Feature / Analysis

Seven long decades

For whom the bell tollsThe 16th day of April 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3:30 pm, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland, wife of Governor of Bombay, along with 400 special invitees, steamed off from Bombay to Thane.Ever sin...

An unposted letter to PM Singh

Dear Mr. Singh,I have never before addressed a person of your stature so do forgive me for my casual style of speech. Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to you and your government for considering over 900 Pakistani Hindu citizens eligible for Indian nationality. It is a great gesture inde...

Apology for murder – too little, too late

German pharmaceutical company “Chemie Gruenenthal” last week apologized to mothers who took the company’s morning sickness medicine called Thalidomide in the 1950s and 1960s and gave birth to children with congenital birth defects. Exactly 50 years ago, Thalidomide was pulled off the market.Thalidom...

Tear down this wall of hatred

Sixty-five years ago, India was divided into two countries, Pakistan and India. It was a decision taken by an ageing empire, in its season of decline. World War II had broken the financial back of British Empire.United India had been destabilized due to widespread support for Subhas Chandra Bose’s ‘...

At Universities, Fracking Research Funded by Oil and Gas Companies

Critics question the legitimacy of industry-funded ‘frackademia.’ Critics are calling it "frackademia"—the nexus between academia and companies with a stake in "fracking," the controversial method of extracting gas and oil from shales.The University of Texas at Austin, for example, endured a major ...

Trout will become extinct in the Iberian Peninsula in less than 100 years

Climate change, pollution, the extraction of water for irrigation and overfishing all threaten the survival of the common trout. This fish is very sensitive to changes in its environment and, according to the Spanish study; its habitat will have reduced by half by the year 2040 and will have complet...

Harvard Says 125 Students May Have Cheated on a Final Exam

CAMBRIDGE, Mass: Harvard University revealed Thursday what could be its largest cheating scandal in memory, saying that about 125 students might have worked in groups on a take-home final exam despite being explicitly required to work alone.The accusations, related to a single undergraduate class in...

UK's Prince Harry deployed to Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan: Prince Harry arrived in Afghanistan on Friday on a four-month military deployment in his role as an Apache helicopter pilot, Britain's Ministry of Defense said. Harry, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and third in line to the British throne, is a captain in Britain's Army Air...

Isn’t Being Bad Good?

The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n. Why one has to struggle to come up to the ideals of goodness every single day? If being good comes so natural to us, than why when half the time we do the bad things we’re cursed and condemned for it? The eternal st...

The Drama Known as Bank

Every person has a place that he secretly loves to hate at all times. Some don’t like to go shopping, some don’t want to visit theatre and many hate going out at all, for no obvious reasons. But I hate going to the bank any day of the year, and I have some very valid reasons! Unlike many people, I o...

Dubai- a Better Home than Karachi?

I am in UAE these days. Just for a week. On vacations. I don’t have a life here; I don’t have a job hence I don’t have anything productive to do. I don’t have friends. I don’t really know the places so I don’t travel alone. I practically have no control in this country. Yet… I feel alive. I am happy...

Two Tales and Two ‘Nice’ Thieves

I just came back to Dubai from Karachi a week back and in a strange way I’m pleased that I came back without being robbed. You have to trust me on this because I am a guy whose mobile phone has been snatched six times on gunpoint in Karachi. Yes, I am a robber magnet. Don’t get me wrong. I love Kara...

Culture Clash With Afghans on Display at Briefing

KABUL, Afghanistan: It was billed as a news briefing by American and Afghan commanders on what the allies are doing to stop insider attacks by Afghan forces against NATO troops. The first question, though, was just about the last thing the three generals on the dais wanted to hear. An Afghan journ...

Ex-Soviet soldier considers himself a 'proud Afghan'

Noor Mohammad is one of dozens of Soviet soldiers who went over to enemy lines in Afghanistan. Today, he has an Afghan wife and six children. He never wants to go back to Russia. "I came to Afghanistan to fight, to serve my country as a soldier," says Siberian-born Noor Mohammad. "I didn't know my...

Kabul attack on female actors leaves survivors facing more 'punishment'

Killing and death threats reveal depth of Afghan society's prejudices against women Kabul: Even after the taunts and threats for appearing on TV, and whispered criticism of "immodest" outfits, the attack on actor sisters Areza and Tamana, and their friend Benafsha, came as a surprise. The trios w...

Hero's Homecoming for Afghan Medallist

Bronze medallist says authorities need to fund sports properly if they want to send athletes to compete. Afghanistan : Afghanistan’s only medal-winner at the London Olympics is delighted with the universal welcome he has received on arriving home, although he bemoans the scant resources available f...

Psychological war

Together with the “war on terror,” the West has unleashed a psychological war on Pakistan, using its powerful media. As in the case of the Gulf War of 1991, the invasion of Iraq, on the baseless charge that that country possessed weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Afghanistan, the “war on ...

An Impregnable Defence

During the 1965 War I was an eight year old schoolboy. I still remember the thrill and excitement of those heady days. Being the son of an air force officer, I had a ringside view of the war. We saw fighter aircraft flying off into the wild blue yonder to target places with exotic names like Adampu...

Where Pakistan-America Relations are Heading?

Policy makers in Pakistan are burning the midnight oil pondering over the recent developments (or degradations for that matter) regarding the Pakistan-USA relationship and where it is heading. This is not an easy task because there are many gray areas as the relations are intertwined in a complex fa...

Patriotism and Brands

Independence Day gives a chance to all brands to pledge their allegiance to patriotic causes and show how their brand correlates tothe spirit of Pakistan. Like every year, this year too, brands came up with various Independence Day campaigns. Here is a glimpse on how each campaign fared. 1. Ufo...

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