Afrah Jamal

Thanks to Liberty Books for the review copy Oct 2012: Thanks Imran Ahmad for the kind email & Mr. Asif Noorani for recommending this book. First Published in Daily Times / Saturday 1 Sep 2012 under the title: The Ballad of East & West A local singer who regularly goes on foreign tours admitted that after the Abbottabad raid, acknowledging his Pakistani origins can be a conversation ender, with the ‘gora’ (white) inevitably taking ten steps back. A local businessman confessed that certain foreign embassies now deem all Pakistani nationals as terrorists till proved otherwise. Imran Ahmad, who recently concluded his 50-State speaking tour of the mainland United States, had occasional run-ins with the representatives of this fear-driven society that love to herd his entire ilk under a single scary looking banner. A Pakistani, growing up in London of the 1960s and 1970s, he must be familiar with the scrutiny that comes with being different. This first person narrative that...