Khursheed Qaimkhani – A True Son of Sindh

By: Mohammad Ali Mahar, Austin, TX

Let’s mourn the death of one more of the true sons of Sindh. Khursheed Qaimkhani, an established humanist, anthropologist and writer, died a couple of days back and was laid to rest in Tando Allahyar. Khursheed Qaimkhani, a senior army major, had resigned from the military as a protest when the military started the sanguinary operation against Bengalis, losing all his pension and benefits. After leaving the army, he devoted his life to the cause of the underdog, especially the scheduled caste (Dalit) classes of Sind.

Even though he acquired name, fame and acclaim writing in English and Urdu as well as Sindhi – being an established author of many books – He was a great Sind-loving Urdu-speaking Sindhi, therefore, in his later days he started to write for Sindhi newspapers exclusively, saying that even though he felt like he had achieved what he had to achieve, in writing in Sindhi he was trying to payback the debt Mother Sindh had on him.

Khursheed was not born in Sindh but he proved himself in his writings and his actions to be a true son of the soil.  His writings had a romantic aura about them and I felt entranced while reading him. I hope someone will put all his Sindhi columns together and publish them in a book.

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, January 11, 2013.

Former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif tries to date author Kim Barker by offering her an iPhone

The Language of the news is urdu (Hindhi).

Courtesy: Duniya Tv News » Siasat.pk

Via – Twitter

 

Pakistan heading towards anarchy, cautions author

By: Reuters

Excerpts;

…. Pakistan’s escalating problems are rooted in its reliance on US aid, its complex politics, the government’s lack of control over both its military and intelligence service and its failure to protect minorities and secure regions controlled by the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups, the book maintains. That spells more trouble for Washington if such groups gain further control in a nuclear-armed country where the military now largely controls foreign and security policies and has taken the lead in relations with the United States, he said. “Pakistan has all the potential of becoming a failing state,” Rashid, 63, said in an interview, explaining the title of the book that follows bestsellers including “Taliban” and “Descent Into Chaos” that were translated into dozens of languages. “I feel very much that the lack of state control, the lack of state authority is going to mean there is going to be increasing anarchy in many different parts of the country,” said Rashid, who has received numerous death threats and was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 100 global thinkers. ….

Read more » DAWN.COM

Renowned Sindhi story writer Vishnu Bhatia passes away

Mumbai, India: Renowned Sindhi story writer of Sindh and India, passed away on 15 September 2011 at Mulund Colony Mumabi due to complications of diabetes. He was 68.

He was born on April 21, 1941, in Karachi, Sindh. He was author of 11 Collections of short stories, 4 novels, and 1 on essay. Most significant amongst them are: Darda Bhari Dil (Painful heart), 1963, Dil Ji Basti (Dwelling of heart), Short Stories Collection, 1965, Chandermukhi, Short Stories Collection, 1965, Sawal (Question), Novel, 1976, Rishtan Jo Ant (End of relationship), 2001. Vishnu Bhatia was Sr. Sub-Editor, Hindustan Sindhi Daily Newspaper & Hindvasi, a Weekly Sindhi Magazine. Also he was columnist of Sindhi magazines Koonj, Sipoon, and Rachna.

Vishnu Bhatia had also written the following Radio Plays: Bebu O Bebu, Akh Pharke, Dil Dharke (Twinkle in Eye Beating of Heart), Inam (Reward), Nind Na Kar Nandan (Do Not Oversleep). Vishnu was basically a creative writer. He turned to journalism comparatively at later stage, when he joined Hindustan Daily in mid-seventies. some of his short stories have been translated in other Indian (south Asian) languages, such as Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telgu, Malyalam and English.

1995 he had won Lifetime Achievement Award, (At Mumbai by Akhil Bharat Sindhi Boli Ain Sahit Sabha).

Literature and Revolution

Leon Trotsky’s Literature and Revolution

“Trotsky was perhaps the greatest representative in history of the Marxist school of literary criticism, which itself incorporated what was most farsighted in the aesthetic criticism produced by the bourgeois-democratic revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.”

This extraordinary work of Marxist literary criticism, first published in 1924, is a further illustration of the author’s multifaceted genius. Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the Russian Revolution and its leading orator, Soviet foreign minister and founder and leader of the Red Army, was also one of the leading Marxist critics of this period.

Trotsky subjects the leading trends in literature and art in the early years of the revolution to criticism that is sharp but never tendentious. He illuminates and develops the Marxist method of historical materialism, rejecting “art for art’s sake” conceptions as well as their apparent opposite, the theories of “proletarian culture” and “proletarian art,” then becoming fashionable in certain left circles. …

Mehring Books is pleased to make Literature and Revolution by Leon Trotsky available to readers of the World Socialist Web Site. Click here to order

A new report of Matt Waldman accusing Pakistan’s Spy agency of funding and training Taliban

Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University, is the author of a new report accusing Pakistan’s Spy agency of funding and training Taliban. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Waldman discusses his methodology and the reasons why Pakistan might view the Taliban as an ally.

Courtesy: Al Jazeera – YouTube Link