A neighbour is a senior politician and though one notorious for cutting his sail to the wind, is wanted by the authorities in the current situation. All the streets around our house are barricaded and full of very miserable policemen (one told me, plaintively, that he wished it would all end as he was sick […]
Lungis
Went down a rabbit hole of sorts, thinking about lungis, the sarongs worn in Pakistan, now largely by ancient farmworkers, at least in the urban imagination. There must have once been a whole spectrum of them, as they were handwoven. Each region with its own patterns? In Jhang I hear the weave could you tell […]
Dining with the neoliberals
Invited to dinner by a relative I’m fond of and reached to find that she’d also invited a couple of other aunts and uncles. It was an uninteresting evening, though enlivened by a couple of neoliberal uncles of a kind whom I, in my global woke bubble, rarely encounter, so it was refreshing to see […]
Tea time of the new school
Went with a friend to her place. She now lives in the upstairs portion of her grandmother’s house in belated acknowledgement of adulthood whilst an unmarried woman. The joys of being 40. Had tea with her and another friend in this interesting new environment, however conversation was dominated by the punctures on the second friend’s […]
Sacred calling
It’s so bad, Allah forgive me, but for me Buddhism is very interesting. You know, I really like the teaching. It speaks to my heart. My favourite Buddhist teaching is that life is terrible. So true.
Old school tea time
Went to a school friend’s place for tea this afternoon. She and her mother live alone and were our closest neighbours when I was in my teens. We carpooled together. The house looked and felt much the same, but the occupants were older and less angry than they used to be. Age comes to us […]
Lockdowns
This evening I was supposed to go to a birthday dinner, and in fact was supposed to convey some essential components of the dinner including the cake, the candles and a bag of smoked salmon. Then, about half an hour before I was to leave I got a message saying wait. The venue is in […]
News and views
The Dawn newspaper today, with three quite ridiculous headlines of roughly equal seriousness: A journalist of my acquaintance popped by this afternoon and was more despairing than I’ve ever seen him, and this is someone who reported during the terrorism years. I must say, I share his glumness at the tide of unseriousness that has […]
Talisman
There is black magic afoot here in Lahore. A few days before I arrived a taweez, a talisman made of a scrap of green fabric was found hanging from my grandmother’s bookshelf, inscribed with mysterious letters. It was promptly burnt as the protests made it impossible at the time to take the prescribed remedy of […]
Fine fish
Had my blowout meal in Bangkok this evening, at one of the city’s best sushi places. It was very good, quite a delight, and plenty of things I’d not tried before, such as a baby snapper and seasonal squids and eels. I didn’t go for the premium omakase which cost half again as much though […]