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Mushtaq Soofi Columns
221 columns
2012
1. December 14, 2012: Aryan caste system and socially mobile Punjabis
2. December 21, 2012: Cities without trees
3. December 28, 2012: Music of poetry and poetry of music
2013
1. January 4, 2013: Winter: migratory birds and metaphors
2. January 18, 2013: Ravi and Chenab: demons and lovers
3. January 25, 2013: Food: Punjabi gathering and crowd!
4. Feb 2, 2013: Language: threat of diversity
5. Feb 15, 2013: Language: Sanskrit and Prakrits!
6. Feb 22, 2013: Language: The rise of the Persian and the early Punjabi!
7. March First, 2013: New books: poetry and linguistics
8. March 8, 2013: The Punjabi literary tradition: Baba Farid blazes the trail!
9. March 15, 2013: In praise of animals!
10. Mach 26, 2013: Mela Chiragan: Mystic laughs and poet sings! – Part-I
11. April 5, 2013: Mela Chiraghan: mystic laughs and poet sings!
12. April 12, 2013: Punjab: Disowning the owning and owning the disowning!
13. April 19, 2013: The Punjabi literary tradition: Guru Nanak, a great seer and a true son of soil! — Part-I
14. April 26, 2013: Guru Nanak, a great seer and a true son of soil! — Part II
15. May 24, 2013: The faceless and the nameless in our city!
16. June 21, 2013: A spectre haunts Punjab!
17. July 3, 2013: New books: woman voice, oral history and urban desolation!
2014
1. Jan 3, 2014: Spectre of history haunts Punjabis
2. Jan 17, 2014: Cities without birds: Metaphors for lifeless tomorrow!
3. Feb 7, 2014: How Harappa is different from Mohenjo-Daro!
4. Feb 28, 2014: Celebrating the Mother Language!
5. Apr 4, 2014: Books: novel and dictionary of technical terms
6. Apr 18, 2014: punjab notes: Chet and Vesakh: spring and harvest
7. May 2, 2014: Punjab Notes : Shrines: Public spaces with spiritual ambiance
8. May 30, 2014: Punjab Notes: Woman in public: body language born of fear!
9. Jun 13, 2014: Punjab Notes: Bar: forgotten glory of Punjab
10. Jun 20, 2014: Punjab Notes: Sufi music: new cultural hocus-pocus
11. Jul 18, 2014: Punjab Notes: No to state, yes to state jobs
12. Aug 1, 2014: Punjab Notes: Sawan! A world of romance lost
13. Aug 8, 2014: Punjab Notes: Independence: remembering the dead
14. Aug 22, 2014: Punjab Notes: Baba Bulleh Shah: In quest of human identity
15. Sep 5, 2014: Punjab Notes: Books: stories of said and unsaid
16. Sep 12, 2014: PUNJAB NOTES: Poverty: dignity and indignity
17. Sep 19, 2014: Punjab Notes: Fury of waters!
18. Oct 10, 2014: Burning house parable!
19. Oct 17, 2014: PUNJAB NOTES: Political crowd: reality of illusion
20. Oct 24, 2014: PUNJAB NOTES: Dhahan Prize: Honouring Punjabi literature
21. Oct 31, 2014: PUNJAB NOTES: Celibacy and our great poets
22. Nov 7, 2014: PUNJAB NOTES:: Celibacy and our great poets (Part-II)
23. Nov 14, 2014: Punjab notes: space for religious diversity
24. Dec 5, 2014: Punjab Notes: Contradictory popular narratives
25. Dec 19, 2014: Punjab Notes: Legends: deciphering the undeciphered
26. Dec 26, 2014: Children of the poor: the killers and the killed
2015
1. Jan 2, 2015: Punjab Notes : Punjab: some of its ancient names
2. Jan 16, 2015: Punjab Notes: Emergence of new heroes: politician-I
3. Jan 23, 2015: Punjab Notes: Emergence of new heroes: mullah-II
4. Feb 13, 2015: No Punjabi please! We are Muslim Punjabis
5. Feb 20, 2015: Punjab Notes: Cheerful Mother Language Day celebrations in cheerless Punjab
6. Feb 27, 2015: Punjab Notes: Mother language, people and politicians
7. Mar 13, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Woman and Pakistani languages
8. Mar 20, 2015: Crowd: victims and predators
9. Mar 27, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Caste: social and political power
10. Apr 3, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Family: woman versus woman
11. Apr 10, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Young landlords: bulls and bullying
12. Apr 17, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Vesakhi: harvest of joy
13. Apr 24, 2015: Punjab: Did you hear what the Chinese president said?
14. May 1, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Why do they want to look like landlords?
15. May 8, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: City: road, automobile and pedestrian
16. May 15, 2015: Artist: creativity and dignity
17. May 22, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: New books: an unusual novel and verses born of spontaneity
18. May 29, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Violence: assertion and negation of power
19. Jun 5, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Nasreen Anjum Bhatti: an inimitable poetic voice
20. Jun 12, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Mystics and scientists: how to describe the indescribable!
21. Jun 19, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Sachal: Fresh sound of music from Lahore!
22. Jul 03, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Abid Ameeq: an inspiring poet and challenging intellectual
23. Jul 17, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Work: social disgrace or self-objectification
24. Jul 24, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Irshad Taunsvi: poetic reflections
25. Aug 07, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Slums: the city of the poor
26. Aug 28, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Books: sufism, burial register and a female voice
27. Sep 04, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Founders of Punjabi literary tradition and class oppression
28. Sep 11, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Afzal Ahsan Randhawa: a glimpse of Punjab and its traditions
29. Sep 25, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Literary critic: tradition and denial of intellectual independence
30. Oct 09, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Culture and system: accepting the unacceptable
31. Oct 16, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Modern Lahore: cross road and get killed
32. Oct 23, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Books: colonialism, language and spiritual music
33. Oct 30, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: East and west Punjab: nature of politics
34. Nov 06, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Not all the Hindus are Hindus!
35. Nov 13, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Conference: gathering or knowledge?
36. Nov 20, 2015: Punjab Notes: Vehat: where great warriors clashed
37. Nov 27, 2015: Punjab Notes: Sufism: commoditising of what is not a commodity
38. Dec 04, 2015: Punjab Notes: Classical literature: female voice, imagined and real
39. Dec 11, 2015: PUNJAB NOTES: Books: poetry and research-based criticism
40. Dec 18, 2015: Punjab Notes: Beas River: where troops of Alexander mutinied
2016
1. Jan 08, 2016: Punjab Notes: Social media: Pure language is dead language
2. Jan 15, 2016: Punjab Notes: ‘Whereof one can speak, thereof one must not be silent.
3. Feb 05, 2016: Punjab Notes: You can hear her singing in the dark
4. March 04, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Woman: less or more than man
5. March 11, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Memes: The past threatening the present
6. April 01, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Lahore: nightmares and birds
7. April 08, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Stories and translation of Sufi poetry
8. April 15, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Heer Waris Shah: He composed it 250 years ago
9. April 22, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Dacoit: criminal and hero
10. April 29, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Corruption: as old as pyramids
11. May 06, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Lahore: slaughtering of nature and history
12. May 20, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Summer: content and discontent
13. May 27, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Peasants on The Mall: starvation wages
14. June 03, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Cell phone: empowering the working class?
15. June 10, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Dr Faqir: retrieving the classical texts
16. June 17, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Minister, mullah and mom
17. June 24, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Rai Nasir: poet from the sacred land of the Guru
18. July 01, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Punjab: battle for water and food
19. July 15, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Tassi Dharti: a song of struggle and despair
20. July 29, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Waris Shah: neither a spiritual Guru nor a communist
21. Aug 05, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Lahore: music refuses to die
22. Aug 12, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Composing poetry for publishers
23. Aug 19, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Mob justice: state and society
24. Aug 26, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Source of human happiness: more or less?
25. Sep 02, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Bulleh Shah: demystifying mystic fires
26. Sep 16, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: The great Mughal and Dulla Bhatti: both or none!
27. Sep 23, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Culture: it cuts both ways
28. Sep 30, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab notes: Samina Hasan Syed: painting an audio landscape
29. Oct 07, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Saintly poets: denial of saintliness
30. Oct 28, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: People in cities: urbanised without urbanity (Part I)
31. Nov 04, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: People in cities: urbanised without urbanity (Part II)
32. Nov 11, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Parveen Malik and Anjum Qureshi: voice the unvoiced
33. Nov 25, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Water: vanished river and expanded city
34. Dec 02, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Prose writing: orality, force of habit and underdevelopment
35. Dec 23, 2016: Punjab Notes: PUNJAB NOTES: Mr Achakzai, Mianwali and Afghans
36. Dec 30, 2016: Punjab Notes: Punjab Notes: Growers: seeds of discontent and despair
2017
1. Janury 6, 2017: Punjab Notes: All the makings of a futuristic city
2. Janury 13, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Punjab is much bigger than Lahore
3. Janury 20, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Zafar Iqbal: the wages of creative sin
4. Feb 3, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Census: Punjab is not afraid of it
5. Feb 24, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Mother language: realising the strength of diversity
6. March 10, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Contemporary woman: empowerment or burden doubled!
7. March 24, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Water and morbidity of cultural habits
8. March 31, 2017: Punjab Notes: Madho Lal Hussain: glow of an eternal flame
9. May 5, 2017: Village and city: enriching and impoverishing
10. May 12, 2017: Punjab Notes: Social media: Pure language is dead language
11. May 26, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Young men from countryside dying as aliens
12. June 2, 2017: Punjab Notes: Promoting language and culture
13. June 16, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Poetry: things turn into their opposites and more is less
14. June 23, 2017: Punjab Notes: Classical texts: salvaging the literary heritage
15. June 30, 2017: Punjab Notes: After the fire the noise of muddled thinking!
16. July 21, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: They love children but not the poor ones
17. July 28, 2017: Punjab Notes: The University of Sargodha: aversion to teaching languages
18. Aug 04, 2017: Punjab Notes: Council of elders delivers its verdict: rape for rape
19. Aug 11, 2017: Punjab Notes: Independence and Partition: how ordinary mortals describe it!
20. Aug 25, 2017: Punjab Notes: Independence: ignored elements of colonial experience (Part-I)
21. Sep 01, 2017: Punjab Notes: Independence: ignored elements of colonial experience (Part II)
22. Sep 22, 2017: Punjab Notes: Anonymity: freedom from the tyranny of the past
23. Oct 13, 2017: Punjab Notes: How concrete conditions shape poetry (Part-I)
24. Oct 20, 2017: Punjab Notes: How concrete conditions shape poetry (Part II)
25. Oct 27, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Bureaucracy: power and caste
26. Nov 03, 2017: Punjab Notes: History for you is what you think it is! (Part I)
27. Nov 10, 2017: Punjab Notes: History for you is what you think it is (Part II)
28. Nov 17, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: The city: a window or a cul-de-sac
29. Nov 24, 2017: Punjab Notes: Dying in foreign lands or getting killed on the way
30. Dec 01, 2017: Punjab Notes: Crowd: it is the objective that holds it together
31. Dec 22, 2017: Punjab Notes: Two new novels: elegy or eulogy or both?
32. Dec 29, 2017: PUNJAB NOTES: Can you imagine a city sans foliage and feathers?
2018
1. Janury 12, 2018: Punjab Notes: Lack of patience and process of self-destruction
2. Janury 26, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Ustad Nazar Hussain: we stopped listening, he stopped singing
3. Feb 9, 2018: Punjab Notes: Highways: roads that enable us to get somewhere or...!
4. Feb 23, 2018: Punjab Notes: Two-day Punjabi Conference: venue does matter
5. March 2, 2018: Punjab Notes: Books: Historical fiction and literary criticism
6. March 16, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Punjab resisted invaders from North, South and East (Part-II)
7. March 30, 2018: Punjab Notes: The other side of social media
8. April 6, 2018: Punjab Notes : Punjab: some of its ancient names
9. May 7, 2018: Sufi saints and their descendants: part of the solution? (Part I)
10. May 14, 2018: Sufi saints and their descendants: part of the solution? (Part II)
11. May 21, 2018: Old age: wisdom, senility and despair
12. June 17, 2018: Akbar and Dulla Bhatti: resistance and dreams of new polity
13. June 25, 2018: Punjab Notes: Our classical literary age sans woman writer
14. July 2, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Children stories from the East and poetry from the South
15. July 9, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Monsoon: rains loved as much as dreaded
16. July 16, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Caste: it can make you win or lose election
17. July 23, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Remembering a poet who is forgotten but not dead
18. Aug 6, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Sardar Muhammad Khan: a life spent in search of word
19. Aug 20, 2018: Punjab Notes : Punjab: some of its ancient names
20. Aug 27, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: New books: delights of folk music and verses from abroad
21. Sep 3, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Rule of law: fast vanishing colonial legacy
22. Sep 10, 2018: PUNJAB NOTES: Remembering Ustad Daman: man who confronted the powerful