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I have chosen to walk on the shoulder of giants… Daughter of the West by Tariq Ali, ex-BBC, The Leopard and the Fox, in self imposed exile. The LBR piece written on 13th December 2007, paints an alternate picture of the princess in Pink. Pakistan after Benazir by Adil Najam, at All Things Pakistan, talks…

And a great game it was. Enough has been said already about our Desdemona, slain in naught, her blood spilled in vain. For her kingdom was pillaged and raped in her name. It is not easy playing the game that is words.

It is not easy playing the game that is words. Every day since the 27th, I have thought about doing a post… I felt sadness when I saw the first flash on BBC, not for a nation, but for three grieving children… Then came horror when the first sms arrived “Office will reopen on Monday,…

Lessons learnt If you have something important to say, say it within the first 10 minutes. Rather than closing with a bang (the most important slide of your presentation), start with one. If a pitch is not important enough for you to practice, it is not important enough to be made. Respect the time, the…

19th December 2007. Five years down the road, I think our biggest achievement is that we now have great candidates coming in as walk in(s). We still don’t advertise on traditional media except for the occasional once in six months posts on GOF and the “We are hiring” fliers at FAST, CBM and IBA. And…

For Ken, an old friend, who cut across age, cultures, schedules, biases and time to reach me time and again… Who taught me how to give, eat Nihari (beef stew) with a fork, Sushi in NYC and sunshine at Columbia. And put James Stewart to shame in Harvey… You were and are and will always…

Five years ago, I started work on the top ten ways to kill your startup. Here is the list, with one new addition, five years later. Technology is not a competitive advantage. Focus on the business problem not technological elegance or cool factor. Big customers are iffy. You generally don’t have the bandwidth to support…

In Singapore when a friend was asked about the state of affairs in Pakistan, post emergency and the protests by the legal fraternity: “In the US of A, if we had taken a bunch of lawyers and beaten them up, the community at large would have given us a medal. You would feature us on…

It’s that time of the year again. Karachi is mellow, the breeze outside has a nice chill, the traffic is slower, the beach is calmer and there is Dean Martin singing Volare in the air. And I am still bullish on this amazing country of ours. Despite the pessimism, the cynics, the doom and nay…

Net Express editor Rabia Garib does a great piece on Alchemy