By Nuzair Ahmed Jamro

Moving from Traditional Classrooms to Smart Learning Environments

A classroom has always been a place where knowledge is shared, ideas are developed, and future generations are prepared. However, the way students learn and the way teachers deliver knowledge have changed dramatically around the world. Today, technology has become an important partner in education, helping teachers explain concepts better and enabling students to learn beyond the boundaries of a traditional classroom.

Across the globe, educational institutions are adopting smart classrooms, digital learning platforms, and online academic systems to improve teaching quality and institutional management. However, many colleges in Pakistan still depend on traditional methods where teachers rely mainly on textbooks, handwritten notes, printed materials, and manual record-keeping. While these methods have served education for decades, the changing needs of today’s students require a more flexible, interactive, and technology-driven approach.

Therefore, the time has come to rethink our classrooms—not by replacing teachers, but by empowering them with modern tools that make teaching easier, more effective, and more engaging.

Current Challenges in the Existing College Education System

Many public colleges continue to face challenges that affect the quality and efficiency of education. Faculty members often prepare lesson plans manually, carry teaching materials physically, maintain paper-based records, and depend on limited classroom resources. In many cases, valuable teaching content remains stored in personal files or devices, making it difficult to access, share, or reuse.

Similarly, students often depend heavily on handwritten notes and classroom explanations. If a student misses a lecture or needs additional revision, accessing the same learning material becomes difficult. Practical demonstrations, multimedia explanations, and interactive learning activities are also limited in many institutions due to the absence of digital facilities.

From an administrative perspective, monitoring academic progress, syllabus completion, faculty activities, and classroom utilization through manual systems is time-consuming and often inefficient. Without centralized digital platforms, institutions cannot fully utilize data for improving educational planning and decision-making.

These challenges indicate the need for a modern system where technology supports teachers, simplifies administration, and creates better learning opportunities for students.

The Proposed Solution: Smart Classrooms with an E-Lecture Management System

A Smart Classroom integrated with an E-Lecture Management System can provide a practical solution to these challenges. The purpose of this initiative is not to replace traditional teaching but to make it smarter, easier, and more effective.

Under this system, every faculty member would have a personal online account where they can prepare and upload their lesson plans, lectures, presentations, videos, assignments, and other teaching materials at any time. Teachers would not need to wait until they reach the college or classroom to prepare their content. They could access their accounts from anywhere—even from their homes or through a mobile phone.

A teacher travelling outside the city could still update a lesson plan, upload a new lecture, or review teaching material through a secure online platform. This flexibility would allow faculty members to manage their academic content according to their convenience while maintaining organized digital records.

Read: What is a Smart Classroom? The Complete Overview 

When entering the classroom, the teacher would simply log into the system and access the required lecture without carrying books, files, USB drives, or printed notes. The entire lesson would already be available through the Smart Classroom platform, allowing teachers to focus more on explanation, discussion, and interaction with students.

Modern Smart Classrooms can also provide wireless connectivity options. Teachers can connect their Android mobile phones, tablets, or laptops directly with smart projectors and interactive displays, allowing them to share presentations, videos, documents, and digital content instantly without complicated wiring or technical difficulties.

This simple and user-friendly approach can make technology a natural part of everyday teaching.

Benefits for Teachers: Making Teaching Easier and More Effective

Teachers are the heart of any education system, and technology should serve as a tool to support them.

Smart Classrooms can reduce the burden of manual preparation by allowing faculty members to maintain their complete academic resources digitally. Lesson plans, course outlines, lecture presentations, and teaching materials can be organized in one place and accessed whenever required.

Instead of spending valuable time searching for files or preparing repeated notes, teachers can focus more on improving teaching methods, interacting with students, and providing practical guidance. Digital platforms also encourage better planning because teachers can prepare lectures in advance and maintain a structured teaching schedule.

Furthermore, faculty members can gradually build their own digital academic libraries containing years of teaching experience, research material, and educational resources.

Benefits for Students: Creating an Engaging Learning Experience

Students are the ultimate beneficiaries of digital transformation in education.

Smart Classrooms make lessons more interesting through videos, animations, digital demonstrations, and interactive presentations. Difficult topics that are challenging to explain through traditional methods can become easier through visual learning.

For example, scientific concepts, engineering processes, historical events, and practical demonstrations can be presented in a way that improves understanding and long-term retention.

Students can also access digital learning material outside the classroom, allowing them to revise lectures according to their own learning pace. This approach supports independent learning and provides equal access to educational resources.

Moreover, regular exposure to digital tools prepares students for modern workplaces where technology skills are becoming increasingly important.

Benefits for College Administration and Governance

Smart Classrooms can also transform the way colleges are managed.

When integrated with digital attendance systems, student information systems, online assessments, and academic dashboards, college administrations can monitor institutional performance more effectively.

Principals and academic managers can view important information such as syllabus progress, classroom activities, attendance trends, and academic performance through centralized digital reports.

This reduces dependence on paperwork, improves transparency, and enables administrators to make better decisions based on accurate information.

Digital records also support accountability by creating a systematic record of academic activities and institutional performance.

Long-Term Impact on Pakistan’s Education System

The introduction of Smart Classrooms is not simply a technology project; it is an investment in the future of education.

A digitally enabled college system can improve teaching quality, reduce administrative workload, strengthen transparency, and prepare students for the demands of a rapidly changing world.

For Pakistan, where millions of young people are entering higher education and the job market every year, improving the quality of learning is essential. Digital classrooms can help bridge the gap between traditional education and the skills required in the modern economy.

Implementation Roadmap: Starting with Pilot Colleges

A practical approach would be to introduce Smart Classroom projects initially in selected government colleges across Sindh. These pilot projects can evaluate effectiveness, identify challenges, and provide a model for expansion across the province.

The initiative should include classroom equipment, internet connectivity, faculty training, technical support, and a centralized E-Lecture Management System. After successful implementation, the model can gradually be expanded to more institutions.

Conclusion: Preparing Classrooms for the Future

The future of education is not about replacing traditional classrooms; it is about enhancing them. Teachers will always remain the most important part of learning, but technology can make their work easier and their impact greater.

Smart Classrooms with E-Lecture Management Systems can transform colleges into modern learning environments where teachers can prepare and deliver lessons efficiently, students can learn more effectively, and administrators can manage institutions with greater transparency.

The question is no longer whether educational institutions should adopt digital transformation. The real question is how quickly we can provide our teachers and students with the tools they need to succeed in the digital age.

Read: Climate Diplomacy in a Warming World

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Nuzair Ahmed Jamro, hailing from Shikarpur, Sindh, is a Civil Servant. He writes on governance, public policy, and digital transformation. Email: najamro@gmail.com.

The post Smart Classrooms: Transform Pakistan’s Colleges first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Some places do not overwhelm visitors with grand monuments or crowded attractions. Instead, they quietly win hearts through peaceful waterfronts, endless summer light, warm hospitality, and the comforting certainty that even in the world’s quieter corners, remarkable stories patiently wait for those willing to drive a little farther.

By Abdullah Usman Morai | Sweden

“Sometimes the best journeys begin when the original plan falls apart.”

The arrival of summer holidays always brings with it the irresistible urge to leave routine behind and chase new horizons. This year was no different. On Friday, 3rd July 2026, after shutting down the computers at our company, my travel companion, Dr. Imran Jamali, and I left Stockholm with a different kind of excitement. Our original plan had been to drive through Central Europe, but an intense heatwave sweeping across the continent forced us to redraw our map. Instead of heading south, we turned our compass north towards the Arctic landscapes of Sweden and Norway, where summer is cool, the nights never truly become dark, and nature writes poetry in silence.

At around 11:30 at night, with light rain tapping gently against the windshield, we began our long drive. The familiar E18 soon merged into the E4, Sweden’s great northbound highway. The farther north one travels during summer, the shorter the night becomes. Even before reaching Gävle, the darkness had already begun surrendering to daylight.

The rain, however, had its own plans. Gentle drizzles occasionally transformed into heavy downpours, demanding complete concentration behind the wheel. Long-distance driving has its own rhythm: a balance of patience, teamwork, and endurance. As kilometers disappeared beneath our tyres, so did the cities. Uppsala slipped behind us, followed by Gävle, Söderhamn, and Hudiksvall, where we exchanged drivers, stretched our legs, refilled the fuel tank, and continued onward.

Soon came Sundsvall, Timrå, Härnösand, Örnsköldsvik, and finally Umeå, where we rewarded ourselves with an early morning breakfast. During those long northern highways, one curious observation stayed with us: the same vehicles often remained behind or ahead of us for hours, almost becoming silent travel companions sharing the same endless road. Or no vehicle for a long time at all.

Beyond Skellefteå and Piteå, the landscape gradually announced our arrival in Sweden’s far north. After covering more than 900 kilometres in nearly thirteen hours, we finally entered Luleå.

Knowing beforehand how exhausting an overnight drive would be, we had requested our hotel for an early check-in, if possible. Fortunately, our request was accommodated.

Our home for the day was the elegant Elite Stadshotellet Luleå, a historic hotel standing proudly in the heart of the city, directly opposite Stadsparken and the beautiful City Hall. Built in the early twentieth century, the building reflects classic European architecture while offering modern Scandinavian comfort. Large windows, spacious interiors, tasteful décor and its central location make it one of the city’s finest places to stay. After parking our car in the hotel’s underground garage and checking into our room, fatigue briefly surrendered to curiosity.

Our first mission was lunch.

Just a short walk away, we found a small restaurant called Slice Pizza. Based on Stockholm standards, we confidently ordered a single pizza to share. It disappeared much faster than expected and certainly wasn’t enough. Smiling at our own miscalculation, we ordered another pizza, one that the owner/manager recommended. Topped generously with mushrooms and creamy garlic sauce, it proved to be the perfect introduction to northern Swedish comfort food.

Satisfied at last, we returned to the hotel for a few hours of well-deserved rest.

The hotel itself was unusually lively. Somewhere in the city, a wedding celebration was underway and elegantly dressed guests filled the corridors before leaving together for the ceremony. Their cheerful conversations added a festive atmosphere that contrasted beautifully with our quiet travel fatigue.

By evening, refreshed and re-energized, we stepped outside once again to discover Luleå.

Situated on the shores of the Bay of Bothnia, Luleå may appear to be a modest northern town at first glance, yet it possesses a quiet confidence that leaves a lasting impression. Wide streets, clean public spaces, waterfront promenades, cafés and parks blend naturally with the surrounding sea and forests. Despite its relatively small population, Luleå serves as one of northern Sweden’s most important educational, technological and industrial centers.

Being Saturday evening, the city was enjoying its weekend mood. Live music echoed through the courtyard of our hotel, where locals and visitors gathered to celebrate the pleasant Arctic summer. We paused only briefly before continuing towards the waterfront, where nature offered a far more captivating concert.

Elegant yachts and modern boats rested peacefully in the marina. Gentle waves carried perfect reflections of drifting clouds across the calm water. The evening air was pleasantly cool, carrying with it a freshness that only northern coastal towns seem capable of producing.

Walking there unexpectedly reminded me of three dear friends from Quaid-e-Awam Engineering University, Nawabshah: Dr. Muhammad Auchar Zardari, Dr. Riaz Bhanbhro and Dr. Asif Saleh Qureshi, all of whom had completed their doctoral studies at Luleå University of Technology. As Imran and I wandered through the city, we could not help imagining the years they had spent here pursuing research under these same northern skies. Their memories quietly accompanied our walk.

Soon we reached the wooden boardwalks extending over the water.

Here begins one of Sweden’s most remarkable natural treasures: the Luleå Archipelago, a collection of around 1,300 islands scattered across the Bay of Bothnia, the northernmost extension of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. The unique mixture of fresh river water and salty seawater creates a special ecosystem found in very few places on Earth.

The archipelago transforms completely with the seasons. During summer, people sail between islands, paddle kayaks through quiet channels, fish, cycle, hike forest trails, swim in surprisingly refreshing waters, and enjoy long evenings in cottages beneath the midnight glow. Winter brings an entirely different world. Once the sea freezes, snowmobiles replace boats, ice roads connect islands, people skate across frozen bays, try ice fishing, cross-country skiing, dog sledding, and simply embrace the extraordinary beauty of an Arctic winter landscape.

Perhaps nothing defines Luleå more than its remarkable summer nights.

Although technically the sun slips just below the horizon, it never truly becomes dark. Instead, the sky remains illuminated by a soft golden twilight that lasts throughout the night before sunrise quietly returns. This enchanting phenomenon, known as the Midnight Sun, creates the surreal feeling that time itself has slowed down. Watches continue counting hours, yet nature seems to ignore them.

As we continued walking, we reached a lively waterfront park where food trucks had gathered, families were enjoying the evening, and teenagers enthusiastically played handball nearby. Standing prominently beside the open water was the large “Luleå” sign, a favourite spot for visitors to capture photographs. Naturally, we joined them, preserving another beautiful memory of our northern adventure.

Dinner that evening took us somewhere unexpectedly familiar.

Google Maps guided us to a South Asian restaurant called Indiska Grytan. The restaurant was just about to close, yet the staff kindly welcomed us. Our waitress was an Indian young woman, while the gentleman managing both the kitchen and reception was Afghan. Such encounters remind travellers how wonderfully interconnected today’s world has become.

The food exceeded our expectations, not only in taste but also in quantity. Each serving was so generous that two portions could easily have satisfied four hungry travellers. We packed the leftovers, knowing they would become tomorrow’s lunch somewhere farther north.

Back in our hotel room, as always happens after meaningful travel days, conversation replaced television. We reflected upon the long drive, the changing landscapes, the remarkable hospitality we had encountered, and the peaceful charm of Luleå.

Small towns often possess a unique advantage. Distances are short, people appear approachable, traffic is gentle, and discovering places feels effortless. Yet beneath this quiet exterior, cities like Luleå are global centers of innovation. Institutions such as Luleå University of Technology attract researchers and students from around the world, proving that groundbreaking ideas do not belong exclusively to great metropolitan capitals.

The following morning began with one of the hotel’s finest offerings: its breakfast.

The buffet was an impressive spread of Scandinavian and continental delicacies. Fresh breads, cheeses, fruits, smoked fish, eggs, cereals, pastries, and juices covered the counters in abundance. Choosing what to eat first became the day’s first pleasant challenge.

One detail, however, surprised me.

For the very first time, I noticed ice cream being served alongside breakfast. Perhaps it was simply a cheerful gesture for the summer season, but it certainly caught my attention. Equally memorable was the spacious dining hall itself, where large glass windows overlooked the shimmering waters outside, allowing breakfast to be enjoyed with one of the city’s finest views.

After one final cup of tea/coffee, we checked out, refuelled our car, and pointed its nose further north towards Kiruna and Abisko, where new adventures awaited beneath Sweden’s Arctic sky.

As Luleå gradually disappeared in the rear-view mirror, it left behind far more than photographs. It reminded us that some places do not overwhelm visitors with grand monuments or crowded attractions. Instead, they quietly win hearts through peaceful waterfronts, endless summer light, warm hospitality, and the comforting certainty that even in the world’s quieter corners, remarkable stories patiently wait for those willing to drive a little farther.

Thank you, Luleå, for welcoming us. Our journey had only just begun.

Read: Where History Whispers and Rivers Flow

__________________

Abdullah Soomro, penname Abdullah Usman Morai, hailing from Moro town of Sindh, province of Pakistan, is based in Stockholm Sweden. Currently he is working as Groundwater Engineer in Stockholm Sweden. He did BE (Agriculture) from Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam and MSc water systems technology from KTH Stockholm Sweden as well as MSc Management from Stockholm University. Beside this he also did masters in journalism and economics from Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur Mirs, Sindh. He is author of a travelogue book named ‘Musafatoon’. His second book is in process. He writes articles from time to time. A frequent traveler, he also does podcast on YouTube with channel name: VASJE Podcast.

The post Where the Sun Forgets to Sleep first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Noor Muhammad Marri, Advocate | Islamabad

The historical evolution of legal and judicial systems is fundamentally intertwined with the genesis of human civilization, the perpetual struggle for political hegemony, and the shifting dynamics of societal needs. Across the epochs, the history of justice has transcended a mere compilation of static statutes and codified edicts; it chronicles how ruling configurations have systematically institutionalized their dominance under the majestic veneer of law, contrasted against the relentless, often bloody struggle of the dispossessed for egalitarian recognition. In the twilight of primordial human organization, long before the structural consolidation of the formal state, the conceptualization of justice was intrinsically organic, bounded by the tribal imperatives of blood feuds and lex talionis—the law of retaliation. In these decentralized landscapes, raw physical capability was the ultimate arbiter of truth. However, as humanity coalesced into urban aggregates and imperial structures, rulers recognized the necessity of anchoring their volatile authority within a systematized order, giving birth to the first written codifications of law. The Code of Hammurabi of the Babylonian Empire stands as a monumental historical testament to this transition. While it introduced a structured, predictable framework of reciprocal retribution, it simultaneously codified structural hierarchy, calibrating distinct punitive measures based on an individual’s location within the social architecture—whether noble, free citizen, or slave. This pivotal juncture exposed the enduring dual character of the legal apparatus: functioning simultaneously as an indispensable instrument of public order and an elite fortress protecting systemic privilege.

It was within the philosophical crucible of ancient Greece and the administrative vastness of Rome that the judicial architecture received its profound intellectual and institutional blueprint. The Hellenic thinkers, most notably Plato and Aristotle, moved beyond the mere compliance of civic rules to interrogate the ontological essence of justice itself, questioning whether the legal framework was anything more than the gilded advantage of the stronger or if it harbored an immutable moral reality. Conversely, the Roman Empire bequeathed to posterity a monumental, highly articulated jurisprudential machinery—the Roman law—which remains the foundational substructure of modern European and international legal orders. The Romans pioneered a professionalized ecosystem characterized by codified civil statutes, systematic forensic advocacy, and a structured hierarchy of magistrates. Yet, beneath this awe-inspiring facade of civilizational advancement, historical reality reveals that Roman jurisprudence was deeply partisan. It functioned primarily to fortify the property regimes and political monopolies of the patrician elite and senatorial classes, while systematically marginalizing plebeians and rendering enslaved populations entirely devoid of legal personhood. Thus, even in its golden classical age, the rule of law operated effectively as an infrastructural weapon, consolidating elite equilibrium and containing class friction.

With the collapse of classical antiquity, the medieval epoch witnessed a dramatic realignment of the judicial apparatus, as it became deeply absorbed into the dual matrix of ecclesiastical authority and feudal fragmentation. Throughout feudal Europe, monarchs and the clerical hierarchy co-opted the legal narrative by invoking the “divine right of kings,” thereby transforming secular laws into extensions of cosmic decrees and neutralizing dissent as spiritual apostasy. For the medieval serf or commoner, institutional justice was an inaccessible, arbitrary abstractions, delivered through trials by ordeal or the caprice of local lords. A structural rupture in this authoritarian paradigm occurred in 1215 along the banks of Runnymede, where the signing of the Magna Carta established a revolutionary constitutional precedent: that the sovereign’s executive will was not absolute, but subordinated to the law of the land. This embryonic constitutionalism was later radicalized during the Age of Enlightenment and the subsequent fires of the French and American Revolutions. Philosophers like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau dismantled the metaphysical justifications of absolutism, championing instead the secular doctrines of fundamental human rights, popular sovereignty, and the structural separation of powers. The fruit of these revolutionary upheavals is our contemporary constitutional architecture, which proudly proclaims the egalitarian gospel of absolute equality before the law.

When viewed through a critical historical lens, the contemporary justice system appears as a sophisticated, ostensibly neutral guardian of human rights and civil liberties; however, political sociologists and legal realists maintain a deeply skeptical posture toward these egalitarian claims. Modern history demonstrates with agonizing clarity that during the era of Western imperialism, European powers deployed their highly formalized legal structures across Asia and Africa not to dispense emancipatory justice to indigenous populations, but to legitimize colonial occupation, systematically expropriate resources, and institutionalize racial subjugation. The law was the vanguard of the bayonet. In our post-colonial, hyper-capitalist reality, this historical inheritance persists in mutated forms, where the prohibitive cost of legal representation, corporate personhood, and structural systemic biases ensure that the judiciary frequently reinforces existing socioeconomic stratifications.

Ultimately, the historical trajectory of justice systems reveals a profoundly ambivalent, double-edged sword. On one side, it has served as an indispensable bulwark against chaos, establishing civil predictability and protecting individuals from arbitrary violence. On the other side, it has consistently functioned as a refined, coercive weapon utilized by successive ruling elites to insulate their wealth, preserve political monopolies, and legitimize societal hierarchies. The grand narrative of jurisprudence is not a static chronicle of achieved perfection, but an ongoing, agonizing dialectical struggle—a historical march in which humanity continuously fights to disarm the law as an instrument of elite power and transform it into an authentic, universal instrument of human emancipation.

Read: The Servants of the Beast

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Noor Muhammad Marri, Advocate and Mediator, Islamabad

The post The Architecture of Domination first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Come upon them

Golden light swaying at the cliff’s edge…

Zhuang Xiaoming

Zhuang Xiaoming, art name Dongxiang, was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, in April 1964. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a member of the Jiu San Society. He has published a large body of poems, critical essays, prose and fictions in numerous journals nationwide. Twelve works have come out in print, including poetry collections Evening Breeze, Treading Snow to Go Home, Shape and Shadow, Requiem for Wenchuan, Echoes of Heavenly Questions, Poetry and Thought and A Dictionary of Zhuangzi; prose collection Skylight of Time; fable fiction collections Net in the Air and Notes from Dongxiang; short story collection Fables and Labyrinths; and poetics treatise Retreating Vanguard. His writings have been anthologized in dozens of selected works, such as Appreciation of Famous Modern Chinese Poems, A Hundred Years of Modern Chinese Poetry, A Century of New Poetry from Jiangsu, Twenty Folk Poets of 20th-Century China, Fifteen Mid-generation Poets of the First Fifteen Years of the 21st Century, as well as annual anthologies like China Annual Poetry Anthology, China Poetry Ranking List and bilingual Anthology of Chinese Poems (Chinese-English). Net in the Air is included in the series One Hundred Classic Micro-Fictions of a Century. Shape and Shadow is listed on the Canonical Poetry Roll of the Lixiahe Literary School. The magazine China Talents ran a special feature covering his literary achievements. He has also composed ten poetic dramas. On the evening of December 20, 2023, his poetic drama Regret for the Past • Zijun premiered successfully performed by the Fanding Theatre Troupe at Hongshan College, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics. His honors include the 2nd Zijin Mountain Literature Prize of Jiangsu Province, the Critical Writing Award of China Regional Poetry Prize, the 6th China Long Poem Prize, the 2025 Outstanding Chinese Poetry Critic Award, the Excellent Thesis Award of the 9th Huaxia Poetry Prize, and the Excellent Thesis Award of the First Frontier Dialogue Between New-Style and Classical Poetry. He currently resides in Yangzhou.

庄晓明，号东乡。1964年4月出生于江苏扬州。中国作家协会会员、九三学社会员。曾在各大刊物发表诗歌、评论、随笔、小说若干。已出版有诗集《晚风》《踏雪回家》《形与影》《汶川安魂曲》《天问的回声》《诗与思》《庄子词典》，随笔集《时间的天窗》，寓言小说集《空中之网》《东乡笔记》，短篇小说集《寓言与迷宫》，诗学论集《后退的先锋》等12部。作品入选《中国现代诗歌名篇赏析》《中国百年新诗经》《江苏百年新诗选》《中国二十世纪民间诗人二十家》《21世纪15年中间代诗人15家》，及《中国年度诗选》《中国诗歌排行榜》《中国诗选》（汉英双语版）等多种选集。《空中之网》入选“百年百部微型小说经典”。《形与影》入选“里下河文学流派经典诗歌榜”。《中华英才》杂志曾对其文学成就做了专题报道。另创作有剧诗10部，2023年12月20日晚，创作的剧诗《伤逝•子君》，在南京财经大学红山学院由凡丁剧社成功首演。曾获第二届江苏省紫金山文学奖、中国地域诗歌奖评论奖、第六届中国长诗奖、2025年度华语诗歌杰出诗歌评论家奖等。以及第九届“华夏诗词奖”优秀论文奖，首届“新旧体诗前沿对话”优秀论文奖。现居扬州。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

Wild Chrysanthemums

I wander, and by chance

Come upon them

Golden light swaying at the cliff’s edge

The dark abyss below, the sapphire vault above

All are fused as one

By this wavering gold

All creation lays bare, each mirroring the other

Golden sparks keep surging upward

As if a celebration unfolds

They sway along the cliff rim

Fading away in solitude

As though they had never been

Yet one strand of golden radiance

Still roams on, borne by my brush

Crossing the world’s far edge

野菊

我漫游，偶然中

遇见了它们

金色的光，摇曳于悬崖边缘

沉黑的深渊，湛蓝的天幕

由于这金色摇曳

而焊为一体

万物敞开，相互为镜

金色的焰火，不断升起

仿佛一个节日

它们摇曳于悬崖边缘

将寂寞中凋谢

似从未存在

但有一束金色的光

仍在漫游，随着我的笔

穿越于世界边缘

***

You and I

You and I

Live in adjoining rooms

With a door

That sways now and then

You and I

Are close sometimes

Strange other times

Like strangers on a chaotic street

You and I

One heads east

One west

Yet meet around the corner now and then

You and I

Turn toward emptiness at times

Talking of each other

As if speaking of another planet

You and I

Roam our separate starry skies

Yet sometimes feel

The gravitational pull between us

我与你

我与你

住在相邻的房间

有一扇门

时而晃动

我与你

时而熟识

时而陌生

像在混乱的街头

我与你

一个向东

一个向西

却时而墙角相遇

我与你

时而面向虚无

谈论彼此

像谈论另一个星球

我与你

各自的星空漫游

却时而感着

彼此的引力

***

Echo

Empty valley

Echoes linger

Chasing themselves

Against the valley’s twin cliffs

They bounce

Interweave

With every drift back and forth

They absorb more of the valley’s hollow breath

Little by little they forget

Which flees

Which pursues

Forgetting they once sprang

From a single call

They drift farther apart

Growing alien to one another

Trapped between

The valley’s two stone walls

And also between

You

And me

回声

空谷

回声在

自我追逐

在空谷的两壁

弹弄

交织

每一次摆渡

便加入一些空谷的元素

它们渐渐忘了

谁在逃亡

谁在追逐

忘了它们

来自一个呼唤

它们愈行愈远

渐渐陌生

在空谷的

两壁之间

在

我与你

之间

___________________

Read: The Wild Steed – Poetry from China

The post Wild Chrysanthemums – Chinese Poetry first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Nuzair Ahmed Jamro

“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.”  Barack Obama

There was a time when climate change was discussed as a distant possibility, something future generations would have to confront. That time has passed. Today, whether it is the relentless heatwaves sweeping across Europe, wildfires consuming forests in North America, prolonged droughts in Africa, or devastating floods in South Asia, the message is unmistakable: climate change is no longer knocking at our door. it has already entered our homes. In an interconnected world, no nation can claim immunity from a crisis that transcends geography, politics, and economic boundaries. The climate emergency has become a shared reality, demanding shared responsibility and collective action.

Europe’s latest heatwave is a powerful reminder that even the world’s most developed economies are struggling to cope with increasingly extreme weather events. Hospitals are overwhelmed by heat-related illnesses, transport systems are disrupted, agricultural productivity is declining, and energy grids are operating under unprecedented stress. For decades, climate vulnerability was often perceived as a challenge primarily facing developing countries. However, nature has rewritten that narrative. As the old proverb reminds us, “Nature always has the last word.” The growing intensity and frequency of climate disasters leave little room for complacency, compelling every nation to rethink how it prepares for an uncertain future.

For Pakistan, however, climate change is not merely a headline in international newspapers; it is an everyday reality that millions experience firsthand. Despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate-related disasters. From deadly heatwaves in Sindh and prolonged droughts in Balochistan to glacial melting in Gilgit-Baltistan, worsening urban smog in Punjab, and recurring floods across the country, climate change continues to reshape lives, livelihoods, and landscapes. Every disaster leaves behind not only damaged infrastructure but also shattered dreams, disrupted education, weakened healthcare systems, and communities struggling to rebuild. Climate change, therefore, is no longer just an environmental issue. It is fundamentally a human development challenge.

Read: What Is Climate Change?

The catastrophic floods of 2022 painfully illustrated how climate disasters can reverse years of development within weeks. Millions of people were displaced, thousands lost their lives, crops were destroyed, livestock perished, and roads, schools, hospitals, bridges, and irrigation networks suffered enormous damage. The economic losses ran into billions of dollars, placing additional pressure on an already fragile economy. Yet behind these statistics are ordinary families who lost their homes, farmers who lost their livelihoods, and children whose education was interrupted. Climate change is ultimately measured not only in degrees Celsius but also in human suffering. That reality should continue to shape both national policy and global diplomacy.

Recognizing these challenges, Pakistan has gradually strengthened its commitment to climate action. At the national level, the government has introduced the National Climate Change Policy, developed adaptation frameworks, promoted renewable energy initiatives, expanded large-scale afforestation programs, and enhanced the institutional capacity of disaster management authorities. Programmes focusing on ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and water resource management represent important steps toward building resilience. Provincial governments have also begun integrating climate considerations into development planning, reflecting a growing recognition that environmental sustainability and economic development must go hand in hand. These initiatives provide a solid foundation, but much more remains to be done.

Pakistan has also emerged as an increasingly influential voice on the international stage. Through active participation in successive United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP), the country has consistently advocated the principle of climate justice, arguing that nations least responsible for global emissions should not bear the heaviest burden of climate-induced disasters. Pakistan’s diplomatic engagement contributed significantly to global discussions on the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund, while the country continues to call for greater access to climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building support for vulnerable developing nations. In doing so, Pakistan has transformed its climate vulnerability into a compelling diplomatic narrative that resonates across the Global South. Yet diplomacy alone cannot protect communities from the next flood or heatwave.

Indeed, the greatest challenge lies not in designing policies but in implementing them effectively. Financial constraints, institutional fragmentation, weak coordination among federal and provincial agencies, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, and limited technical capacity continue to undermine climate resilience. Climate-related information remains dispersed across multiple institutions, while local governments often lack the resources needed to translate national policies into meaningful action on the ground. As the saying goes, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Unless governance systems become stronger, faster, and more responsive, climate policies will struggle to achieve their intended impact.

This brings us to a fundamental question: How can Pakistan transform climate vulnerability into climate resilience? The answer lies not only in stronger diplomacy but also in bold administrative reforms, digital innovation, scientific research, and effective governance. In an era driven by data and technology, climate resilience must be built as much in control rooms and digital platforms as in forests, rivers, and farmlands. The future belongs to nations that prepare today rather than react tomorrow.

Read: Forest Therapy: Nature’s Silent Medicine

___________________

Nuzair Ahmed Jamro, hailing from Shikarpur, Sindh, is a civil servant and MS research fellow in Public Administration. He writes on governance, public policy, and digital transformation. Email: najamro@gmail.com.

The post Climate Diplomacy in a Warming World first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Dr. Mazhar Lakho  | USA

Around 1995, I had the opportunity to visit the VHS library at Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium, Karachi, where I reviewed an extensive collection of approximately 250 VHS videos on Sindhi music, Sufi poetry, literature, folklore, history, archaeology, traditional weddings, Malakhro, Melas, and other aspects of Sindh’s rich cultural heritage.

At that time, I prepared a catalog of the collection and shared it on the SINDH-L mailing list hosted by the University of Illinois. Many subscribers appreciated the effort because it introduced members of the Sindhi Association of North America to an important cultural resource.

More than thirty years have passed, and I am deeply concerned that this invaluable collection may now be at serious risk of deterioration, neglect, or permanent loss.

I respectfully request friends in Karachi and elsewhere in Sindh to urgently help answer the following questions:

1. Does the VHS collection at Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium still exist?
2. If it does, approximately how many tapes remain?
3. Are the VHS cassettes still in good, playable condition?
4. Has the collection been cataloged or digitized?
5. Is it available to researchers, students, and the public?
6. If the collection has been moved, where is it currently housed?

These recordings are not merely old tapes; they are a fragile and irreplaceable part of Sindh’s cultural memory. VHS cassettes deteriorate with time, and every passing year increases the danger that these unique recordings may be lost forever unless immediate steps are taken to inspect, preserve, and digitize them.

If anyone has recent information, photographs, or the ability to visit the auditorium or contact the relevant officials, your help is urgently needed and would be deeply appreciated. Even a brief update could make a crucial difference in documenting the present condition of this cultural archive before it is too late.

Please share this message widely among friends, cultural workers, researchers, and anyone concerned with Sindh’s music, literature, and heritage. We must act now to help ensure that this precious legacy is not lost to time.

Read: No More Colonial Experiments in Sindh

______________________

Dr. Mazhar Lakho, Belleville,Illinois, USA

The post Preserve Sindh’s Audiovisual Heritage first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Shipwrecked in the bottom of a coffee,

Where the sun goes out.

 Maria Teresa Liuzzo

Maria Teresa Liuzzo (Reggio Calabria, Italy) is President of the “P. Benintende” Lyric Dramatic Association, journalist, translator, writer, editor, commentator, director and founder of the international culture magazine LE MUSE, Deputy Director of “Artes e Tv”, PhD in Psychology and Professor of Philosophy and Modern Literature (Leibniz University of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA) and member of the Academic Senate. She is also the Executive member of “Sirius” (Bonn), Wow (Russia), Kult Apogeum (Denmark), “Gazzetta Culturale Rol” (Brazil), and “Detectiv Press” (Scandinavia). She has published 35 books in 32 languages. She has translated and published poets from five continents. Maria Teresa Liuzzo’s works have been introduced, translated, and reviewed by four Nobel Prize nominees for Literature: Peter Russell, Athanase Vanthchev De Thracy, Maria Luisa Spaziani, and Licio Gelli. She contributes to several magazines in Italy and abroad, as well as websites and blogs.

WEATHER SHINES IN THE RAIN

Slides over the bodies reflected in the glass,

Shipwrecked in the bottom of a coffee,

Where the sun goes out.

They slide over the eyes

Storms of blue and I

Tattered sail adrift.

Currents push me

To the seas beyond,

Where I look for a flower

In the depths.

 ***

 YOU ARE NIGHT AND SILENCE

Shiver of shadow,

Water on the word, on the incandescence

Of the rhythm. You are doubt, a worm in the mind,

Fracture, segment, limit that the vision

Prevents the beyond. I pick flowers of light

In your eyes, dawns on my anxieties,

Echoes of other lives: memory and oblivion

They alternate, in secret saps and buds.

I am a night rose

In your hands…

 ***

YOUR NIGHT INVADES ME

I’m a waiting tide

Of the full moon.

The wave washes away

Memory rocks

Like the light of doubt

The reason.

Free the word

From the point

Of the brief illusion.

We get lost

In the unbridgeable

Distance

Of hands

That touch each other.

___________________ 

Read: Returning to Shine

The post Weather Shines In The Rain first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Make me an immortal—an eternal part of human history.

​Bharumal Amrani

​Bharu Mal Amrani is a distinguished folklorist, poet, writer, researcher, journalist, script writer & compere of Radio Pakistan, and social–environmental activist from Tharparkar, Sindh, who has devoted more than two decades to the preservation, documentation, and promotion of Thari dialect, folklore, culture, and heritage. Currently he is working as a subject specialist of Sindhi at Raichand Rathore Government Higher Secondary School, Chelhar. Born on 17 February 1982 in village Soothar jo Tarr near Chelhar, Tharparkar, he obtained his Master’s degree in Sindhi Literature and Education and did law graduation from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro. He is the author of ten books in Sindhi on Thari folk songs, literature, poetry, culture, and history, and has also compiled and translated important works into Urdu and Punjabi, including the Punjabi translation of his book Sahra kay Dohay, to introduce Thar’s rich literary heritage to a wider national audience. In recognition of his outstanding literary, academic, journalistic, and social services, Bharu Mal Amrani has received several prestigious awards, including the Sindhi Language Authority Award (2018), Sindhi Adabi Sangat Award for Best Research Work on Folk Literature, Climate Award, Sufi Harchand Rai Award, Faqir Muqeem Award, Pakistan Mother Languages Literature Shield, Dewal Mata Kharoro Cultural Committee Award, Federal Urdu University Sindhi Department Shield, and the Asif Farrukhi Ilm-o-Aagahi Award (2022).

Immortal Part of Human History

My Creator!

I am profoundly grateful to You.

You did not punish me for abandoning the company of woman;

Instead of turning me into a detached ascetic,

You have made cascades of beauty flow before me,

And ignited the blazing fire of love within my soul.

Despite the hundred bitterness’s and hundred sorrows of this world,

You have taught me how to embrace and love this life.

​These are Your boundless blessings upon me,

And I yearn to sing of them!

​My throat does not possess the soulful melody of a cuckoo bird,

Nor does it hold the sweet resonance of a peacock’s call.

Yet, if You so desire,

You can bestow this profound power upon me.

​I am now plucking the strings of Mira Bai’s ektara,

Shattering the shackles of caste and creed,

I bow down in deep reverence to Ravidas!

​My mentor, Bhittai, proclaims:

“Grace is not bound by caste; whoever strives, receives.”

​I have sought refuge in Sami.

Whenever I have bowed my head,

I have bowed it only before the divine beauty created by You.

You are far beyond human intellect,

And completely transcendent to earthly knowledge and understanding.

May Your profound compassion remain with me forever!

​I have no desire for the moon,

Nor do I wish to become the sun!

For even the moon must endure nights of absolute darkness,

And even the sun is eclipsed by drifting clouds.

​Before I am reduced to just a character in some mythical folklore,

Make me an immortal—an eternal part of human history.

_____________ 

*Shah Abdul Latif and Sami are classical poets of the Sindhi language.

**Ravidas and Mirabai are classical poets of the Bhakti movement. Mirabai was a princess of a Rajput ruling family, while Ravidas belonged to the Chamar (Shudra) caste. Breaking the barriers of the caste system, Mirabai chose Ravidas as her Guru (spiritual teacher).

انساني تاريخ جو اَمر حصو

مُنهنجا خالق !

آءٌ تُنهنجو ٿورائتو آهيان

تو مون کي ناريءَ جو سنگ

تياڳ ڪرڻ جي سزا نه ڏني آهي،

تو مون کي تارَڪ الدُنيا ڪرڻ بدران

مُنهنجي اڳيان سُونهن جا آبشار وَهايا آهن،

عشق جي آوي ٻاري آهي،

زماني جي سون تلخين، سون دردن هوندي ڀي،

هن زندگيءَ سان پيار سيکاريو آهي،

تُنهنجا اهي مون تي احسان آهن،

آءٌ انهن کي ڳائڻ ٿو چاهيان

مُنهنجي ڪنٺ ۾ ڪوئل جهڙي ڪُوڪِ نه آهي،

۽ نه مور جي ٽهوڪي جهڙو مِٺاس آهي،

تون چاهين ته

مون ۾ اها سگهه پيدا ڪري سگهين ٿو،

آءٌ ميران ٻائيءَ جي يڪتاري کي ڪَشي رهيو آهيان،

مون ذات پات جي ٻنڌڻن کي ٽوڙي،

روِي داس کي پرڻام ڪيو آهي!

مُنهنجو مُرشد ڀٽائي چوي ٿو ته:

“ڏات نه آهي ذات تي، جو وهي سو لهي”!

مون ساميءَ جي سام ورتي آهي،

مون جڏهن به سرجهڪايو آهي،

اهو تنهنجي تخليق ڪيل سونهن جي اڳيان ئي جهُڪايو آهي،

تون انساني عقل کان اوُچو

۽ ڄاڻ اڻ ڄاڻ کان مٿانهون آهين؛

مون تي اها تُنهنجي شفقت شل قائم رهي!

مون کي نه چنڊ جي تمنا آهي،

نه سج ٿيڻ جي آرزُو !

چنڊ کي به اونداهيون راتيون ڏسڻيون پون ٿيون،

سج اڳيان جُهڙ اچن ٿا.

مون کي ڪنهن ديو مالائي ڪٿا جو حصو

بڻجڻ کان اڳ ۾

انساني تاريخ جو اَمر حصو بڻاءِ .

_______________

Read: Echoes of Prayer from the Sandbanks of Thar Desert

The post Immortal Part of Human History first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Has never ridden

Any horse at all…

Gu Bei

Gu Bei, was born in Minhou County, Fujian Province in 1965. He is a core founder of the Fanke Poetry Society. He has published six poetry collections including Pure Silver, Disciple of Ecstasy and Notes on Reading Lions. His poems, prose and literary critiques have appeared in domestic and overseas newspapers and periodicals such as People’s Literature, Poetry Journal, Chinese Writers, Poetry Monthly, Poetry Tide and Southern Weekly. His poetic works have been anthologized in numerous selected volumes, namely Chinese Poetry Since 1991, Selected Chinese Poems of the New Century, Anthology of Twenty Years of Chinese Online Poetry, One Hundred Poets of Min School Poetry in a Century, Cross-Strait Poetry Collection of the 21st Century (Wuxu Volume) and Anthology of Modern Poetry of the 21st Century. He has won honors including the Annual Outstanding Poet Award from Selected Poems Journal and Fujian Provincial Excellent Literary Works Award. He has served as an initial judge for the Haizi Poetry Award for three consecutive sessions.

顾北，男，1965年生于福建省闽侯县。反克诗社主要发起人。著有诗集《纯银》《狂喜之徒》《读狮记》等6种。在《人民文学》《诗刊》《中国作家》《诗歌月刊》《诗潮》《南方周末》等国内外报刊发表过诗歌、散文、评论等。诗作收入《1991年以来的中国诗歌》《新世纪中国诗选》《中国网络诗歌20年大系》《闽派诗歌百年百人作品选》《21世纪两岸诗歌鉴藏（戊戌卷）》《21世纪现代诗歌鉴藏》等。获得“诗选刊”年度优秀诗人奖，福建省优秀文学作品奖等，连续三届担任“海子诗歌奖”初评委员。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

The Wild Steed

He who has never ridden a wild steed

Has never ridden

Any horse at all

Between horse and wild steed

I once thought there was but one difference

Horses come in every shade

Yet the wild steed bears only one hue

Crimson red —

Its temper

Its speed

Its longing

Its very being

And even its love

Only red can bear witness to all of it

When it stands still and calm

The gaze it fixes on you is as if it stares

Into a sea of blazing fire.

烈马

一生没有骑过烈马的人

当然也没有骑过

马

马与烈马

我一直以为就一点不同

马有各种各样颜色

而烈马颜色只有一种

——红

它的脾性

它的速度

它的梦想

它的存在

甚至，它的爱情

唯有红色可以证明

它安静站着

看你的眼神，仿佛看着

一片沸腾的火海

***

The Guilty Flesh

I secretly convict my own flesh of guilt

Consumed by shame. Often I dream

I slip down cliff faces, making no effort to survive

Or dream of a great plague yet refuse to accept reality

These are trivial things, the worst affliction is colour blindness

The world is sick, and faith has caught vitiligo

When rain falls, the crowd’s surging longings

Are hollow and false, like scarecrows standing in the fields

They exist only to pretend the future will be pure. I am guilty

Grass blades crawling across the earth cling tighter and tighter to the soil

They too refuse to depart — these artificial gadflies

Just like our forefathers! Ah —

My flesh is guilty. Though I dwell within it, I cannot

Halt the endless flood of hallucinations. O heaven, O divinities,

This mortal world spares no soul

I am the digger of my own grave, and yours as well

身体有罪

因为羞耻，暗暗判决自己的

身体有罪。常梦见自己

从崖壁滑落而不愿求生

梦见大疫却不愿认同现实

这些都没什么，最严重的是色盲

这世界病了而信仰染上白癜风

雨落下时世人升腾的夙愿

多么虚伪，像田野上的稻草人

仅限于保证未来是纯洁的。我有罪

匍匐大地的草茎对土地越抓越紧

他们也不愿离开——这仿生的

先辈一样的牛虻！唉——

我的身体有罪。我跟它在一起却不能

阻止幻觉一再出现。苍天呐，神明呐

这人世就没饶过谁

我是自己的掘墓人，也是你的。

***

Father

Father in the old kitchen

Is like air

Like the years, months and days

That lie plain within this kitchen

I push the creaky kitchen door with effort

As if pushing Father’s hunched back—sour, slow yet steady strong

Often I reach to pull the light cord

But Father waves his hand firmly: No need

This stove room is known to me

As intimately as every stretch of land

Upon your mother’s body

Father in the old kitchen

Has melted into everything here

And I am the extra part

That does not belong to this kitchen

父亲

老灶间里的父亲

像空气一样

父亲就像老灶间的

年月日，明摆在那儿

我艰难推动老灶间的门

像推动父亲的背，酸酸的，缓慢而有力

经常时候，我拉开老灶间的灯泡线

父亲却坚定地摇手：不用

这一间灶堂，我熟悉得就像你母亲

身上的每一寸山河

老灶间里的父亲

已是所有物事的一部分

而我，就是老灶间

多出的那部分

__________________

Read: Father and Mother – Chinese Poetry

The post The Wild Steed – Poetry from China first appeared on Sindh Courier.

The days,

With a few broken coins of time

Jingling in their pockets,

Keep wandering

Through forgotten streets.

Nisar Banbhan

Hailing from Village Mir Muhammad Banbhan, Taluka Mirwah, District Khapurpur and based in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, Nisar Banbhan is a seasoned professional with nearly 25 years of multifaceted experience, encompassing 3 years in journalism and over two decades of service in a public sector organization. His extensive expertise spans content creation, scriptwriting, screenwriting, lyrics, poetry, and storytelling across multiple languages, including Sindhi, Urdu, and English. Nisar has honed his skills in writing articles, columns, and short stories, contributing to various national and regional media outlets. Additionally, he brings a deep understanding of program development, educational advocacy, and strategic planning, having led initiatives that promote quality education and foster community empowerment. His passion for literature and education merges seamlessly, enabling him to craft impactful narratives that resonate with diverse audiences while driving meaningful change in society. 

The Days Wander Aimlessly Without You

You are not here…

The days,

With a few broken coins of time

Jingling in their pockets,

Keep wandering

Through forgotten streets.

Every evening

Perches upon the branches of trees,

Thinking your name,

Then quietly

Folds its wings into silence.

The sunlight

Resting by the window

Lingers for a long while,

Pretending to be

The echo of your approaching footsteps;

Then, exhausted,

It scatters itself

Across the floor.

I sit here,

Holding

An unfinished moment

Upon the palm of my hand,

Like a child

Who still insists

That a broken firefly

Can somehow

Give birth to light.

Come, someday…

 Lay your smile

Upon the forehead of these wandering days.

For they have waited

For far too long,

Like a prayer

Still yearning

To be answered.

______________________

Read: Like a Falling Leaf…

The post Days Wander Aimlessly Without You first appeared on Sindh Courier.