Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

Like many of my friends in the Pakistani diaspora - and many of my friends in Pakistan itself, for that matter - I have sometimes looked at the country of my birth and wondered whether its future will be one of steady and sad decline.

Sufi poetry is, in a sense, self-help poetry about how to live a decent life, how to deal with your mortality.

What used to help us to cope with transience was stuff like, extended families all living in one place, or very strong religious beliefs, or a tribe that would outlive you. That stuff is getting weaker.

I'm not sure if guys are supposed to read Vanity Fair. I feel very metrosexual with it but am not sure it's in my comfort zone.

In a way, every parent is sort of dependent on the benevolence of the society around them to take care of their children.

All human stories are migration stories because everyone is a refugee from their own childhood.