If Lata’s ‘Allah, Karam Karna’ and ‘Allah Reham” are popular among the Muslims, two of the Indian cinema’s best bhakti (devotional) songs, “Allah Tero Naam Ishwar Tero Naam” and “Prabhu Tero Naam”  are sung six decades after she rendered them in Hum Dono, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

While India inherited the British-era law regarding accounting of official gifts received by government leaders, Pakistan and Bangladesh enacted their respective laws only in 1974, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor 

For India and Indians, one of the most enduring Afghan connections that developed, rather accidentally, was in the form of “Afghan Snow”, the first beauty crème, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor 

Dilip Kumar suffered during the phases when neighbors Pakistan and India went to war, but his popularity and the run of his films remained unaffected, on both sides of the border, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

“Hollywood-Bollywood vulgarity” has been one of Imran Khan’s pet peeves for long and he has ordered the drafting of a new nationalist, culturally-centred film policy for Pakistan that is yet to be made public, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

Whether the Taliban will accept Karzai, a man with considerable charisma, distinctive and much written about capes and lambskin hat,  is still not clear. But he has struck a highly conciliatory note, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

Although India controls two-thirds of the global Basmati market, competition between the nations has grown in recent years as Pakistan increases sales to Europe, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

Yet, the craze in Pakistan about Indian Bollywood beauties at times assumes dimensions that are wonderful but simultaneously bizarre, if published views of physicians and surgeons dealing with beauty-care are to be believed, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

It would be interesting to know how American security experts view the threat perceptions from the numerous affiliates of the bodies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, some of whom target India, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

The five-year effort of Justice Rehman and two high court chief justices, and their damning indictment, seem to have made no impact either on the political class or the military in Pakistan in the long run, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor