On Facebook, many Baloch users are changing the way they write their names. Taj Baloch has become Táj Balóc. He was the first to do that in 2012. A linguist and poet, he has been leading a campaign for years to change the script in which Balochi – an Indo-Iranian language spoken by approximately 20 ...
Master’s wife prepared breakfast for him: milk tea and parathas, a crispy oily bread. The smell of burning wood was mixed with the scent of parathas and milk tea, pleasing but at the same time had an annoying choking effect. She never said much but today she seemed to be struggling to hold herself back from ...
In times my cell is darker than a womb but lack the warmth of it. It’s cold – soul-clenching cold. I look at the vertical scratches on the blood-splattered walls, Reminder of the desperate attempts of my predecessors, To keep the track of days and nights, To confine their confinement within the limits of ...
Translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch After departing from the bus, he strolled towards the lamps and sat facing them. His hair had turned grey, his eyes were sunk deep into their sockets and his cheeks had lost most of their flesh. Ahead of him laid an endless and quiet plain. Only a small girl ...
I’m numb as wood And I can’t feel a thing No matter how much sex I have, Or drink like a fish, Or smoke like a Victorian chimney, I am numb and can’t feel the hatred or the indignity they want to inflict upon my soul. I was kicked in the face. Thrown into dungeons ...
Translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. It is a summer evening and I am alone in my hostel room. With a book in my hand, I am apparently reading something but unable to maintain focus on the text. Two days back, a friend died in a car accident. Ever since, I have been brooding ...
Translated by Fazal Baloch “I want to write down my dreams,” he looked at me as if he wanted to seek my advice. “That is a good thing,” I replied. “Kafka had written his dreams too. The real creativity comes from dreams. But don’t you know not everyone can dream? Many can’t even dream ...
