Tariq Ali spoke on “Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power” to a largely Pakistani audience. Around 100 people attended the talk.

Tariq Ali was hosted by of PADF (Pakistan American Democratic Forum) today at Chandni Restaurant in Newark. Here you see Tariq Ali with Agha Saeed, the main force behind PADF.

Robert Fisk’s repetitive usage of “we westerners” albeit mostly used in a self-critical tone, was a bit shocking to this scribe who was hoping Fisk had seen enough to lose any sense of belonging to any group.

On Wednesday, September 24, Robert Fisk, celebrated foreign correspondent of The Independent, UK, spoke to an over 200 strong audience at San Jose State University.

Amaresh Misra, author of “In War of Civilisations: India AD 1857” published on the sesquicentennial anniversary of the 1857 war is currently visiting the US. A dinner meeting with him at Ijaz Syed’s place—where we also screened Lahore-based filmmaker Huma Safdar’s Punjabi documentary ‘Taropa’—and later a telephone interview with Misra has given me enough material to write a full-length report for the newspapers.

San Francisco-based writer Moazzam Sheikh’s newest book “The Idol Lover and other stories of Pakistan”, a collection of ten short stories, has been published by Ithuriel’s Spear, a division of Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco. On September 3 a book-reading featuring Moazzam Sheikh was held at the Mountain View branch of Books, Inc. Sheikh amused the small audience reading excerpts from “Idol Lover.”

Prominent writer, speaker Harsh Mander gave a talk at Binayak Sen Film Festival (South Asian Human Rights Film Festival) arranged by Friends of South Asia (FOSA).