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Tag: bibliophile

6 days ago July 16, 2018July 16, 2018thedoctorreads

“The Sensational Life & Death of Qandeel Baloch” by Sanam Maher

March 7, 2018March 7, 2018thedoctorreads

Home & Other Debris by Orooj e Zafar

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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

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3. To me, the most important aspect of the book is that it gives Qandeel's life context, particularly in terms of Pakistan's torturous social media terrain. It's easy to remain dismissive about Qandeel's murder until you realize the deeply out-dated state of the nation's police and justice system. It's easy to scoff at Qandeel's impact on social media until you realize the fate of Arshad Khan, the unassuming #chaiwalla who's single, searing photo sent the world into a frenzy. Context powers each event in Qandeel's life until the final fateful chapters when you realize that Qandeel wasn't just a reflection of the deeply conflicted nature of Pakistan, she was a product of it. Her death wasn't a failure of our system, it was the final bloody conclusion of a system complicit in silence. We may never see justice delivered to Qandeel or to the thousands murdered in the name of 'honour' in South Asia, we may never even witness a conclusion to Qandeel's own case let alone the thousands of cases rotting in court-rooms around the country. Sanam Meher's balanced reportage gives Qandeel the very right she was denied in life-- to speak on her own behalf. The dead may not speak but when they do they speak with tongues of fire. Rest in power, Qandeel.
2. Sanam Maher's compassionate narrative of Qandeel's brief, fiery life never loses sight of the fact that the murdered 'internet sensation' can never come back to life yet with each page, each new person interviewed you feel as though she doesn't need to-- the players in the drama of her life condemn themselves with each word out of their mouth. Yes, her brother may have been the one to choke the life out of her, but who paved the way for that eventuality-- her parents? Her abusive husband? Her 'manager'? Herself? No one, argues Sanam Meher, and everyone. Qandeel's story is, as reiterated by many men in the book, not unique-- yet the violence of her death coupled with the vitality she had embodied in her life make for a sobering forensic investigation on their own-- indeed, the story would have been trite fodder in the hands of a lesser writer but Sanam Maher's voice lends a dignity and quiet power to the book that Qandeel herself was denied as a woman. There are entire chapters in the book that left me shaken to the core-- not just for the denial of Qandeel's humanity but for the events she had to endure to merely exist on her own terms.
1. Like many Pakistanis, I'd grown up with an image of the Multan in my head: dusty, desert-oasis with the mountain-sized blue-tiled tomb of Shah Rukun-e-Alam looming like a herald of the apocalypse. Larger than life. Too dramatic to be seriously true. It's only when you're standing at the entrance of Shah Rukun-e-Alam that your childhood fantasy and adult perception come colliding-- your mind can only think of one thing: 'That's it?' The tomb is in the middle of the bustling Old Multan, markets teeming with people. The building itself is smaller than you thought. Instead of mysterious sufis gliding through its corridors, drug-addled men lie slumped on the floor. There's tourists taking selfies. It's as far from that apocalyptic scene in your head as you can possibly imagine. Being an adult sucks. Particularly when it means the loss of all your young fantasies about life. You can no longer escape into them as eagerly or as readily as you once could when life got too overwhelming. “The Sensational Life & Death of Qandeel Baloch” by Sanam Maher presents this same dilemma at the heart of Pakistan's warped national psyche with far more tragic consequences. Here was Qandeel, larger than life, twice as alive and as in your face as it is possible for a woman to be. Here was Pakistan, forever stranded at a crossroad between faith and the future, both infatuated and irritated with her antics, obsessing over her next video while mocking her accent, her clothes, her make-up-- her defiance of what we incorrectly defined as our norm.
3. It was hard to pick a favourite story in the collection, but the ones that I kept coming back to were 'The Third One From the Left' and 'Band in the Rain'. Both deal with loss and resurrection in haunting echoes of each other. Long after the book was finished, I found myself thinking about Dildar and his lost daughter, Jira in the darkness of the container. Sarim Baig's exploration of Suratwala and Rampura seems far from over, and I look forward to following him on his journey, even if it doesn't end well, like Fortunato following Montresor deeper into the catacombs beneath a tumultuous nation. #bookworm #bookblog #bookstagrampak #bibliophile #amreading #booklover #currentlyreading #bookstagrampakistan #bookaddict #booklove #bookinsta #bookhaul #bookobsessed #bookphotography #bookeading #booktube #epicreads #igreads #khibookswap #kbsbookreview #vsco #vsco_pakistan #flatlay #pakistan #mybookishculture #saarimbaig #saintsandcharlatans #mongrelbooks #islamabadgram #bookstagramislamabad
2. The stories have an almost O. Henry-esque devotion to characters and their circumstances, how something as inanimate as a slum can still play a vital role in the evolution of people and their motivations. Suratwala and Rampura never actually come across as actively hostile but their sinister moulding of plot and people is as integral to each story as any action committed by either saint or charlatan. And as each story progresses further, the neat distinction between both is lost as easily as Master Ataullah's son in the fog. Many reviewers have drawn parallels between Murakami and Baig but to me that feels inadequate-- Baig is no Murakami, his characters lack their counterpart's empathy and sensitivity because they're struggling to survive. Their agency is far more primal and, in some cases, more brutal than anything envisioned by Murakami. 3. It was hard to pick a favourite story in the collection, but the ones that I kept coming back to were 'The Third One From the Left' and 'Band in the Rain'. Both deal with loss and resurrection in haunting echoes of each other. Long after the book was finished, I found myself thinking about Dildar and his lost daughter, Jira in the darkness of the container. Sarim Baig's exploration of Suratwala and Rampura seems far from over, and I look forward to following him on his journey, even if it doesn't end well, like Fortunato following Montresor deeper into the catacombs beneath a tumultuous nation. #bookworm #bookblog #bookstagrampak #bibliophile #amreading #booklover #currentlyreading #bookstagrampakistan #bookaddict #booklove #bookinsta #bookhaul #bookobsessed #bookphotography #bookeading #booktube #epicreads #igreads #khibookswap #kbsbookreview #vsco #vsco_pakistan #flatlay #pakistan #mybookishculture #saarimbaig #saintsandcharlatans #mongrelbooks #islamabadgram
1. To tell you the truth, I was a bit taken aback by the time I finished Sarim Baig's, 'Saints and Charlatans': I had expected a happy-go-lucky book, something light on the eyes and easy on the brain. What I got was a slim book of short-stories that came straight for my heart with a switch-blade and a smirk. At first glance, you would think that Sarim Baig's work is a continuation of the usual Pakistani Woman, Man and Mangoes © traipsing 'neath Mangrove © forests through the Monsoon © but the stories here are far, far from that typical label. They're too angry, for one thing. For another, the anger here is the quiet kind, not sinister but merely watchful. It leads to a stellar tone and taut pace throughout the book even if it does leave you remorseful and pensive for the state of Pakistan and the every day horror that faces so many of it's citizens on a daily basis. 3. It was hard to pick a favourite story in the collection, but the ones that I kept coming back to were 'The Third One From the Left' and 'Band in the Rain'. Both deal with loss and resurrection in haunting echoes of each other. Long after the book was finished, I found myself thinking about Dildar and his lost daughter, Jira in the darkness of the container. Sarim Baig's exploration of Suratwala and Rampura seems far from over, and I look forward to following him on his journey, even if it doesn't end well, like Fortunato following Montresor deeper into the catacombs beneath a tumultuous nation. #bookworm #bookblog #bookstagrampak #bibliophile #amreading #booklover #currentlyreading #bookstagrampakistan #bookaddict #booklove #bookinsta #bookhaul #bookobsessed #bookphotography #bookeading #booktube #epicreads #igreads #khibookswap #kbsbookreview #vsco #vsco_pakistan #flatlay #pakistan #mybookishculture #saarimbaig #saintsandcharlatans #mongrelbooks #islamabadgram

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