One of the wonderful consequences of the highly pressurised LUMS MBA programme is that I emerged with a group of friends who had survived the same experience. Friends who recall all the highs and lows. Friends who still call us by our given shortened names that evolved during those two years. Friends who have by … More In memory of our dear friend, Umar Kitchlew

A part of my childhood was spent in a lovely house in a cul de sac in Street 47 in Islamabad. There were a few strategic bricks missing in the boundary wall between us at house no. 7 and our lovely neighbours at house no. 9. Those missing bricks meant we could check with each … More We accept dollars

Standing at the end of 2018, with 2019 coming up on the horizon, I look back and see what a difference a decade has made. Technology, social media and the way we communicate have changed at breakneck speed. The apps that I know off, and do not use, are probably already outdated by the time … More Disconnect to Reconnect

2016 marked 20 years of graduation from grad school, for my classfellows and myself, the Class of 1996. Admission to the MBA programme at LUMS, was hard enough in 1994, but now, it seems it would be easier to win the lottery than to get admission, the demand has grown exponentially for my alma mater, … More LUMS: Twenty years and counting

Lahore is one of those magnificent cities where ancient intersects with modern, where history rises and falls between ring roads and parks, between new plazas and malls and sometimes history stands tall in the middle of the urban landscape and then melts away to make way for something new, sometimes even standing awkwardly at odds … More Lahore, city of wonders

With the sighting of the Ramazan moon, iftari comes to mind, with the maxim being, if it isn’t fried then it isn’t iftari. Freshly fried pakoras and samosas, fruit chat and dahi phulkee, dates and jalebis, Rooh Afza and nimbo paani all come to mind. Regardless of where I am, a whiff of Rooh Afza, … More Of Ramazan and Rooh Afza

What is it about planes and altitude and perspective ? What is it about long haul flights, and seven uninterrupted hours to oneself ? What is it about not having recourse to a 24/7 feed of social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, What’s App or Twitter, just to name a few ? As the … More Welcome 2016

I vividly remember my last day in Lahore. An hour or so before Maghrib, I went to see my father. Khan parked the car in the usual place, under the sprawling banyan tree and took out the bulging bag of fragrant rose petals. Munawar, the caretaker, who was yawning whilst sitting on his haunches, got … More A one sided conversation

Much has been written about the Eighties. Many of us in our forties now, look back to that decade with a wistful sigh. I think of it now, growing up in Islamabad, the city laid out perfectly on a grid designed by the Greek planners Doxiadis, and feel a heady mix of nostalgia and warmth … More House No. 7, Street 47.

Sometimes a snippet of an old picture, the dulling, fraying edges of the paper are enough to kindle a memory lost in the archives of time. A brief glimpse of that image is enough to transport one back into the moment and bridge the time between now and then, between what is and what was. It … More A snippet in time