Day jobs of the poets: Abdullah Husain (novelist)

Abdullah Sahab had an impish sense of humor and a hearty laugh, especially after a drink or two. He knew his whiskey. He famously ran an off license in South London for years before returning to Lahore. When somebody in the audience at the Karachi Literary Festival misunderstood the nature of the operation, asking him whether it was becoming for somebody of his stature to deliver liquor to clients, he responded, "I didn't go to them. They came to me."

- HM Naqvi, in Scroll.in

Books I've actually finished lately: 77

Favourite footnotes: 3

Responding to the publication of the book One Hundred Authors Against Einstein, a work ostensibly directed at his physics, Albert Einstein said, 'If I were wrong, then one would have been enough.'

- Zia Haider Rahman, In The Light Of What We Know

Books I've actually finished lately: 37

You suffered a bout of nostalgia while writing the chapter on Noor Begum. You wanted to write about the awkward squats as you sat loudly reciting the Qur'an, say how your left foot felt grinded from bearing all your weight while sitting on the floor, the rapid tak-tak of the ceiling fan as it spun the air with its dusty blades, the dizziness... But you wrote: 'Noor Begum's house provided the comfortable environment for Qur'an lessons and my early lessons in disciplining into working through boredom.