SPECIAL FOLIO:
VISUAL ART MEETS POETRY
FICTION
ESSAY
INTERVIEWS
BOOKS
ON THE COVER
About Mehrgarh by Hana Ormara
Mehrgarh, the place of inspiration for this body of work, is in Balochistan in Pakistan near the Bolan Pass. Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by the French archaeologist husband and wife, Jean Francois Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige, and was further explored by their team. It is cited as one of the oldest neolithic civilisations in South Asia, dating back to 7000 BC, and is noted by some historians as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization.
Interview | Collapsing Time: Farah Ghafoor on Her Debut Collection
by Muniba Mahmud
"During that course, I learned about this term 'shadow price.' And in that context, it related to the shadow price of a life – how much a human life would be worth in dollars. And this is varied by country. Seeing that concept explained in context sort of brought together everything that I’d been thinking about for a long time, like about the valuation of things that should not be valuated. Like, human lives, and the world as we live in it, which is utterly priceless, I think."
Poetry | 'Bilingual Haiku / زو لسانی ہائیکو / Zu-lisani Haiku #1
by Saad Ali
7 a.m. frappé—
through pellucid window
upside down rainbow
Poetry | "non-lethal"
by Fatima Zahra
a pellet to the eye,
a rubber bullet to the chest –
not meant to kill,
only to silence,
to ruin slowly.
Fiction | Rotten
by Arslan Athar
Unbeknownst to mother and son, each would stand in the kitchen right before they slept, caressing the side of the fridge, whispering for it to keep working through the night. The family had only recently moved back to the motherland. Neither of them had fully adjusted to the move. Their belongings hadn’t either – wood swelled in the humid months, prized shelves still carried scars of wrongfully-taped bubble wrap, and electronics combatted against unstable power and the dreaded loadshedding.
مینوں کھوج جس بشر دی ہے
او کسی ہور دا ساز سکوں بنیا
میں عرش بریں تے گونج ماری
میری زباں تے قفل صادر ہویا
Books | Ibn-e-Safi's Quiet Revolution
by Noor ul Ain
In many homes, including those with little tradition of formal literary reading, his books became the first point of contact with ideas of justice, morality, and gender roles. This wide readership is what makes his portrayal of women particularly significant. The female characters in Jasoosi Dunya can be broadly grouped into three categories: damsels in distress, femme fatales, and allies.
Interview | Dreaming an Almost Impossible Dream
by Anees Adam
The story of my birth goes like this: I was born frail and sick, and it did not seem that I would survive. The elderly nurse asked my mother if she had any children, and when she was told that my mother had a daughter and two sons, the nurse said to her that I might not live, and that my mother already had three children anyway.
From the archives
Interview | ‘Death & Flowers’: Ali Baluch on Recording the Demise of the Malir River by Omair Danish
I went to a film school in Karachi University, but then I dropped out. I used to replicate shots from films that I was particularly interested in, by some of my favourite cinematographers, such as Christopher Doyle. I used to copy those shots and the scenes I really loved with my phone.
Books | Looking at the Unseen by Azra Emilia Ali
Usman T Malik’s Midnight Doorways creates a grungy, eerie atmosphere out of both Pakistan’s familiar corners and its shadowy crevices. The collected short stories are full of vivid and tactile details. This proves immensely effective in creating disturbing narratives that stick with the reader – which add to the uncanniness of the tales and ensnare the reader into those worlds.
Essay | Lebanon by Farah-Silvana Kanaan
A collection of photographs by the Lebanese writer and journalist, documenting scenes from her beloved country.
Poetry | I Know How Jackfruit Tastes by Eisha Tur Raazia
I didn’t know jackfruit grew on treetops. How could I?/Until I received a few dancing pods in a plastic pot./Shy, “It might smell,” my friend says. In a flickering shame./Hesitant, she unwinds the lid. “It’s okay if you wanna pass.”
Fiction | دھان کی فصل by Ali Akbar Natiq
یہ اکتوبر کے آخری دن تھے۔ دھان کی فصل کٹ چکی تھی بعض کھیت کٹنے والے تھے۔ کٹی ہوئی فصل پودوں سمیت سوکھنے کے لیے رکھی تھی۔ خشک دھان کے چھوٹےگٹھڑ بنا لیے گئے تھے۔ کھیتوں میں جا بجا مٹی کی لمبوتری سی قبریں بنا کر اُن پر دھان کے یہ گٹھڑ جھاڑے جا رہے تھے تاکہ مونجی پودوں سے الگ ہو جائے۔
Fiction | Hinapa by Jameel Ahmad Paul, translated by Rana Saadullah Khan
In the Bengali language, there is no distinction made between the soft ‘h’ and the hard ‘ḥ’. Nor is there any between ‘jeem’ and ‘zaal’. Hina Aapa had thus become Hinapa. I didn’t even understand what her name was in the beginning. Hinapa…what kind of name was that?