Being part of a generation that was told “Wikipedia is not a source” makes it genuinely baffling to me that jobs are now telling people to just use ChatGPT for everything.
AI can't do fieldwork (yet). It can't do archival work either. Plenty of interesting qs waiting to be asked and answered by actual effort. Don't let the anxieties/aspirations of quant scholars/secondary data merchants get to you.
Even as a Lahori nationalist I have no shame in admitting that food scene in Karachi is unparalleled. Desi food is unmatched, you can eat from a random place and the food would hit, there's much more diversity in cuisines and valye for money much better than Lahore & Isb
when i'm talking to someone who doesn't speak urdu and i want to say khair but i end up saying anyway and then i sit a bit forlorn because what is anyway next to khair, the great affability of khair
“What drives Pakistani hospitality is not generosity in the Western sense. It is honour. Hosting someone, even a stranger, even with a cup of tea you cannot really afford, is an act of personal dignity. The host is not doing you a favour. They are doing something for themselves: fulfilling a code that says a guest in your presence is your responsibility, your privilege, and your reputation.”
Beautiful words about Pakistani culture by @DanQayyum in his latest piece today 💝