Steve Inskeep, (Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi, Penguin Group, 2011) talks to SAGlobal about Pakistan and its people, their current challenges, and their future outlooks. He helps us dissect and peel back the layers of a metropolis like Karachi.

J.K. Rowling has had fourteen years to develop this story, but it took only one weekend to break all records. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," opened with a record $169.2 million in weekend ticket sales, and according to Hollywood.com Box Office, $43.5 million came from midnight showings and $92.1 million from single-day sales on July 15.  But it’s not over yet. 

Evolution, a constant process, has not only changed the geographical face of earth but has also altered the nature of humans. It has made them more aggressive and they have sharpened their manipulative abilities to devise skillful ways of making widespread violence in order to legitimize their illegitimate actions.

The book under review is ‘Between Democracy and Nation’, where the author, Seema Kazi, has not only given a detailed analysis of the transformation of the nature of war but also of its brutal ramifications, which are predominantly evident in Kashmir. The book is divided into five chapters, allowing the author to gradually develop her ideas, providing the readers with reasons for the diverse forms and varying intensities of trauma suffered by the Kashmiris, due to widespread violence that has pierced the entire fabric of the Kashmiri society.

Seema Kazi has maintained that, unlike the west, the military consolidation in the global south, has defied its paramount purpose, as it has not stemmed from external military threats. It rather symbolizes the nation’s desire to join the race of accumulating weapons. And that, in turn, imparts it a sense of superiority and a look of ‘modernity’. Moreover, many states have adopted the idea of abusing military power by employing it as an instrument of ‘domestic repression’. This is exactly what is happening in Kashmir. This has involved massive social disturbance and violence to a vast extent.

M. J. Akbar’s ‘Tinderbox: the Past and Future of Pakistan’ makes fascinating reading clouded over by a substantial amount of the weird or a sort of a conscious effort to leave the reader wondering about the future of the ‘Tinderbox’ of the sub-continent as a whole.

The dictionary defines Tinderbox as ‘dry inflammable material especially used for kindling fire from a spark.’ What an array of tinderboxes would do is too fearsome to imagine.

Mani Shankar Aiyar’s substitute ‘Tenderbox’ in his marathon 8,000 odd word review, is more honeyed than a sober critique would permit.

Exploding in the West ‘Tinderbox’ would engulf the East in its fierce blaze of hellfire.

Obsession' is a strong word with an even more powerful meaning. Due to the simple fact that it is used abundantly, one tends to forget the boundaries a human being can transcend when in the state of obsession. 'Driven' by Razi Imam with Hank Walshak, introduces us to the concept of 'Junoon' an Arabic/Persian expression used to describe a very powerful state of achievement motivated by obsession.

This book is a captivating autobiography about the author, Razi Imam's journey through life and his encounters and experiences that led to him achieving success. Through the narrative the author moves from Kuwait to Pakistan and then finally to America, where he currently resides. There is a strong diversity across these countries in terms of culture, hence a variety of audiences can relate to the narrative due to the diverse geographical landscape the novel spans over.  

Driven begins with a description of the author's childhood in Kuwait. Imam's persevering attitude from the very beginning is inspirational, as fear of failure does not deter him from exploring new opportunities the way it deters most of us. Imam is not always successful in his endeavors and his failure allows a reader to connect with him as we all have experienced failure at some point in our lives. However the book teaches the reader to derive the positive from failure and not giving up as this is something we all should strive to achieve.

The bedrock of the author's thesis is a critical study of Muslim 'exceptionalism' and 'separateness' leading eventually to 'nationhood' and Partition. The author admits nevertheless that 'constructing Pakistan' does not offer the history of Muslim nationhood as a 'unitary progressive narrative.' Nor does it pretend to be a comprehensive chronicle of the Congress-led and Muslim League-seconded freedom movement leading to the end of the British Raj.

In terms of the end-result, the Partition of the country, the freedom movement would have less to celebrate and more to reflect on the disastrous consequences of Partition.

Why should the All-India National Congress resist the redistribution of the Hindu and Muslim majority areas into autonomous Pakistan and Hindustan (India) as an enlargement of provincial autonomy with a single Centre? Why would Jawaharlal forestall the British Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) accepted both by the Congress and the Muslim League? The Plan offered the last chance for a confederal India wantonly thrown away.
The term Muslim Exceptionalism did not necessarily embrace the urge to create separate homeland on the basis of a divided India.  It was much like the natural urge of a Bengali to look, dress, and speak like a Bengali and still to co-exist with a Pathan and Punjabi as fellow citizens.