Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2022.

RECENTLY, I had a brief but interesting conversation with a Karachi bookseller who deals in old books and manuscripts. He is a mine of information on current trends. For instance, nowadays most of the orders he receives are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province which has also shown a fresh interest in Persian manuscripts due to the situation in Afghanistan; the Urdu-speaking population has lost interest in books; in Sindh’s smaller cities and towns, people ask for Sindhi books and manuscripts; and, of course, Punjab is where Urdu grew and most Urdu books and magazines were, and are, published.

When he asked me about my vocation I told him I write on labour issues. He remarked, “Labour, that’s a left wing issue… .” I replied, “Labour is as much of concern for the right wing as it is for the left!”