Kirrt - a project to honour the kirrtis and kirrts - the craftsmen and the crafts, artists and artworks of Punjab. facebook.com/Kirrt instagram.com/_kirrt_/

I highly recommend Daniyal Moeenuddin’s excellent new novel This Is Where the Serpent Lives. With its lucid prose, great storytelling and rich cast of characters of zamindars, their enforcers, and surfs it is one you won’t put down. It is a great portrait of Pakistani politics and rural life. Richard Holbrooke would give a copy of his collection of short stories In Other Rooms Other Wonders to all AfPak principals, including Obama, as introduction to #Pakistan. a.co/d/039JwhbD

There are many ways to read a city. Here’s a postcard mapping Mumbai through women’s writing (fiction) — stories that take us across trains, apartments, overbridges, memory, intimacy, labour, migration, ambition, and everyday life. 1.

I will tweet a formal recommendation tomorrow. Today i am getting back to John Berger. Translated in Hindi (much needed) by @RajkamalBooks ! Consider this my on-the-go recommendation. Ways of Seeing.

Finland has solved the problem of AI use in literature, the same way it solves every problem: through unionization. You literally are not a writer in Finland if you're not part of the Union of Finnish Writers. To be considered eligible, you must have published at least two independently authored literary works in Finnish, and be "writerly" at the "artistic and professional level of your output", in other words, to have been received well by the critics and not to have misbehaved too badly at the parties. Just weeks ago, the union issued a decree stating that in the face of the proliferating use of AI in writing and related scandals abroad, no member is allowed to write without supervision: writing may only be done in the presence of at least two senior union members, and only in longhand. The policy seems to be a success in that there have been no local scandals so far, but writer responses to the rule have been varied: some say that they can't live like this, others that it's a great perk to get live feedback from senior colleagues they admire, even if it's in the form of various grunts, groans or smiles as they watch over their shoulders.

Mamdani is winning the public perception game as mayor in a way I didn't expect as a supporter. "Hard worker who really cares" is how a Cuomo voter described her view to me this week. Talked to a nonvoter who "didn't like my choices" yesterday. His view now? "I like Mamdani."

. @MiraPagliNair unveils the first look of her next #Amri, a tribute to Amrita Sher-Gil, whose fearless vision transformed modern Indian art. Featuring. #AnjaliSivaraman as Amrita with #EmilyWatson @JaideepAhlawat @jimSarbh #AnjanaVasan #KrisztiánCsákvári & @priyankachopra.

“Visual history is more important than making pretty and fine art photography. History is always written and is even being rewritten. But photo history cannot be rewritten.” • R A G H U R A I

In 2015 I got the opportunity to interview Raghu Rai saab for a children’s magazine. It was a lesson in simplicity of thought and craft.

Online conference on Punjab in Motion: Migration, Society and Change.

Here's the recording. Especially grateful for Sood's comments and the incisive student questions. Forgive the slight 3am delirium. youtube.com/watch?v=xk483JB_…

The simple ultra-minimalist, and oddly modernist, designs of Nishapur ceramics are the perfect expression of the sort of subtle aesthetics al-Ghazzali was writing about, an aesthetic that does not try to fill the world with images, but rather which gives the eye a sense of order and inner peace, clearing a space where the Presence of God can be felt.

Nishapur: Persian ultra-modern ultra-minimalism from the tenth century CE @IAMM_KL

No! Not the beautiful Chehel Sotoon!

Now the US & the Israelis have severely damaged the spectacular Chehel Sotoon in Isfahan. These are images from my last visit

Now they are bombing the most beautiful city of earth #prayforIsfahan

Terrific story by @pruhthyush on Punjabi Noir! hollywoodreporterindia.com/f…

Screening of 𝗔𝗱𝗵 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗶 𝗥𝗮𝗮𝘁 (𝗖𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮) at 2:00 pm, introduced by Gurvinder Singh, a work that weaves memory, migration, and rural Punjab’s quiet despair through stark realism and luminous cinematography. Alliance Francaise, New Delhi

My first-ever full comedy special, too political to go on any streaming service, is out on youtube now. Full 80-minutes of NOTHING MAKES SENSE. youtube.com/watch?v=O-sdocGb… Watch and share.