reclaim your voice.
I’ve written short stories for as long as I can remember. If I re-read them now they go from being painfully hormonal, hyper-emotional to more nuanced, better crafted, with less telling and more showing. For a year or so now, I feel this is somewhat close to what fiction is meant to be — the…
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Early March 2019, I walked past security into Sindh’s magnificent Governor House. The inaugural Adab Festival – a three-day event to celebrate and discuss culture, literature, and society was happening on its premise. I had made a shortlist of the panel discussions I would attend – the foremost being one on education. Like most young…
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you’re at a lunch party, talking lessforking a bruschetta, careful not to make a messthinking of a cheeseburger, of the galaxies and Euler’s Identitynot the colour of your lip matte but you know you’re a bit of bore, a bit of a vagrantyou’re not thinking of a Hamptons vacationin this assemblyyour reticence is your salvation…
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Being in an all-female Facebook group with thousands of members is tough. The daily drill is almost nauseous. A provocative post, ruffled norms, offended egos, ad hominem thrown left, right, and center. The better ones have policies against such abusive activity — policies that are often selectively applied to the advantage of a particular troupe.…
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This story has no agenda. It is derived from one of many true stories, only a small anecdote from the horrific trials of the long subjugated people of Kashmir. Names and places have been changed; no parties have been named. That, really, is the tragedy of Kashmir; the opacity with which its narrative is presented…
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Do you ever notice how menstrual sanitary equipment is to be kept out of sight at all times but when you ask your brothers to clean their pubic hair off the toilet seat they tell you shut up and your mum says it’s natural, they’re boys? Do you ever want to tear your own eyes…
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The argument is often made that social media is a harbinger of freedom of expression into the 21st century — but is it really free? This is not to implicate the online troll armies that will threaten rape and plunder if the illegal occupation of a regime they support is questioned. There is something that…
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UN sustainable development goal 4.1 demands the provision of ‘free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education’ to all boys and girls. Education is our remedy to social ills and a golden pass to an inclusive, prosperous future. The problem is that education today is not free or equitable; it is almost without exception a…
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You’re a student with no talents — the one that doesn’t know how to sing, or play the piano, or ice-skate. You can’t debate because your arguments don’t come out the way they sound in your head. The only thing about you that sometimes peaks are your grades. You want to be athletic and confident…
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