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This research paper embarks on an intellectual quest into the domain of existential exploration. It is guided by a meticulous analysis of the central character, Mian Sohel, within Daniyal Muaeenuddin’s latest literary masterpiece, ‘Muscle.’ By drawing from the profound existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and the associated literary criticism, this scholarly investigation aims to unfold the intricate layers that compose Mian Sohel’s existence. The study thoroughly analyzes the character’s experience of inauthenticity, the torment of bad faith, the burden of indecisiveness, and the echoing pangs of loneliness that reverberate within his being. Through a rigorous examination of Mian Sohel’s innermost thoughts, the choices he makes, and his intricate interactions with the narrative’s setting and its other characters, this research endeavors to illuminate Mian Sohel’s profound existential journey. By foregrounding Sohel’s existential struggles, the paper aims to shed light on the dilemma faced by returning Pakistani students, who spent their formative years in West, in assimilating back into local socio-political ambience. It also examines the broader existential implications that echo within the human condition, going beyond the confines of this literary work and offering insight into the universal human experience. Keywords: Existentialism, Inauthenticity, Loneliness

Leisure practices serve a dual purpose- they allow people attain self-recovery and self-actualization; they can be adopted as covert means of resistance by the marginalized groups to record their protest against oppression. The present study attempts to explore the leisure-based practices and behaviour that the female protagonist of Hamid’s Moth Smoke adopts to subvert and undermine the oppressive circle of patriarchy. Adopting a poststructuralist perspective, this study draws insights from Wearing’s leisure resistance theory for the analysis of the data. Data have been analysed qualitatively using purposive sampling technique. The results indicate that the female protagonist, Mumtaz, finds herself confined in acting out the traditional gender roles and adopts many covert leisure-based practices to challenge the set social norms of womanhood. She shows resistance against the patriarchal authority that denies her the due right to have control over her body and mind by indulging in leisure-based smoking, drinking, and sex outside of the marriage and by leading the life of a secret investigative journalist. The study is significant as it highlights the effects covert means can have in the subversion of unjust authority. Keywords: Leisure practices, self-actualization, resistance, oppression, patriarchy

This research delves into the captivating intersection of Literature and Psychoanalysis, examining Kahlil Gibran's masterpiece, The Madman, His Parables and Poems (1918), to unravel the fragmented nature of human identity. The book is a collection of 35 life-affirming moral stories, which begins with a description of a man's out-of-control mind and the idealized persona, he puts on to avoid encountering his actual self and the not-so appealing world. The research is anchored upon the Alan Sheridan translation (1977) of Lacan's seminal essay, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience," originally published in 1949. Lacan proposes that when the child encounters his image in the mirror for the first time, he begins to think that the mirror self is the ideal-I and his own body/self is the fragmented version of the mirror image. A detailed textual analysis of the respective book has been done and the researcher has found that the Madman is compelled to wear masks because he has the fear of public opinion, societal expectations, and perceived inability to challenge deep-rooted worldly traditions. However, stripping off the masks exposes him to the risk of alienation, yet, by shedding the protective masks, the Madman opens himself up to authentic self-expression and the possibility of self-discovery. The significance of the study lies in the fact that it sheds light on the identity crisis faced by people, who avoid confronting the world and their actual selves, and thus opens up the possibility for further study. Keywords: Psychoanalysis, Mask, Madman, Mirror.

Pronunciation is one of the most important components of speaking skills, if one has poor pronouncing abilities, their message may not be understood by the audience. There are many techniques to improve the pronunciation of the English language. But song media is considered a precise comprehensible and direct media to learn pronunciation. This research aims to study the impacts of English songs on the pronunciation of learners and how it can be used to improve the ESL learners’ pronunciation. The study uses a quasi-experimental research design and the sampling technique is purposive. The participants of the study are 10 students of English language and literature (MUL). These participants are divided into experimental and control groups. A total of 3 meetings are conducted with the groups. The data is collected in form of tests. Test results helped in estimating the correct and incorrect words which are pronounced by the two groups. A comparison is drawn on the attained result, which eventually helped in drawing the conclusion that English songs are a very effective and result-oriented technique to improve the pronunciation of the learners. Key words: English songs, English language, ESL learners, Language teaching & Pronunciation

This study’s objective is to highlight a range of politeness strategies used in the Punjabi language and to implicate how requests are made in the Punjabi language and culture for meaningful interaction and effective communication as it is required to use certain linguistic and non-linguistic strategies. The objective of this study is to investigate the relevancy of Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness in the context of Punjab and to explore widely used request strategies in the Punjabi language and culture. The study also delves into the comparison of these request strategies with British English speakers. The role plays were adopted from Márquez-Reiter (2000) which consisted of twelve situations and were translated into the Punjabi language. The data were coded following the framework of Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989). The findings revealed that both the British English and the Punjabi language respondents used a variety of strategies to make the request and to sound themselves as polite beings. These findings implicate that there is a need to teach pragmatic competence, especially request strategies, and that they would need to take ownership of their rich Punjabi culture, tradition, and heritage. Keywords: Punjabi language and culture, politeness, request strategies, intercultural pragmatics

Pakistan is one of the developing countries which is facing a significant increase in the rate of mental health problems as a result of ongoing political unrest, geographical conflict and large-scale violence (Munawar et al., 2020). The study examines the fictional portrayal of insidious trauma suffered by members of the Pakistani Christian community. The novel under study i.e. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011) by Hanif has been selected to fulfil the aforementioned objective. Embedded in literary trauma theory, this research is a qualitative exploratory study. It focusses on culture sensitive issues related to the field of trauma studies. The theoretical concept of insidious trauma and the related concepts such ascoppression and privilege presented by Brown (2008) have been studied incdetail. The text under study has been analyzed using the trauma literarycmodel presented by Balaev (2012) which deals with the use of differentcnarrative techniques in trauma fiction. The findings revealed that the protagonist of the novel Alice Bhatti who is a member of the PakistanicChristian community suffers from insidious trauma as a result of discrimination, bias and humiliation faced by her in daily life. The different narrative techniques employed in the novel include narrative dissociation, silence, landscape imagery and animal imagery (Balaev, 2012). These narrative techniques not only highlight the traumatized protagonist’s psychological distress but also aid in establishing the relationship among identity, remembrance and place in the selected novel. The study delineates the role of place in shaping the consciousness of the traumatized protagonist. The present research aims to bring awareness among the Pakistani public regarding the psychological distress caused in minority communities as a result of their maltreatment by majority groups. This shall pave the way for future researchers to study the cultural specific issues related to trauma based on other underprivileged groups present in Pakistani society. Keywords: cultural sensitivity, insidious trauma, minority groups, narrative techniques, trauma studies