Eid Mubarak to all Muslims.
Mehndi patterns displayed by a Pakistani girl in Karachi, Pakistan.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Tomb of Phyllis Louise Lawrence, Gora Qabristan, Karachi
The white-domed tomb of Phyllis Louise Lawrence, nee Napier, the first wife of Sir Henry Staveley Lawrence (Collector of Karachi). The Lawrence couple were married in 1899 and had three children before Phyllis was killed in a carriage accident in Karachi on 30 June 1912. Karachi, Sind, British India.
I was able to shoot this photograph early morning of 24th Dec, 2006, when I visited the place with my mother. It saddens me that the place around the tomb is now all vandalized and captured by land mafia. I was told by a Christian at the cemetery that this area was taken up by Muslim refugees from India after partition. Somehow this tomb survived.
There's an interesting story about this woman in the book written on Karachi (a compilation) by Asif Farukki.
I was able to shoot this photograph early morning of 24th Dec, 2006, when I visited the place with my mother. It saddens me that the place around the tomb is now all vandalized and captured by land mafia. I was told by a Christian at the cemetery that this area was taken up by Muslim refugees from India after partition. Somehow this tomb survived.
There's an interesting story about this woman in the book written on Karachi (a compilation) by Asif Farukki.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Anyone loves USA?
Via Flickr:
Anti-US and Anti-Israel protests across much of Muslim world including Pakistan prompted me to get my collection of stamps out and hunt for USA stamps. Here are some of them. After so many years, they still look colourful and bring out memories etched somewhere back on my mind.
I love these stamps but do I love USA?
Shot with Tamron 90mm 2.8 lens.
Anti-US and Anti-Israel protests across much of Muslim world including Pakistan prompted me to get my collection of stamps out and hunt for USA stamps. Here are some of them. After so many years, they still look colourful and bring out memories etched somewhere back on my mind.
I love these stamps but do I love USA?
Shot with Tamron 90mm 2.8 lens.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Portrait: Waterproofing labour, Karachi
This is Arshad Khan, my waterproofing labour and Afridi pathan. Afridi pathans are numerous in Pakistan and are considered most handsome among all Pashtuns. They are proud and strong and hard working. I suspect that many of them now living in Karachi have become quite lazy - but not Arshad.
For Roof, Basement and Bathroom waterproofing in Pakistan please contact Ameer Hamza at 0301-2228210 or email at ameer.great@gmail.com. You may also find details and prestigious projects completed in Pakistan here.
For Roof, Basement and Bathroom waterproofing in Pakistan please contact Ameer Hamza at 0301-2228210 or email at ameer.great@gmail.com. You may also find details and prestigious projects completed in Pakistan here.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
A chance meeting with Salman Rashid
My friend from bank, Adil Mulki, called me up two days back informing me that he just received Mr. Salman Rashid, ace travel writer of Pakistan, in his office and that he was willing to have Iftari with us. I was surprised to say the least. I agreed without thinking.
Yesterday (Thursday) Adil, myself and Danial Shah, my friend from Flickr, took Salman to Sajjad's restaurant in Phase 8 DHA, Karachi. It's a pleasant, sea-side restaurant with Arabian Sea lapping next to its wooden columns. It's a place where you take your friends from afar to impress. Although, I must say, the food quality has progressively declined in recent months. More Pakistanis are now flocking to eat sub-standard food there.
Salman was in a pleasant mood and was talking as always. We were also in quite a pleasant mood despite the fact that we'd reached the place just 2 minutes before breaking of fast. Salman .... (censored) .... is a man much given to travel and history and discipline. He is a learned man and that is shown by the quality of his articles. Even the basic ones carry a certain weight and a historical background wherever required. His emphasis on correctness of terminology doesn't suit the usual travel-writing world of Pakistanis where names are altered on whim and history is created by one's own pen.
Salman gave us the example of people like ..... (censored).... both of whom receive generous funds from rich Pakistanis; both are psuedo-intellectuals as per my .....(censored) understanding. For comparison read any book of Salman Rashid and then read any book penned by Tarrar sb. If you are into fake ideas, fairies and fantasies, then Tarrar is for you (my idea, not Salman's); if you are into genuine historical perspective and travel writing then Salman is for you. There is no doubt that he is a top travel writer of our generation in our country. And I don't see anyone else approaching his class anytime soon, which is sad.
During our Iftari + Dinner meeting I found Salman very helpful, very keen to learn new things and new routes and very very .... (censored). He wakes up at 5 AM or even earlier and sleeps early too, a rather rare attitude among urban Pakistanis. And he reads a lot. He emphasized that we must read original sources as much as we can. He named a few I knew. He told us how and why he left Army, then went to Siemens Pakistan, then left that job and became a full time vagabond, a hard life to live. He still lives and talks like that and he is still quite energetic. Travellers must be energetic themselves; he is not surely an arm-chair type of a person and loves fish immensely too so we ordered strange-sounding fish for him which turned out tasty. Chicken Karahi wasn't that tasty, though.
All in all, I really liked meeting him and I informed him that he is the only travel writer worth reading in Pakistan. Being a humble person he just shrugged off. Though he feels ... (censored) ... those men and women who've become something in their lives and have now forgotten their poverty and their background. He again and again named .......... (censored) ................. I 100% agree.
When in Lahore, I will now do two things: Eat fish at Salman's house and avoid meeting Tarrar sahib!
Few articles by Salman Rashid here and here.
Yesterday (Thursday) Adil, myself and Danial Shah, my friend from Flickr, took Salman to Sajjad's restaurant in Phase 8 DHA, Karachi. It's a pleasant, sea-side restaurant with Arabian Sea lapping next to its wooden columns. It's a place where you take your friends from afar to impress. Although, I must say, the food quality has progressively declined in recent months. More Pakistanis are now flocking to eat sub-standard food there.
Salman was in a pleasant mood and was talking as always. We were also in quite a pleasant mood despite the fact that we'd reached the place just 2 minutes before breaking of fast. Salman .... (censored) .... is a man much given to travel and history and discipline. He is a learned man and that is shown by the quality of his articles. Even the basic ones carry a certain weight and a historical background wherever required. His emphasis on correctness of terminology doesn't suit the usual travel-writing world of Pakistanis where names are altered on whim and history is created by one's own pen.
Salman gave us the example of people like ..... (censored).... both of whom receive generous funds from rich Pakistanis; both are psuedo-intellectuals as per my .....(censored) understanding. For comparison read any book of Salman Rashid and then read any book penned by Tarrar sb. If you are into fake ideas, fairies and fantasies, then Tarrar is for you (my idea, not Salman's); if you are into genuine historical perspective and travel writing then Salman is for you. There is no doubt that he is a top travel writer of our generation in our country. And I don't see anyone else approaching his class anytime soon, which is sad.
During our Iftari + Dinner meeting I found Salman very helpful, very keen to learn new things and new routes and very very .... (censored). He wakes up at 5 AM or even earlier and sleeps early too, a rather rare attitude among urban Pakistanis. And he reads a lot. He emphasized that we must read original sources as much as we can. He named a few I knew. He told us how and why he left Army, then went to Siemens Pakistan, then left that job and became a full time vagabond, a hard life to live. He still lives and talks like that and he is still quite energetic. Travellers must be energetic themselves; he is not surely an arm-chair type of a person and loves fish immensely too so we ordered strange-sounding fish for him which turned out tasty. Chicken Karahi wasn't that tasty, though.
All in all, I really liked meeting him and I informed him that he is the only travel writer worth reading in Pakistan. Being a humble person he just shrugged off. Though he feels ... (censored) ... those men and women who've become something in their lives and have now forgotten their poverty and their background. He again and again named .......... (censored) ................. I 100% agree.
When in Lahore, I will now do two things: Eat fish at Salman's house and avoid meeting Tarrar sahib!
Few articles by Salman Rashid here and here.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Injecting chicken with masala
My sister demonstrates to me how yummy masala is injected directly into the leg piece of the chicken. This she called Al-Baik chicken and was served with fries and a yummy sauce containing olive oil. A bit heavy too.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
River Indus, Sehwan Sharif
The Indus River (Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Urdu: دریائے سندھ Daryā-e Sindh; Hindi: सिन्धु नदी Sindhu; Sindhi: سنڌو Sindhu; Punjabi: سندھ Sindh; Gujarati: સિંધુ નદી Sindhu; Pashto: اباسين Abāsin "Father of Rivers"; Persian: رود سند Rūd-e Sind; Arabic: السند Al-Sind; Tibetan: སེང་གེ།་གཙང་པོ Sênggê Zangbo "Lion River"; Greek: Ινδός Indós; Turki: Nilab) is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through western Tibet (in China) and Northern India.
Originating in the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar, the river runs a course through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and flows through Pakistan in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh. The total length of the river is 3,180 km (1,980 mi). It is Pakistan's longest river.
The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3 (50 cu mi), making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow. Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left bank tributary is Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Satluj. Its principal right bank tributaries are Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul, Gomal and Kurram. Beginning at the heights of the world in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas, the river supports ecosystems of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.
The Indus forms the delta of Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu and the Iranic Zend Avesta as Hapta Hindu (both sets of terms meaning Seven Rivers). The river has been a source of wonder during the Classical Period. King Darius of Persia sent Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river in 510 BCE.
More on this great river:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River
Originating in the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar, the river runs a course through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and flows through Pakistan in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh. The total length of the river is 3,180 km (1,980 mi). It is Pakistan's longest river.
The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3 (50 cu mi), making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow. Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left bank tributary is Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Satluj. Its principal right bank tributaries are Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul, Gomal and Kurram. Beginning at the heights of the world in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas, the river supports ecosystems of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.
The Indus forms the delta of Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu and the Iranic Zend Avesta as Hapta Hindu (both sets of terms meaning Seven Rivers). The river has been a source of wonder during the Classical Period. King Darius of Persia sent Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river in 510 BCE.
More on this great river:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River
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