The Unedited Fairy Tale of Safina and Zordar

Hey, BG,

you seem like a really interesting person--as do so many other Chowkwallahs. I`d really like to get to know some of you guys better. No, no, don`t worry, I`m not some guy falling in love with the reflection of you in your clever words; I`m a woman (gosh, that sounds so ammah-ish. i`d rather be a larhki for ever after...)--early 30s, married, 2 young kids. I`ve been in the US for the past 13 years, but finding interesting Pakistanis to befriend has been a real challenge.

I wrote a reply a few days ago to your ``the good, the bad, and the anxiety`` piece. Anyway, here`s my email address, in case you want to get in touch: annogul@hotmail.com

Good luck in your writing endeavors...

Are you trying to say that this is the fate of all PAkistani women??????????/

Re: SR, Reply 47

Touche!

My God(s)!! I am surely lagging behind. Little did I know that my `personal crap` would generate a side exchange.

Godotjee,

your point is taken, but you know some of us `backbenchers` at the Chowk have a bad habbit of getting into such side-lines. I admit being one of those who roams around the Chowk, hands in pocket, whistling to myself and aimlessly jaywalking regardless of the traffic. Perhaps I am one of those who are used to the chowk being a more pedestrian friendly, slow paced intersection. We have to hurry up and get used to the gush of new traffic and wait for the traffic lights to turn and then too only walk along zebra crossings. Please don`t get mad because you had to slam on the breaks of your Corvette because an old country bumpkin was jaywalking. :)

My thanks to other fellow pedestrians (SS, BG et al.) for defending the First Ammendment.

...SR

re godot

godot, i am actually the one to blame for the tangent, so you should direct your objections to me not to SR.

also, as part of a chowk community, i feel that some special events like a birth in SR`s family are important enough for a digression from the topic. you may, of course, disagree. this is just my two pence.

regards

Godot, yaar, please cut SR some slack. Firstly, as a father, I really enjoyed what Sohail had to say. Secondly, his desire for personal communication with Bad Girl is obviously hamstrung by her forced anonymity. I mean, can you think of any other way to exchange personal notes with her that doesn`t involve mass advertising or sky-writing ?

saad

Re; SR

Congratulations on the baby!!. I hope you enjoy him thoroughly.

Re; Godot

Sorry Godot. But at Chowk `the issue` is usually a debatable one:) thanks for the pointer though.

Re: SR, Reply 42

Hey, man, who cares! I hope your child grows-up to become US president! This is not a forum for personal crap! Please, stick to the issue at hand.

BG

Thank you for asking. He is not quite two weeks old yet and is doing great. We`ve already bonded big time. His mother is also recovering wonderfully. I am overtaken with joy. He is constantly in my arms (when he is not with his mother). It is vastly different to become a parent in the forties than it is in the twenties. I`ve had both experiences. (I cannot say about the thirties, because that is when I was catching up on my missed out teens.) This time, I have the luxuary to be both a dady and a grandfather to this child. The first time I was hardly ever there because I was too busy trying to ``survive`` (a gaping void lives inside me for having missed out on so much with my first child who is now 16 and lives with her mother). This time it is different. All that I`ve learnt through woe and error should guide me through the narrow straights of parenthood.

Unfortunately, the wheel of time cannot be turned back. If it could, we`d all be saints.

...SR

Hi, SR!

good to hear from you. congratulations on the birth of your baby. hope everyone is doing well, along with the bundle of joy and sunshine ;-)

BG:

Regardless of the presence or absence of any `hidden` moral of the story, I enjoyed the read. For one thing, it`s a welcome reprieve from the contentious issues of religion and politics. You caricaturize a social arrangement we see all too often. It seems that you only painted a two-dimensional monochromatic picture - a function of spending a mere twenty minutes, no doubt - without necessarily any hidden social or moral agenda other than a tongue-in-cheek depiction of the marriage scene in the bourgeoisie. I don`t understand what some readers have made all the fuss about. I would, however, like to add that when we sees an article with your name attached to it, expectations are at once raised because you`ve already set a standard (`Good girls, bad posture`, `Auntie Valyat`, and other `issue oriented` essays). Perhaps, readers are not accustomed to BG writing something for the frivolous joy of doing so.

My life has much else going on these days (such as the joyous re-discovery of sleepless nights amid `pee and poop`) so I have not been visiting the Chowk at all. Thus today when I logged on, I got the benefit of reading your article along with the entire commentary and clarifications etc. I hope I can make more time in coming weeks and months.

…SR

re godot
well, so the story goes...

re anwar
glad you enjoyed the story.

RE: Shandana

Hmm… you are too sensitive. Thand rakho ji!

RE: BG

ChaliN bakwas kar laitay haiN. Apnay baray maiN arz kita ay:

Teri furqaniat pay yeh haijan

Goya rakhsay ki tan hai pyaray

Ankh teri ankh aur kan hai kan

Aur naak teri naak hai pyaray

Ab zyada bachiaN mat taar ay Paisal

Kyon kay too musalman hai pyaray?

(With gratitude to Shafiq-ur Rehman and Khuram Agha)

Cheers,

Faisal

Re: Bad Girl`s ``... naa-na-na-naa-naa.``

Very mature. I am reminded of the preschoolers in my daughter`s class. They also spend about 20 minutes composing a story and often manage to produce something as zordar as this one, :-).

Cheers,
saad

BG,

One of the best pieces of humor I`ve read in a long time. I especially liked the way you bring both the worlds of desis and West together in a spicy formula :)

Pretty good for a 20 min effort. Keep up the good work!

Anwar

p.s. some of us desis don`t know anything else to say but criticize, don`t you believe them for a minute!

re: faisal

critical theory
vritical theory
why dont you write us
an interesting story?
(sung to the tune of naa-na-na-naa-naa)

regards :-)