A very interesting review of William Dalrymple’s latest, on the rise of the East India Company, in the LA Review of Books. Articulates my vague unease about his school of post-imperial wokeness that is so popular amongst the chattering Pakistani readership.
Flashbacks
In around 1995, I and a couple of friends at my posh private girls’ school wrote a play retelling Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I played Sir Gawain, a friend played the Green Knight, another played King Arthur and a fourth played The Mouse. The Mouse character was added in because we wanted to […]
Old haunt
Here I am in KLIA in the middle of the night, a place I’ve passed through many, many times at this hour, when the flights from Pakistan typically arrive. This time I’ve made my way to the lounge as my connecting flight is several hours away, and am just about to doze. I wore a […]
Left behind
Last night I went to a dinner for Lahore’s beautiful people, a crowd I was not particularly interested in when I lived in Lahore, and even less so now that I feel so far away. It’s funny though how one can feel sad about not fitting in, even with a group one doesn’t particularly want […]
Fallout
A bit of Brexit fallout already as I hear that a relative by marriage, a French national, has had her application for indefinite leave to remain in the UK (with a British spouse and two British children) declined because she didn’t have proof she was in the country during the period of her maternity leave […]
Smoke and ash
Yesterday, as I was sitting glumly staring at my computer, my father decided to have harmal done. This is a hallucinogenic plant that is burned as a folk remedy for allergies. A small brazier was taken from room to room, and the ground seeds cast upon it to fill the house with a pall of […]
Morning after
So Britain has left Europe, and like millions of others in the UK, Europe and beyond, I feel an inestimable sadness. I became a UK citizen only about seven years ago, and lived in the UK only about 11 years in total, and in all this time the European Union was a shining light that […]
Clean out
As part of my ongoing cleanout of the Lahore house, I hired a Filipina woman yesterday, for two days of intensive cleaning. I generally feel rather conflicted about Pakistanis who employ Filipina maids as I find it exploitative of the maids and unfair to the many, many poor Pakistanis who are not employed, paid those […]
Lap of luxury
I went to see The Gentleman last night, of which I knew nothing at all, though once it began I realised I did know that Hugh Grant had a film in which he gleefully played a scuzzy tabloid journalist of the sort he loathes and established an actual NGO about. It was entertaining stuff: very […]
Global sniffles
Fires, wars, fascists, now plague. Probably more that has slipped my mind. The decade continues its winning streak. A hypochondriac aunt is convinced she’s down with coronavirus in the States; every sniffle and sneeze here in Lahore is regarded with suspicion. Unfortunate, as in this smog season everyone, including myself, has a cold and a […]