Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Ammi

Ammi: letter to a democratic mother ‘…in the twentieth centurygrief lasts at most a year.’I have used this quote from the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet as a prelude to a small tale before I go on to the War in iraq. The reason I chose to use this quote is because I wonder how long …

Journey of the Self: Aatish Taseer’s Stranger to History

"I had sought out my father because I couldn't live with the darkness of not knowing him."Absent fathers make for haunting presence. Think of Hamlet, Ghosts, and The Glass Menagerie.Aatish Taseer's first book: Stranger to History: A Son's Journey through Islamic Lands is a young man's search for his father who like the father in …