Explore every episode of the podcast Kawway

Is this AI? Is it something we should be using? Will we actually fall behind if we don’t use it? And must we use OpenAI, funding American billionaires whose only purpose is to grow their own wealth, irrespective of its impact on the planet, or people’s brains?

We have some opinions.

This is a Minglish podcast (in both Urdu and English). You can also find us on YouTube.com/@kawwaypk.

This episode’s title is from Iqbal’s verse:

Afraad kay haathon main hai aqwam ki taqdeerHar fard hai millat kay muqaddar ka sitara

افراد کے ہاتھوں ميں ہے اقوام کي تقدير

ہر فرد ہے ملت کے مقدر کا ستارا

We are a privileged bunch of crows in Karachi—people here go through God-awful trials and tribulations because our leaders just don’t care. And those whose lives are privileged are just too immersed in their comfortable lives to give a damn.

The sheer volume of propaganda we consume can’t be quantified—from the news to Netflix to the cartoons you watch, it’s everywhere. From the subtle white saviour in every Marvel movie you’ve ever seen to the blatant bigotry of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, your whole media landscape is just one big lie.

#Pakistan #propaganda #media #popculture - nothing is safe from the Western gaze.

You can also watch this podcast on YouTube/@kawwaypk, find us on Instagram @kawwaypk, or on Facebook at (you guessed it) @kawwaypk.

Might is Right on the road, in our homes, at work, with families, friends, and complete strangers. Civic sense, community, and a sense of belonging are buried under a barrage of impatience, a desire to lord it over others, and some compelling need to get there (where, exactly, I don’t know) first. For some reason, everyone in Pakistan just wants to impress the world with their own importance.

This podcast is in Minglish—a liberal sprinkling of English in an Urdu conversation. We are, after all, a colonised nation.

Western Feminism is not feminism—it’s a movement specific to white women in the Global North. They don’t give a crap about women around the world, especially Muslim women. We know this because they have ignored, loudly and violently, the systemic and ongoing rape of Palestinian women by Israelis, the persecution of hijabi women in France, the blind eye they turned, even as they first began their movement, to the plight of women of colour in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

This vomit-inducing movement celebrates war criminals like Madeleine Albright and Hilary Clinton. I want no part of it.

Thanks for reading Patterns of a Colonised Nation! This post is public so feel free to share it.

We take so many things for granted, not least how we treat the people who work for us. Neither education nor money can erase the fact that s**t rolls downhill, and the person at the bottom is always at the receiving end. This is the exact opposite, however, of what our religion teaches us, and for a country whose population loves being righteous, it’s shocking how common these behaviours are. Listen in to learn more.

Remember that the podcast is in Minglish—half Urdu, half English.

Entrepreneurship and big business in Pakistan isn’t going anywhere for a whole host of reasons, from illogical, corrupt government policies to the Pharaohs who rule the roost. We’re not suggesting all Pakistani businesses use nefarious practices, but you need a certain grit and lots of money to make things work here.

We’re honoured to have the fourth crow back on this episode! Faeez joins us in discussing the mess that is Corporate Pakistan.

Ghar ki murghi, daal barabar literally translates to “the chicken at home is the same as a plate of lentils”. The saying refers to taking people in your home, in your family, or those you see everyday, for granted. In particular, we discuss the Pakistani tendency to take daughters and daughters-in-law for granted, for not giving them agency in their own lives, for using them as spare parts in the story of our lives.

As I always mention, the podcast is in a mix of Urdu and English. You can also watch us on YouTube/@kawway.pk.

Weeks after we recorded Banogay Nawab I, we had another session on education. There are some overlaps, but we also had some new insights, so we’ve kept the whole session as is.

Update: edited and uploaded the podcast again. There were audio issues in the last version.

Education for the sake of education is our legacy, but we’re a colonised nation, remember? Today’s education is for the sake of money and capitalism. And we’re only getting deeper in the weeds as we listen to myriad Western voices on how to improve our education.

All three of us have experience, in varying degrees, in the education sector. We’re either teachers or content creators. Oh, and we’ve written two series of textbooks together (English and Social Studies, grades 1 - 5), so we’re deeply familiar with the landscape of Pakistan’s education sector.

As ever, this podcast is in Minglish. If you know Urdu, you’ll get the finer points, though we speak liberally, and sadly, in English too.

The Urdu saying above roughly translates to “play will make you dull, education will make you a noble (a rich noble).”

Pakistan’s leadership, beholden to Empire and concerned about lining their own pockets, is drifting along the golden path to approval from the Epstein class. It’s possible that’s where they really want to be, and they’ve abandoned any pretence of governance. But the people and the Ulema seem to be nowhere to be found either.

As ever, this is a Minglish podcast. You need to know some Urdu to understand it all!

The genocide, climate change, inequality, the Epstein classes…these are all byproducts of an insane insatiable desire to consume. And to consume, you need money. For money, you’ll destroy the earth and then launch a rocket atop a pile of skulls and set up shop on Mars. With any luck, martians exist. You’ll either annihilate them, or turn into a new class of beings to exploit.

In the meantime, we need to survive the ugliness of Capitalism. Here’s how.

Fair warning, most of this podcast is in Minglish, a mix of Urdu and English. Sorry, but we’re colonised peoples. English creeps in everywhere.

Showing off obscene wealth is not a cultural thing, it's not a religious thing. This is inferiority. If you're secure in who you are, you don't need to show off. #pakistan #culture #weddings #fashion #trends

What happens when you get a Bengali, a Delhi-wala, and a Hyderabadi together? Living in Karachi, Pakistan, our outlook is coloured by Pakistani culture, Islam, and the world-view of a nation demonised globally. Listen in!

Note: This is a “Minglish” podcast — half in Urdu, half in English.

The erasure of our history, the deep-rooted sense of inferiority, the deliberate subjugation of the Global South have made the journey towards self-determination an uphill slog. But it’s not impossible—Palestinians have taught us, have shown us, that even if it takes generations, this is a journey we MUST take, and we CAN take.

Note: this podcast is (mostly) in Urdu, though English is liberally sprinkled in. The transcript is auto-generated and its accuracy is questionable.

E02 Giving Up Everything

Just as it’s been a mask-off moment for the Global North with Trump at the helm, India’s mask-off moment has been thanks to Modi. The crows got together to discuss moving on from 7 May.

Kawway comprises myself, Rahila Ashraf, and Quratulain Maqbool. We’re two generations of women in the workforce, from different backgrounds, with different worldviews, and a friendship forged in fire.

This episode also had a guest: Faeez Jalil. Thank you for joining us for this session.