Three Poems by Allama Iqbal
Three Poems by Allama Iqbal: A Psychological Interpretation of ‘A Mother’s Dream’, ‘Khizr the Guide’ and ‘Dialogue between God and Man’ ‘Everywhere I go, I find that a poet has been there before me’ Sigmund Freud One of Iqbal’s translators, the Scotsman Victor Kiernan wrote ‘Mohammad Iqbal, the ‘Poet of the East’, lived a … Continue reading
The Power of Positive Thinking
Recently, in Lahore, I ran into an old friend who is now a ‘Management Consultant’, and does workshops on “Personal Excellence” and the like. Since he is an Engineer by profession and I’m a Psychiatrist, this felt like an invasion of my professional turf. He assured me laughingly that he had no such intention. It … Continue reading
The Sacred and the Profane
‘Nature, Time and Patience are the three great physicians’ H.G.Bohn This time around, she seemed worse than ever. I was asked by one of our therapists to help with a Pakistani woman who was, according to her husband ‘going completely crazy’. Even before I heard her name, I suspected it was Ms.L.
The Desert of Possibility
The Desert of Possibility The Poetry of Mirza Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’ Part I. ‘Hai kahan tamanna kaa doosra qadam, Yaarab Hum nay dasht-e-imkaan ko aik naqsh-e-paa paayaa’
The Agony of Remembrance
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past” William Faulkner, “Requiem for a Nun”, 1951. A perennial favorite in expatriates’ discussion is “the old country”. When it comes to the land that gave us birth, a gentle golden halo surrounds and colors our memories, making the present that much more painful and cruel. I … Continue reading
Starting from the End
“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T.S.Eliot The ‘beginning of the end’ is a popular cliché. However, it may well apply to the recent political turmoil inPakistan. There have been a lot of pronunciations on … Continue reading
Science and Enlightenment: East and West
My high regard for our national cricketing hero and philanthropist, Imran Khan declined a few notches when a friend forwarded me an article written by him (or in his name) called ‘Why the West craves Materialism and the East sticks to Religion’. This has apparently been circulating for a few months and is prominently posted … Continue reading
Rage of Angels
They looked terribly young to be so bloodthirsty. The oldest appeared no older than about seventeen and the youngest were about eleven or twelve. In another time and place, they might have appeared as fresh faced angels frolicking in a park or sitting in a class room. Here they were though, on a busy street … Continue reading
Our History and Its Myths
Our History and Its Myths By Hasan Jaafar Zaidi Excerpted and translated by Ali Madeeh Hashmi Introduction: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Immigrant
The e-mail was from “Khadija Whatever”. That caught my attention. In keeping with the laws of spam, I usually get about 20 junk mails in my mailbox for every useful one. My usual response to this is a quick tap on the ‘empty’ button. The name however, was intriguing so I opened the mail.
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