore (also here), Karachi (also here), Multan and, of course, had spirited discussions about the new ‘7-star’ hotel – The Centaurus – being built in Islamabad (here and here).

The discussion has been rich and many have already identified what their favorite buildings in Pakistan are. Maybe we should invite others to also join the discussion identify structures that ‘do it’ for them.

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Owais Mughal

While driving back from work tonight, I took a trip down the memory lane. The trip took me back 24 years where I saw a guy named Iftikhar and it made me laugh out loud. Iftikhar was the muffakir (intellectual) and the mascot of our street cricket team. He was especially gifted in coming up with on-the-spot terminologies and one such master piece creation was the word tatoli.

This word does not exist in any language but those who understand Urdu can relate to it from the word tatol. Therefore simply put, a cricketer who fumbles (tatol) a lot is called a tatoli. To understand the concept more see this 29 second video clip.

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Adil Najam and Faris Isam

ATP had first written about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy back in January 2007 when the Toronto Star had named her as “Toronto’s Top 10 to Watch.” We had ended that post with the words, “Congratulations, Sharmeen… ATP will also be watching you in 2007 and beyond!” We have been doing exactly that. And we are delighted to report that Sharmeen has just won an Emmy Award for her gripping Frontline Documentary, “Pakistan: Children of the Taliban.“

Congratulations, again, Sharmeen.

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