KARACHI, May 17 -- Politics is also about timing. And so is writing a book, to some extent. Salman Abid's book has been widely welcomed at a time when politics is the talk of the town and election fever seems to have gripped the entire nation....

KARACHI, May 17 -- What is the difference between organic food and in-organic food? The explanation is quite simple. The foods free of contamination caused by use of pesticides, hormonal injections, antibiotics and other inputs to increase the yield are non-organic in nature....

KARACHI, May 17 -- "You take one bite and you can immediately tell the difference," says Majid Sheikh reflectively, a columnist and food enthusiast. "Everything about foods, that are grown organically, is different."...

KARACHI, May 17 -- In his memoirs, 'Living to Tell the Tale', Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes that Franz Kafka's novella, 'Metamorphosis', "determined a new direction for my life from its first line, which today is one of the great devices in world literature." And Marquez was referring to this line: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself...

KARACHI, May 17 -- This time, you will be missing one Sindhri mango out of three, as climate change has affected mango, the king of fruits, in Sindh, which is facing decline of around 0.15 million tons in production with an estimated decline of 25 per cent in 2013. The production of mango in Hyderabad, Tando Allayar, Mityari, Mirpur Khas and other parts of the...

KARACHI, May 17 -- Famous for its high-end cafes and grocery stores, Kohsar Market has also become one of the main cent of organic food in Islamabad. Most of its half a dozen grocery stores have displayed organic food products on prominent places....

KARACHI, May 17 -- Is it time to re-write Pakistan and India's shared history? To correct the past record?...

KARACHI, May 17 -- The fire that broke out at 11:40 am on Thursday, May 9, was extinguished after 20 hours on Friday. Till the filing of this report, rescuers could not enter the upper most floors of the LDA because the temperature there was still over 100 degrees Centigrade and 22 were reported dead....

KARACHI, May 17 -- Finally, good dosas in Lahore I hoped excitedly, and idli too, maybe vadas as well. Since the only place in Lahore that served dosas before Bombay Chowpatty arrived was Chatkhara, and their dosas are far from their best offering. In fact, to have a good dosa is always on the list on a visit to Karachi, more so since Mirchi opened, whose dosas...

KARACHI, May 17 -- While viewing a recent performance of Rafi Peerzada's Akhiyan by Azad Theatre at the Alhamra, one was struck by the great similarity between the classical Punjabi idiom and the language used in the play. At the same time, it was also clear that in some ways Rafi Peerzada, the author, was trying to break away from the very well-wrought versified...