Owais Mughal

We were recently walknig in the back alleys of Naples. The scene was very traditional Italian. In narrow pathways there were shops selling all kinds of merchandise from colorful pasta to miniature art, guitars to fountain pens and old books. There were children playing football in every open space. In all this traditional Itlaian set up I suddenly heard a Bollywood tune. As I looked up I saw this signboard which showed Aishwarya with a raised hand serving what we in Pakistan call a “Bun-Kebab” (or is it “Bund-Kabab”?).

Adil Najam

All Things Pakistan was launched with a remix video I had made back in 2006, based on Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Hum DaikhaiN Gay, as  – in some ways ATP was launched because of that video. More than four years and more than three hundred thousand views later (on YouTube) that video still seems to be relevant, and this blog keeps going on.

I had not remixed another video since then. Until now. (Or view at YouTube).

This one is not quite as sweeping a political commentary as the first video. But I hope that it is relevant – on Pakistan’s Great Flood of 2010 – and maybe the song and words in the background will also move you in the same way that they always move me.

Owais Mughal

Amidst all the talks of donor fatigue, what I saw in Italy myself has made me very heartened.

Last week I was buying coke in a store in Rome. A radio in the shop was blaring a pop song. After the song finished I heard the words of ‘Pakistan’ and ‘Emergency’ on the radio. Hearing these two words together of-course got my attention. The short speech was in Italian which I didn’t understand so I asked the shopkeeper what it was and in her limited English capacity she told me it was an ad for collecting donations for Flood victims in Pakistan.

I was indeed heartened.