Trying out a little experiment, a new music channel for good new Pakistani music: tv.hamnawa.net The music is curated by our Hamnawa team. Let me know thoughts and feedback?

It’s here!

1/ For over a decade, I've been chasing the story of Iggy Fernandes, the greatest guitarist from Karachi you'd never heard of. He played left-handed, in the 70s & 80s, died tragically at 27 and came with that rockstar name: How can you not get obsessed? guernicamag.com/iggy/

Been really lovely to watch the crowd in Lahore at the Champions Trophy. I myself have cheered with a sporting crowd for an India team when Pakistan was losing. The vibe today is reminiscent of when Lahore was an international destination for cricket & basant.

This makes so little sense

I've never enjoyed being on a cricket tour asuch as I enjoyedy three days in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. This despite not being able to watch a single ball. espncricinfo.com/story/champion…

Estimated zakat giving by Pakistanis annually is more than govt’s outlay on main social protection program, govt’s collection through federal excise duty, and foreign aid received in 2022

When will toilet manufacturers talk to toilet seat cover manufacturers so their products are the same shape?

The ticket purchasing experience is a mess. All you need is a QR code, but to do this you have to stand in line at TCS for an hour in the heat during business hours. Makes no sense to spend so much time getting tickets when the game itself is only 4 hours.

The ceasefire reminds me of Intizar Husain’s 1965 memory: during the war, Indian songs vanished from Lahore. Then one day, he heard Lata Mangeshkar’s voice from a shop—signaling war's end & return of peace. Here’s a song in her voice for the paths ahead: youtu.be/STOM6NZfcrs?si…

This ACM CHI Conference paper finds non-intentional social media usage / algorithmically recommended content particularly regrettable. The paper's methodology is very neat: the authors triangulate surveys with screenshot analysis (with VLMs). dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/37…

People are talking about Pakistan’s solar boom only in terms of cost and increases in loadshedding. But have you noticed the off grid rural adoption? I remember during the floods how every single tent had a solar panel in front of it. Absolutely unprecedented and so cool!

Eid Mubarak written in Japanese calligraphic style

My Computer

If Zohran Mamdani becomes NYC mayor at the age of 33 it will be a death blow to millions of young south Asian men in this country. Every desi parent is gonna be like, “Zohran was Mayor of New York City at 33! You haven’t even bought a house yet! Why can’t you be more like

When you make a Bank ACH transaction, it’s literally just an SFTP upload. Sent as a NACHA file, it's 940 bytes of ASCII text. Bank-to-Bank transactions cost ~0.2 cents. As long as it travels via encrypted tunnel; it’s compliant! Here’s how the quirky system works:

Prayers for Sonnu Rahman, an amazing light for the city of Lahore. To God we belong, to God we return.