The man who lives and loves Karate
Srinagar: Karate, a Japanese sport of ‘unarmed combat’ is gaining popularity in Kashmir and in last couple of years, a number of young players here, who are pursuing this sport have bagged awards both at national as well as international levels. Shaping the skills of Karate players who can compete in national and international sports […]
Chinks in the Board
What happens when one of the world’s largest school education systems is pilloried in the media for all the wrong reasons? Credibility is the first casualty. The sacred thread that binds a student, her faith in examinations and the fairness with which it is conducted, can never be traded.
The more we change, the more we seem to remain the same — or even get worse. In 2010, the government made Class 10 exams optional to mitigate exam-related stress. In February this year, the PM specially addressed students on how to beat exam stress. The pressure of examinations is bad enough. But if it […]
Malala: an ordinary girl
Malala is an ordinary girl. She is what so many Pakistani girls can be. And that’s what makes her a larger-than-life symbol and, therefore, so scary to so many people. Like any hero, she symbolises a lot more than what she is.
Take away this symbolic power, this projection of our own inner angels foisted upon the people we admire, and any great man or woman will appear somewhat ordinary. Heroes symbolise our inner battles and provide us a rallying ground to fight our external struggles. Malala is more than an ordinary hero. She represents […]
Eating Disorders
INTRODUCTION There is a commonly held view that eating disorders sprout from lifestyles. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a persons eating behaviors and subsequently impact the overall psycho-physical health. These illnesses that are characterized by irregular eating habits and severe distress are actually serious concerns confronting […]
Educating Syria’s lost generation
As his house burned down, he ran inside to grab his university ID. Meet the man teaching Syria's lost generation.
“The bombings were getting closer and closer,” says Dr Nasser Alzhouri. As the war in Syria raged, the Alzhouri family home burned down. Alzhouri and his son, Suliman, set off for Lebanon. The only thing Alzhouri took with him was his degree certificate. Unbeknown to his father, Suliman had snuck back into their house to […]
Abdel Halim Hafez’s music lives on, 41 years after his death
The popular Arab singer died on March 30, more than four decades ago, but his legacy continues.
Abdel Halim Hafez’s first appearance on the national theatre in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria in the summer of 1951 was not as glamorous as he had hoped. His new song, Safeeni Marra (Be Nice To Me Once), met boos, tomatoes and flying eggs. The audience wanted him to perform other songs for well-known singer […]
A murder mystery that is also a comment on the woman question
A Murder on Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Perveen Mistry, the lawyer-turned-detective in the book, A Murder on Malabar Hill, first made an appearance in the novella titled Outnumbered at Oxford published in 2015. In that story, Perveen is studying law at St. Hilda’s in Oxford — one of the few Indians studying at Oxford in the early 1900s. An elderly mathematics professor […]
Meg Wolitzer’s New Novel Takes On the Politics of Women’s Mentorship
It will be tempting for most critics to approach “The Female Persuasion” through the lens of the current political climate — perhaps nigh impossible for them not to. Meg Wolitzer’s 12th novel begins with a campus assault that leads to a protest that leads to an intergenerational feminist debate that takes a turn for the […]
Habib Jalib: the people’s poet and historian
Despite oppression and persecution of the speakers of the truth, there have always been brave souls in every period of history
‘Had I passed away last year These sorrows too would have ended last year The hands raised in enquiry are now paralysed with fear My patrons were not like this last year’ (Habib Jalib, On My Birthday, 1975) If Urdu, as a language, has produced any ‘people’s poet’ after Nazeer Akbarabadi, then it is Habib […]
AUSTRALIA’S HALL OF SHAME
And they form “Leadership Groups” to enter into it
As a cricket addict I often expect Australians to play unfairly and resort to certain degree of unsporting behavior, ranging from sledging to racial abuse, in order to demoralize the opponent. However what happened in Cape Town on 24th March during ongoing Australia – South Africa Test series was shockingly unexpected even from an Australian […]
