Tidbits of the region’s media

New York based Bengali author Amitav Ghosh was interviewed by some Benaras Hindu University Department of English students recently in — Varanasi. All of what he had to say to Baniprata Mahanta, Somdev Banik and Namrata Rathore in a long interview, which was printed in The Hindu Literary Review of 21 May, was interesting, but I would like to excerpt this bit as I think it applies to all South Asia: "If you ask me what the most important problem that faces India today is, I would say that people do not really try to do what they do really well. Or to achieve some kind of excellence in what they are doing, or pour their heart, their mind, the entirety of their whole existence into what they are doing. The people who do it in India are very few. And most of them are musicians.

"Mushahid Hussain was riding high during the time of Nawaz Sharif's latest stint in government, as his information minister. The highly cerebral and articulate former journalist and expert on geo-strategic affairs, particularly on central Asia, lost favour with his peers when he became too much of a band-leader for Nawaz's increasingly autocratic proclivities. That having been said, it has to be acknowledged that while Mushahid may have loved his power, he was not corrupt. His wife is a lecturer, and when he stopped doing the lucrative foreign news agency assignments after joining politics, he was living in university housing. After the Pakistani coup, Mushahid was kept in jail for six months, and only on 27 March was he 'released'. Well, actually he is now under house arrest, living in his sister's house, and allowed a one-hour walk in the garden every day. In Pakistan, no one is campaigning for him, as the Sharif family is concerned about Mian Sahab wilting in Attock Jail, while the Pakistan Muslim League hierarchy will not go to bat for Mushahid (as he is seen as an outsider). Without a charge, a capable Pakistani is being kept away because he would talk and make life difficult for the Chief Executive. Not enough reason to keep him incarcerated.