BetweenTheLines

From left to right: Heena Grover Menon, Ena Jain Kejriwal, Tanvi, and Sameer Arshad Khatlani. By Sameer Arshad Khatlani I have no control over how quickly I crawl back into my shell. That is perhaps how I am and I have finally made peace with it. People mostly give up on me and rightly so. But there are a few who have not and I cannot thank them enough. Among them is Heena Grover Menon. Heena and I are chalk and cheese. Outgoing uninhibited and pleasant, I can go on and on using similar adjectives for Heena that do not even remotely apply to me. There were, as such, heavy odds against Heena and me becoming acquaintances let alone being friends.  But Heena overcame and how! I was as usual on the sidelines of a social event—my first Times of India party at the Hotel Samrat in Delhi's diplomatic enclave in 2008—when Heena had enough of my reclusiveness. She literally dragged me to the heart of the party. Only Heena could have pulled this off.  I had joined the Times of India over a ye

  By Sameer Arshad Khatlani In the summer of 2004, I arrived in Delhi for good to live my dream of being a journalist. Though eternally optimistic, lurking fears did weigh me down. A teacher subtly fanning the kind of prejudice that is now in one's face, and some classmates openly expressing it confirmed these fears. Hanging onto my firm belief in the innate goodness of humans was among the ways I dealt with it. The belief has since stood me in good stead. Vanita Raghuvanshi, one of my classmates at the journalism school, was among the first ones in Delhi to strengthen my belief in the values that I grew up with. She personified what innate goodness means: humans are inherently good and doing good comes naturally to them. Vanita is among the rare people completely devoid of prejudice. Her disarming innocence and pleasant and friendly demeanour offered me a much-needed sense of inclusion to stay the course to live my dream. Vanita was not alone in being a source of strength

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I n the run-up to the no-confidence vote he faces this month , Pr ime Minister Imran Khan has hit out at the West and publicly criticized the European Union. His supporters have linked his refusal to allow the US to use Pakistan's territory or bases to the vote. Khan is widely expected to rally support for himself by relying on his refusal to play footsie with America unlike his predecessors to corner his rivals in case he is ousted from power. Many of his lawmakers have withdrawn support for him, raising questions about whether he can continue in power as he faces criticism over his economic and foreign policies.  Also Read |  Fourth-Year Itch: Will Imran Khan Complete His Term Khan has 155 seats in parliament's lower house. He needs the backing of coalition partners and dissidents for the support of 172 members of the House to complete his term and become the first Pakistani Prime Minister to do so. The opposition parties that have

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook W hen a rightist coalition bagged 11 per cent of votes in the 2002 Pakistan national elections, it was the first time conservatives managed a double-digit vote share in the country's electoral history. The conservatives had never won more than five per cent votes earlier. The trend continued after 2002. Much of the support the conservatives got in 2002 stemmed from anti-US sentiments sweeping Pakistan after military ruler Pervez Musharraf signed up for the war on terror in Afghanistan post 9/11 attacks.  Also Read | Clubbed With Urdu-Speakers, Biharis Retain Identity In Pakistan Pakistan’s biggest conservative party Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)’s vote share dwindled to 3.2% in the 2013 polls. Yet Rehman remained part of Islamabad’s power structure even as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had a comfortable majority after repeated fractured mandates. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the rightist coalition, and newly-formed Tehreek-e

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook A t the 2014 Bangalore Literature Festival, I got the first real sense of the bursting of the bubble of spaces one could relatively speak one's mind freely in. The event ended on a bit of a disappointing note when a hostile crowd surrounded us over the inconvenient perspective on Kashmir. Overall, the festival was a memorable experience. I moderated a session and got to meet some interesting people with the highlight being the meeting with Chinese writer Lijia Zhang and getting to know her fascinating story. Over coffee at the festival's writers' lounge, Lijia told me how she was pulled out of school at 16 to work at a factory to make ends meet in the impoverished China of the 1980s. But she did not give up. Lijia would struggle to go on and learn English, circumvent control in China, overcome the trauma of its manifestations such as period policing to realise her dream of becoming an author and journalist. Also Read | Why India Su

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I n the second year of my decade-long stint with the Times of India, I got what I then thought was my first big break — covering the 2008 Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. My mentor late Ranjan Roy agreed to depute me for the coverage at the request of Rashmee Roshan Lall, who was then the paper's weekend editor. I was at the top of my game thanks to Ranjan and Rashmee's support and encouragement at the beginning of the best phase of my professional life. I could not wait and hopped on to a bus as soon as I arrived in Srinagar to Pattan near Srinagar to meet Member Of Parliament Abdul Rashid Shaheen, who was contesting the elections on a National Conference (NC) ticket. Shaheen, who had seen better days in politics, appeared downcast. He was in his living room addressing half-a-dozen supporters when I walked in. Shaheen spoke about NC's heyday when iconic Sheikh Abdullah, the NC founder, held sway over the Kashmiris. Also Read

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook A bdul Kadir Khanzada represented Karachi’s Orangi Town in Pakistan's parliament when Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, visited his country in 2012. He wanted to invite the visiting leader to his constituency given the composition of the area, where a bulk of the voters have roots in Bihar. Khanzada told me violence uprooted his family from Alwar in Rajasthan at the time of partition in 1947 when I called him for a Times of India piece on Kumar's visit. But since 70 per cent of his constituents were of Bihari origin, he was keen on inviting Kumar. Khanzada emphasised his Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents Pakistan's Urdu-speaking people, has always supported peace with India and hoped Kumar’s visit would help the process.  Also Read | How Kinship Bonds Impact Pakistan's Electoral Politics Kumar visited the archaeological site of Mohenjo-Daro, a temple, and addressed a Hindu pan

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook P akistan's first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) has understandably hit the headlines in India. As The Indian Express pointed out, India has been mentioned more than any other nation—at least 16 times—in the 62-page document. Prepared after what has been described as a seven-year strategic thought, the NSP was adopted in late December. It cites a policy of peace at home and abroad and says Islamabad wishes to improve its relationship with New Delhi even as it acknowledges the rise of Hindutva-driven politics in India impacts Pakistan’s immediate security. The policy cautions against Indian leadership's political exploitation of a policy of belligerence towards Pakistan and says it threatens military adventurism and non-contact warfare. Also Read |  India-Pakistan Tensions Are Irreversible For Now The reactions to NSP in India ranged from usual contempt towards Pakistan to surprise over the peace overtures. No matter what they were

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook D eaf and mute Indian woman Geeta returned home in 2015 from Pakistan after 12 years thanks largely to Salman Khan-starrer Indian film Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s success. The reel life story of the film’s main character, Shahida aka Munni, mirrored that of Geeta’s real life. Geeta was found alone at the Lahore Railway Station after she got off the Samjautha Express from New Delhi. She mysteriously boarded the cross-border train after attending a fair on the Indian side of Punjab, where her father worked as a mason. Likewise, Munni gets off a train in the film while chasing a sheep as her mother falls asleep en route to India for pilgrimage.  Also Read | As Imran Khan Faces 4th-Year Itch, Will He Complete His Term The waves the film made with its rare sensitive portrayal of cross-border characters and parallels it drew with Geeta’s story stirred an inept bureaucracy into action. The urgency worked when Geeta identified her family in a remote Bihar riv