My Reflections

Kis qadar taraqqi ne Kar diya maghroor usko aur sabse door usko Jo kabhi yenhi par tha Darmyan hamare tha Pahunch gaya bulandi par Kahkenshan mein taaron ke Baadlon ke bhi oopar Chand ki rafaqat mein Apne ana ki basti mein Haqeeqat hai ki pasti mein Ja basa hai tanha woh Phir suna hai Chahat hai Use laut aane ki Usi veerane basti mein Jise aag lagakar woh Khaak mein mila kar woh Fareb dekar logon ko Manzil ba manzil woh Pahuncha hai bulandi par Lekin us bulandi se Laut kar agar aaya Fareb khurdah basti mein Kaun kahan bacha hoga nahi hoga nahi hoga koi bhi nahi hoga Jo uski aamad par Khushi ke geet gaayega Ta’zeem mein uske phir Apna sar jhukayega Apna dhad jhukayega Bulandi – Height, Maghroor – Arrogant, Darmyan – amidst, Kahkashan – galaxy, rafaaqat – company, Haqeeqat – In fact, Fareb khurda – Cheated, Ta’zeem - Respec

India is an economic bright spot and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. India is also one of the most unequal economies. One third of world's poor live in India. It produces talents who can compete head to head with the talents anywhere in the world. At the same time Indian schools and colleges produce graduates who are unemployable due to poor quality of education. India is attracting people from far away countries for health care at the same time Indians in large number do not get basic health care facility. The expensive health care is single major factor which pushes people down the poverty line. Indian villages especially villages beyond 5 KM of district head quarters lack basic infrastructure very badly. The public schooling system has improved but the quality of education remains a challenge. These contradictions make India a land of paradoxes. Anirudh Krishna, in his book ‘The Broken Ladder’ diagnoses the causes and effects of economic dispari

It is much before the dawn when I woke up. The magical effect of the hour over powers and sends me into trance. The soothing breeze seeps into body through pores and rejuvenates heart and soul. Chirping of bird is music to the ear, the stillness in the air is comforting and the darkness is not scary rather is precursor of hope. No moment is so magical than the time just before the dawn. The singing of bird : cawing of crow, the cooing of cuckoo, the cock-a-doodle do of hen, sqwaking of parrot are announcing the coming of day. The animals appear to be asleep as if they have adopted human life style. The birds are overjoyed as if celebrating surviving the darkness. Yahi taariki toh hai ghaza-e rukhsar-e sahar Subah hone ki hai ai file Betaab thahr Click on the below link for complete nazm of Faiz https://rekhta.org/nazms/ai-dil-e-betaab-thahar-faiz-ahmad-faiz-nazms Kis Qadar Tum Pe Garan Subah Ki Baidari Hai Hain Talakh Bohat Banda’ay Mazdoor Ke Auqat Hum Se

Reading Nadeem Aslam is like living with the characters of his novel. The words keeps echoing, the scene keeps flashing and the characters stay with the readers much after one finishes the book. The author has penchant for detailing scene, event, emotion and expression in his writings. The reader experiences and visualizes Color, smell, sound, pain, fury, cry, smile, and laughter in the course of reading his stories. In fact, the portrayal is so vivid and engrossing that reader is transported to the imaginary world created by writer. Without rousing the sentiments, the author lets readers simmer with the empathy and sympathy for the characters. “Many things in my books come from real life; but a novelist has to be careful in transporting a real event into the landscape of a novel. It is patient work, like moving a lake from one place to another with a teaspoon” writes Naeem Aslam about his own craft. The writer of five novels including “Maps of lost lovers” and “The blindmen’s Gar

Book Review - The Party Worker by Omar Shahid Hamid When a cop writes fiction depicting the unholy nexus of crime, politics and religion, the line between fiction and fact is bound to get blurred. The party worker by Omar Shahid Hamid is a realistic crime thriller. After his father was murdered in cold blood he joined Karachi Police as an officer, witnessed crime world from close quarters, survived Taliban’s attack on his office, took sabbatical and decided to write. Omar produced three best sellers one after the other; overshadowing the previous ones. ‘The Prisoner’ is based on the killing of American journalist, Daniel Pearl, the second novel, ‘The Spinner’s tail’ is on root of terrorism within Pakistani society and the third one ‘The party worker’ is on crime and politics of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Omar Shahid Hamid, son of slain bureaucrat is currently SSP Intelligence of counter Terrorism Department in Karachi. He studied at London school of Ec

Book Review -           Dvarca by Madhav Mathur Imagine a country having one race, one language, and one religion where the state intrudes into personal life of citizen. State decides pregnancy and traits of progeny to be born, distributes quota and type of food for individual, decides profession of people and promotes one language and one religion. The control is such draconian that the thought process is manipulated and conditioned. “Multi-culturism is dead” is boastfully declared. It is futuristic imaginary country depicted by Madhav Mathur in his new novel ‘Dvarca’.  Madhav Mathur a Sigapore based writer, works for an MNC. Dvarca is the second novel by this writer-filmmaker. His first novel is ‘ The diary of an unreasonable man’ . His award winning films ‘ The Insomniac’ and ‘The Outsiders’ have been screened at numerous festivals.  At a time when the ultranationalists and right wing forces are coming to centre stage across the globe, Dvarca is well-timed. The b

Rahzan ko jabse hamne rahbar bana diya Barbadiyon ko apna muqaddar bana diya Bas itna haadsa hua koi bhook se mara Adna si baat ka bhi batangar bana diya Bijli hamare shahr ke hairaan reh gaye Ghar khaak jab hua use behtar bana diya Faishan ki tund hawa pahunchi imam tak Dastaar kholkar use muffler bana diya Maan ki dua mili aur qismat sanwar gaii Kamtar mera naseeb tha bartar bana diya Qalam uske paas tha likhta aman ke geet Fitna prast adeeb ne nashtar bana diya Rahzan - lutera, Rahbar - leader Adna- chhota, Tund - tez, Dastar - Pagdi, Adeeb - writer

Warfare is as old as human civilization so is its history. Indian subcontinent has been witness to bloody conflict and clashes since ages. Epics such as Mahabharata, Ramayana, Alha- Udhal are masterpieces of South Asia's age old tradition of rendering and preserving conflicts in different literary and art forms. India inherited thorny issues left behind by colonial masters at the time of partition which led to altercation and conflict with neighbors. These issues are still pestering making understanding of military history an essential part of statecraft. India can ill afford to ignore the history of conflict in this part of the world. Still t here are few good books on this topic worth visiting. The academics have largely ignored this important area whereas one comes across account of military conflict in memoirs of politicians or retired soldiers. There is dearth of well researched accounts on military history of India. This gap has been filled by  Arjun S