Author: imadahmed

Lahore, Pakistan, Published Features, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Search and thou shalt find

imadahmed

Imaduddin Ahmed | The Friday Times BNU’s School of Visual Design provides vocational training to artists; it also offers a liberal arts education and the promise of an educated, cultivated citizenry Lahore is touted as Pakistan’s cultural capital and if you’ve visited danka.com.pk, you’ll see why. Information about the where and when of art exhibitions, lectures, music recitals, theatre and dance performances reveal that seldom is there an evening without a cultural event in our midst. One such event that I took a visiting college friend to was the end of semester show at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) … Continue reading Search and thou shalt find

Lahore, Pakistan, Published Features, The Friday Times, Women's rightsLeave a comment

You are what you eat

imadahmed

Imaduddin Ahmed | The Friday Times A holistic vision of health, identity and ethical farming Developments in the laboratory have enabled cultivators to grow more food for the world’s burgeoning population, but at a cost. People in the developed world have been worrying about health hazards associated with pesticides, nitrate fertilisers and (genetically modified) GM crops. All these are believed to be linked with cancer, damage to the environment and other health problems. This consciousness has spread all over the world; regrettably, unhealthy eating is not as big a concern in Pakistan as it should be. But things are changing, … Continue reading You are what you eat

Pakistan, Pakistani Initiatives1 Comment

Story time

imadahmed

The Friday Times Imaduddin Ahmed | April 3, 2006 The Alif Laila Book Bus has inculcated the reading habit in thousands of children “The classroom our primary school-goer enters is bereft of colour. Stark walls stare her/him in the face and dilapidated desks and chairs must do. . . In walks the teacher, who must shout if she is ever to be heard by what has now become a medley of high-pitched sound . . . Lessons commence with facts being repeated by fifty odd disinterested voices, each trying to outdo the other in loudness . . . and so … Continue reading Story time

PakistanLeave a comment

Wagah Border – Amitava Kumar

imadahmed

‘In the distance, I could see Pakistani viewers sitting on a similar structure on the other side. As I watched them, an energetic man in a cream shalwar-kameez got up and began to lead the Pakistanis in shouting slogans. “Pakistan . . . ” he would say, “Zindabad!” the crowd responded. The Indians watched this for a while, and then around me the voices rose in response. “Bharat Mata ki . . . Jai!” Then, the tone changed and both sides began to shout slogans calling for the death and destruction of the other [ . . . ] There was genuine passion present there, but it was … Continue reading Wagah Border – Amitava Kumar

Diaspora Identity, Pakistan, Published Features, Published Work, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Playing to the homesick crowd

imadahmed

by Imaduddin Ahmed The Friday Times | 24 March, 2006 For expatriates, cricket represents a tangible symbol of being Pakistani and gives hope that better times lie ahead [newer version] I grew up in England, yet I never felt ‘English’. I was born in Lahore but emigrated months after via San Francisco to England, where I would live the next 18 years, before returning to the San Francisco Bay Area for university. “To be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life,” colonialist Cecil Rhodes once asserted. Not born English, but naturalised as a Brit at … Continue reading Playing to the homesick crowd

Islam, Published Features, Published Work, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Questions are never indiscreet: answers sometimes are

imadahmed

The Friday Times | Feb 22, 2006 Imaduddin Ahmed “Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim” By Ziauddin Sardar; Granta Books (2004); Pp 356; Rs 445  Islam is all the rage. The charade Hudood laws debate continues in parliament as I write, taking prime media space. Scholars and politicos are discussing how Islamic the Hudood laws are. The Islamist politicos in favour of the Hudood laws say they are defending the Shariah. Yet how often do you hear ‘the Shariah’ being questioned as a valid basis for law?. . . I thought so. Want to see how it is questioned? In his book … Continue reading Questions are never indiscreet: answers sometimes are

Lahore, Published Features, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Legging it

imadahmed

The Friday Times | Feb 13, 2006 Imaduddin Ahmed The Lahore Marathon: a day of mixed success It was ‘Run Lahore Run’ day and I had run out of run. I was walking to complete the 5km ‘Fun Race’. With me was a motley collection of retired army officers, schoolboys in tight jeans and open slippers and other slim but struggling young men, also getting a reality check about their fitness levels. As I approached the finish line, I heard young men cheering in the distance behind me. I could guess the cause – my friend Jacqueline Fellner, who had … Continue reading Legging it

Lahore, Pakistan, Published Features, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Marx out of ten

imadahmed

The Friday Times | Jan 3, 2006 Imaduddin Ahmed Why Pakistani communism lags behind India’s – an encounter with Taimur Rahman “Marxist” is not a term of abuse in India, at least not to the voting majority in West Bengal or Tripura where the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), currently holds government, or to its over 800,000 paying, participating and versed members. The CPI(M), also a dominant force in Arundhati Roy’s Kerala, is only one of several communist parties in India and boasts to be India’s third strongest party in the national parliament. CPI(M) Marxism is an institution … Continue reading Marx out of ten

Lahore, Pakistan, Published Features, The Friday TimesLeave a comment

Making it happen

imadahmed

“I thought this was a dead nation, but the earthquake has woken us up. Everybody is doing what they can. You can see collection points on every chowk. Even children are collecting door-to-door and contributing pocket-money,” commented my dentist, a few days after the earthquake. An NGO executive had a different perspective: “People have been surprised at the activism of ordinary Pakistanis in the wake of the earthquake. But we have known this for a long time; indeed, we’ve relied on the activism of civil society. Our paid staff can only do so much; we wouldn’t be able to run … Continue reading Making it happen