Tag: Personal Reflections

🎶 Bravo, Kabir | Artists Across Borders

This Sunday, something quietly powerful is taking place: Indian and Pakistani artists will share a virtual stage, and among them is our very own Kabir Altaf, performing as a Hindustani classical vocalist and ethnomusicologist based in Pakistan.

Kabir shared that Sheema ji personally invited him to sing, and he’s planning to perform the Kabir bhajan already available on Spotify. A simple act but a potent one. Rooted in shared heritage, offered in public.

It’s easy to be cynical about India–Pakistan relations. But these moments matter. When musicians from Sindh and Delhi, translators from Karachi, and filmmakers from Mumbai come together, even on Zoom, they create a space that politics cannot reach. A space where memory, performance, and shared roots do the work diplomacy cannot.

This is the kind of initiative we need more of: not policy, but presence; not diplomacy, but dialogue. These exchanges don’t dilute identity; they deepen it.

Bravo and huzzah to Kabir, and to all involved.

🗓 Event:

Indian–Pakistani Artists in Dialogue

📅 Saturday, 3rd August 2025

⏰ 7:30 PM Pakistan time / 8:00 PM India time

👩‍🎤 Moderator:

Sheema Kermani – Bharatanatyam dancer, theatre personality, Karachi

🎙 Featured Speakers & Performers:

  1. Dr. Syeda Saiyidain Hameed – Writer, former Member of India’s Planning Commission

  2. Dr. Ghazala Irfan – Philosopher and Chair, Department of Humanities, LUMS; affiliated with All Pakistan Music Conference

  3. Anand Patwardhan – Documentary filmmaker, Mumbai

  4. Saleema J. Khawaja – Vocalist of Punjabi Kafi and Guru Nanak verses, Lahore

  5. Neela Bhagwat – Hindustani vocalist (Gwalior Gharana), Mumbai

  6. Azhar Shan – Folk musician from Sindh

  7. Dhruv Sangari – Hindustani classical and Sufi vocalist, Delhi

  8. Zainub J. Khawaja – Musician, member of Harsukhiyaan, Pakistan

  9. Yousuf Saeed – Documentary filmmaker, known for work on classical music in Pakistan, Delhi

  10. Kabir Altaf – Hindustani classical vocalist and ethnomusicologist, Pakistan

  11. Nishtha Jain – Documentary filmmaker, Mumbai

  12. Zahra Sabri – Lecturer and translator, Karachi

  13. Zulaikha Jabeen – Independent scholar, India

 

🔗 Join via Zoom

Click here to join

Meeting ID: 897 8701 6742

Why Pakistan Won’t Go the Way of Iran

I’ve been enjoying the new direction Brown Pundits has taken since the recent shake-up. Posts are now generating 100+ comments, and that kind of engagement creates a virtuous cycle. You want to write more, think more, respond more. I’m leaning into that.

For now, a lot of the content burden rests on me and that’s okay. It’s been encouraging to see older names return: Girmit, for instance. It feels like a slow reconsolidation of the original readership. Letting people return on their own terms.

Meanwhile, BRAHM, my newsletter, has taken on a different role; a home for more composed writing, life pieces, and the slow launchpad for my business. I just posted something there recently, which I’ll link to for now and follow up on soon. But here, on BP, is where I let myself think in public. Where I go long. Where thoughts breathe.

Continue reading Why Pakistan Won’t Go the Way of Iran

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