with Farid Azfar
Note: The interviewee was on zoom and therefore there is an unavoidable variation in audio quality throughout the episode.
What does it mean to move to a completely unknown country yet feel uncannily at home? How does one find humour amongst the heartbreak when one’s country is spiralling out of control? Those are some of the questions Farid attempts to answer in this episode. He talks about culture and about heartbreak, but above all, he talks about hope and community.
Date Recorded:
18th July, 2023
Date Published:
16th September, 2023
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts:
Guest
Farid Azfar is the Associate Professor of History at Swarthmore College. He came to the United States from Pakistan to complete his undergraduate degree at Tufts University, and then… stuck around. He’s taught courses and published articles on a variety of topics including Victorian London and the East India Company, and he recently brought together artists and academics from across the subcontinent for a project called A Tale of Three Rivers.
Glossary
Karachi: city in Pakistan
Muhajir: Muslim immigrants to Pakistan from various parts of India after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947
UP: Uttar Pradesh, state in Northern India
PTV: TV channel run by the Pakistan Television Corporation
Urdu: South Asian language and the national language of Pakistan
Habib: Habib University, private institution of higher education in Karachi, Pakistan that focuses on the liberal arts
Edhi: Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928-2016), Pakistani humanitarian and founder of the Edhi foundation, the world’s largest ambulance network
First Collection: Swarthmore College tradition with Quaker roots that occurs during Orientation week
Aurat March: annual march for women’s rights in Pakistan
Music Acknowledgements
Opening: Playing in Color (Find on Pixabay)
Transition: Mana Two — Part 1 by Kevin McLeod
Closing: Piano Moment (Find on Pixabay)