SELECTED OLDER ESSAYS
2010
"Discontent and its civilizations", about violence and the illusion of civilizations, from: the International Herald Tribune
"Pereira transforms", about reading Antonio Tabucchi's novel, in an introduction to its new edition, from: Pereira Maintains (reprinted in the Guardian)
"It is feverish and flooded but Pakistan can yet thrive", about hope despite the floods, from: the Financial Times
"On fatherhood", about becoming a baby person, from: Paper magazine
"Fear and silence", about the persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, from: Dawn
"Avatar in Lahore", about arriving in Pakistan, getting broadband, and going to see the movie, from: TAR magazine (reprinted in Five Dials)
2009
"It had to be a sign", about moving back to Pakistan after eight years in London, from: the Guardian
"When Updike saved me from Morrison (and myself)", about learning to write in college, from: the Daily Princetonian
"Art and the other Pakistans", about growing up in Lahore and Asia Society New York's Pakistani art exhibition, from: Hanging Fire
"A beginning", about President Obama's Cairo speech on Muslim-U.S. relations, from: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Flailing, but not yet failing", about Pakistan moving away from tyranny, from: the International Herald Tribune
2008
"Bound by sorrows", about the Mumbai terrorist attacks and India-Pakistan relations, from: the Guardian
"It's troubled, but it's home", about Benazir Bhutto's assassination and Pakistan, from: the Washington Post
2007
"After 60 years, will Pakistan be reborn?", about Pakistan on its 60th anniversary, from: the New York Times
"My reluctant fundamentalist", about writing the novel, from: Powells.com
"The British inquisition", about becoming a UK citizen, from: the Independent
2006
"Down the tube", about a personal moment of paranoia on the London underground in the age of terrorism, from: the Independent
"A home for water lilies" (published as "I love this dirty town"), about moving to London, from: the New Statesman
"Divided we fall", about the killing of Nawab Bugti and the need to restore democracy in Pakistan, from: Time magazine (Asian edition)
2005
"I answer the phone", about artist Shahzia Sikander, from: 51 Ways of Looking
2004
"Waiting for the boom", about a visit to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, from: Time magazine (Asian edition)
"Reinventing Pakistan", about the art and media boom in Lahore, from: Smithsonian magazine
2003
"The pathos of exile", about returning to Lahore for a cousin's wedding, from: Time magazine (Asian edition)
2001
"The usual ally", about Pakistan's alliance with America and the coming war in Afghanistan, from: Time magazine
"Lives: the countdown", about family in Islamabad awaiting the coming war in Afghanistan, from: the New York Times magazine
"In concert, no touching", about a restrained but erotic encounter in Lahore, from: Nerve magazine
2000
"Lives: international relations", about a love letter and applying for an Italian visa, from: the New York Times magazine
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