meethapani

  Rumpelstiltskin, a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, tells the story of a poor miller’s daughter who was locked up each night to turn straw into gold until the King found her worthy of becoming his bride. The only way she achieved this was with the help of a dubious character, Rumpelstiltskin, but this help came at a price: first for her necklace, then her ring and then the promise of her first born child. It is tempting to see the King as the exploitative nations, the miller and his daughter as the exploited and enslaved, and Rumpelstiltskin as the international agencies that offer loans forcing countries into the trap of eternal debt servicing.   The miller’s daughter escapes from her debt to Rumpelstiltskin by identifying his hidden name. The world, too, is finally exposing the well-guarded truths, the identities of hidden forces, that have enslaved nations largely by controlling the narrative.   The lofty edifices that filled the world with awe and wonder, pro...

  A couple of weeks ago, a midday poetry reading session was held. Literary aficionados, Bari Mian and Wajid Jawad read out a selection of poems, with members of the audience contributing their own favourites. In the midst of the mayhem of war, there was something restorative and moving about these two speakers, each with a small well-thumbed pocket sized notebook bursting with paper bookmarks marking the poems to be read. Most cultural events are held in the evenings, often extending well into the night. This was different. A couple of hours in the middle of the day. A hiatus between the busyness of the morning and what may well be a fraught evening. It was not a rest, a siesta, but a secret energizing, a waking of the soul when many in the city were bent over desks, reconciling accounts. Midday is seen as a powerful time of the day, when the sun is at its zenith, creating no shadow.   A time of sharp clarity, intensity, perfect illumination, exposing the truth of thing...

  War or Peace? War is presented as an integral part of human society. There are wars for territorial expansion, wars of resistance, punitive or wars of revenge, wars for liberation. Some wars are fierce, aimed at annihilation of the enemy. Some are wars of attrition, much like the sieges of the past, aimed to exhaust the adversary's capability to fight, depleting resources and morale. Wars seem easy to start, but few know how to negotiate the peace. While there have been many truces, there have been very few successful peace treaties. The oldest surviving peace treaty was the Treaty of Kadesh, signed around 1259–1269 BC between Egypt and the Hittites to end a war that lasted two centuries to gain mastery over the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. The treaty was honoured until the end of the Hittite empire 80 years later. In Europe the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended over 100 years of wars, and established borders of sovereign states. The treaty lasted for over...

  Taming the Populace Human society began with small isolated groups typically of 20-30 individuals, that self-organised by developing individual and group skills and responsibilities to ensure survival. As societies became more complex so too did the ways of organizing and managing them. A few took upon themselves or were nominated by the many to take decisions that ensure the prosperity of all. Today the governments of China and India each manage the affairs of over a billion people, and most countries count their populations in the millions. How are such large populations managed as a single political entity? How do governments succeed in inspiring its populations to have a shared identity and collective aspirations? India and China reinvented themselves after centuries of deflection of their traditional systems by colonial adventurism. To put it simplistically, India does it by recalling its ancient civilizational achievements, China by gathering around Confucianism. ...

  A Theatre of the Absurd @maraybhai100 uploads reels that resemble no other in the prolific world of Pakistani memes. Pakistani memes, like their Indian cousins, are brilliant nuggets of self-reflective humour, reaching their true genius during the recent skirmish between India and Pakistan. Maray Bhai’s reels have more in common with the existential Theatre of the Absurd than the usual amusing reels.    They are off-the-wall, pure chaos beginning in a calm pseudo-scientific tone using Google Maps, and the Solar Smash app, as if about to offer a solution to regional crises. They soon derail into an existential distraction, as the lines he draws over countries, turn into doodles of animals or people. Behind the levity there is the shadow of real regional issues and the existential threat of war and nuclear annihilation.   The Theatre of the Absurd describes plays written in the aftermath of WWII that reflected a chaotic, and illogical world, where one accepts, ...

  House Full Pakistan once had 2,500 cinemas bringing romance, music, tragedy and action to both city and town, all but replaced today by a handful of multi screens in a few big cities, with ticket prices only a few can afford. As journalist Qaisar Kamran wrote, there was a time “when a ticket cost less than a meal” and “for a few hours, everyone could sit in the dark and disappear into a story”.   Movie reviewer, Muhammad Suhayb, takes us on a cinema-hopping journey of the past: to Empire Cinema near Civil Hospital where Pakistan’s first-ever film, Teri Yaad (1948) was screened, to Regal, now Regal Trade Center, where   Dilip Kumar and Noor Jehan’s Jugnu (1947) completed its Silver Jubilee. Naz (now Naz shopping center) and Nishat ( now a commercial building after it burnt down in 2012) were called Radha and Krishna after the names of the owner’s children. The central role of cinema is best understood by a story of Mehboob Khan’s Ailan, released all over India on A...