There is a bird feeder hanging from the ceiling of the small veranda outside the living room, overlooking the garden. It’s a pretty little veranda, filld with plants, including some from my time in London which are doing far, far better now that they are no longer subject to my care. There are always birds […]
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Farewell nihari
I was struck by a pang today, realising that in the months ahead I would have no chance for good nihari. There will be meaty food in Lebanon but without mirch masala. There will be mirch masala in Nepal (I assume) but no meat and certainly no nihari. New Zealand and Australia – fug, as […]
Unusual sociability, continued
I went for lunch with a relative of the Gentleman Friend, the sort of person who cares so hard that he doesn’t let himself feel it. His particular obsession is wildlife, and he is better travelled to see it than anyone else I know. It was a pleasant lunch; he had some advice about New […]
Unusual sociability
An Amazon package (two pairs of silk toe socks suitable as liners) arrived later than expected and I went off to Queensway to find myself a Cantonese roast duck from Gold Mine. There was a very long queue but a Chinese briskness to getting people in and out, so it wasn’t more than a 20 […]
Glimmer of possibility
Imran has addressed the nation. It’s a good speech. Miles away from Trump’s inauguration address, say. Imran is a notoriously khapti individual, who bashes his head against walls until he gets what he’s set his heart on, so maybe there’s a glimmer of hope, or at least the possibility of hope, that this may be […]
Another thing
That occurs to me is perhaps we are seeing a return towrds national parties instead of regional ones. The last election had a stark split between the provinces: PTI in KP, PML(N) in Punjab, PPP and MQM in Sindh and ostensibly PML(N) in Balochistan but in reality a mix of local powers and parties. This […]
Distant manzil
It is the day after and Imran Khan is on his way towards becoming prime minister. We Pakistanis are really ahead of the game; we’ve had our proto-Trump for about ten years. Fortunately Imran will be more constrained than Trump, and certainly have less power to cause damage. With any luck, they’ll run Pakistan as […]
Congregation of pain
Today is the day. Dozens dead already in bomb blasts and shoot outs and car accidents; imagine if there had been a death toll to a US election! In some ways the best outcome would be a PTI government – to paraphrase Asma Jehangir quoted on How to Pakistan, so the bastards learn what it […]
Four votes
I met a longstanding client for lunch at the British Library. I’ve worked with him for years now, but this is the first time we met. He studies Ethiopia and was lamenting that he had to redo bits of his recently-completed monograph after the political changes in the country, with Abiy taking power. Fortunately none […]
Bad daal
I tried making daal last night from a freshly bought bag. it was ordinary masoor daal, which shouldn’t take more than 1/2 an hour to cook, less if it’s presoaked, and follow my usual measurement of 1/4 to 1/3 daal to 2 1/2 cups water. This daal was soaked for 2 hours, needed at least […]