Lahore Diaries XV

temporal #110 Good to see your post. Thanks for translating the Ginza dialect into English. Incidentally: I was reading something on internationalizing software (meaning, having the ability to implement the same software in different languages) and the book explained that one should generally allow more room for text in internationalized software since most languages tend to require more words (bytes) than English to convey the same message. You proved that by converting 46 Ginza Japanese words into a single sentence in English.

Also thanks for pointing out the oversight in my thumbnail sketch of the Paki male (as seen through hostile Paki female eyes): I did skip ``henpecked``. Mea culpa. ``Spouse Abused`` would actually sound better, dont you think.

Rehan:

``Sex Karo Gay?`` - bet that got you a lot of hits!

I had a tough choice to make - didn`t know what to try first. There was sex on one hand and food on the other. I`m afraid you lost out to ``Cocoa Butter and Strawberries``. Oh well, as they say food is the best alternative to sex (or something to that effect).

Aanyway... liked your piece. I like the way you make your point by comparing and contrasting.

Was in Lahore recently. Missed that walk - should have read this earlier. But I did have that chaat, and the mango-shake inside Anarkali which you forgot to mention.

``Walking alongside the walls of the Badshahi mosque, in the lane between the mosque and the red-light area (both as old as the other), under the gloom of the spires...``

You did that so well. Hope you didn`t forget to take her to Cuckoo`s. Loved that last line.

-Lubna

Lahore is Lawhore !!

I was born and raised in the city by the Ravi. For the last two decades I`ve mostly been away. However, I retain strong ties and have been in touch and have visited several times.

In the last five years Pakistan in general and Lahore in particular has become a big sex market. As any keen observer will know, prostitution of every kind (age, race, gender and even species) has skyrocketted. Old timers assure me that there is so much ``commodity`` (`maal` is the local term) of sex that prices are in a deflationary spiral.

Lahore is truly La whore !!

...SR

Dear Rehan,

Good read! As always.

One thing bugged me though.... you described a guy in the middle of Lahore making overt homosexual advances to strange men and getting polite answers!! In fact getting answers that convey `willingness` but for the `inconvenience`. That sounded so unbelievable that it bugged me through the rest of the piece.

I have seen and heard of guys getting brutally beat up in public places in India because they made an advance at another guy. Even in the US, a gay person always risks physical recrimination if he makes a move on a straight (homophobic) guy. Remember the Mathew Shepard murder?

Are you suggesting that Lahoris are very `open-minded` about homosexuality? Maybe Ashok Raokavi can move to Lahore!

Ginza #107 You seem to have invented a new form of Japanese: I dont understand a word of what you are saying in this post.

hmmm....either Zehra totally spaced my message to her in reply 11 or i`m just being ignored. well...

amir rajunjua..:

my command of the english language, truly, is scattered at best ( no, im not into humility just the truth) and then there is the masla of my command of the urdu language...ahhh...and therein lies the real problem. i speak it well enough but i can assure you, you have some people laughing out there at the idea of me translating manto :)

thanks :)

rizvi

re rjanjua #9:

There are 3 volumes of English translation of Manto`s works by Khalid Hassan. They don`t really `get` Manto in all his understated brilliance but if you are looking for a translation thats the one I would recommend. There have been other translations by some Indians and Pakistanis also but they are even worse.

later

-sac

rajanjua #9:

[Rehan, Temporal & Zehra:
You all have a good command of the English language. Have you ever considered translating Urdu lit. into English. I for one would love to see Sa`adat Hassan Minto`s short stories translated into English.]

Thanks. Exactly my point. Have urged the former and the latter to translate the two definitive Urdul novels of the last 50/60 years ---Qurratul-Ain Haider’s Aag ka Darya and Abdullah Hussain’s Udaas NaslaiN into English. While Rehan and Zehra are still committed elsewhere, the respective authors have translated their own novels into English. River of Fire and the Lost Generations (?) are both availble. ;)

As for yours truly, my last sketch was a tribute to Mushtaque Ahmed Yusufi and a forthcoming short story will be a tribute to symbolic short story writer Intezar Hussain.

Watch these pages as they say...

regards,

t

Rehan, wonderful!

When I was last in LHR a couple of years back,

I remember asking a rickshaw driver to take me

to the Chughtai Museum (which amazingly no one

in the city seems to know). My driver confidently

replied ``aap saath hain to kya perwaa...dhoondh lain gay.`` He found it.

Note written on 11:30 pm Monday, 8/28/00:

Zehra, hope you had fun in Italy. India,

and the rest of my Asian ``adventure``, was

fantastic. Please call or have Uzma call

my cellphone. I`m in Philly for a couple

of days. Or e-mail me at kamran9999@aol.com

instead.

-!K!-

alright I am here:)

Yes,what was the ``sex karo gay`` bit about? Just to get published[cashing in on the libido part,as temporal explains[tries rather], I guess:)

But,unfortunately, it doesnt make any sense!

Any body going around the streets of lahore asking such questions would be regarded as a lunatic rather than some ``Oh I am so observant,enough to describe lahore`` writer,especially in ``androon-e-lahore`` where even walking in some streets two or three times might arouse deep suspicion among the residents and a threatening gathering of all the guys to see who this lunatic is:)[I hope you get my drift, if you don`t...well then its chowk style I guess:)]

Rehan, Temporal & Zehra:

You all have a good command of the English language. Have you ever considered translating Urdu lit. into English. I for one would love to see Sa`adat Hassan Minto`s short stories translated into English.

Regards,

Amir Janjua

re: kalki #97

So why do you disapprove? Since you have given no context beyond saying the datee is american i am assuming that that is your main gripe ? Its not that your cousin is dating a mean, malicious, lying, cheating, rude, obnoxious, what have you person. Its an American. And that apparently is enough to incur your disapproval.

At least you`re honest.

-p

Dear Mr. Bill Gates,

Thanks for installing ``Back`` button on your MS Internet Explorer.

dear rehan and jawahara

you are the stars of our op-ed page (along with my good friend bhaichand patel) and we are very proud and happy that you are writing for us.

the anniversary issue (it came out yesterday) is simply fantastic.

please send in your postal addresses (to my mid-day address) and i shall send a couple of copies each for you.

warm regards

aakar patel

Rehan, this grabbed me my the throat, the eyes, the imagination. Very good!

Was this your first Mid-Day column? As your fellow columnist and one of the 7 story-tellers for their 20th anniversary issue, can I say I feel pleased to be in such talented company?

GREAT...

Love reading your pieces...

they always make me smile..

wish there were more like you...

keep writing.

regards.

Taimur.

The most interesting part of this little article was the last sentence.

Zehra #!

Yaar kahan ghyab ho?

Is it not strange that with the passion he writes and the explicit `teaser` he should have been inundated with scores of comments and a couple of fatwas?

And this is in prose, not even a surrealistic poem!

Now I know --- it must be the Sharif factor!

love,

t

wonderful wonderful wonderful..
you`ve pasted a huge smile on my face.
this is what it is..in you. this is why i not only read you but will eagerly click on anything that has your name on it.

uff.

rizvi.

``At Charing Cross stop to eat a mixed chaat, or dahi bhallay``

I don`t live in Lahore anymore but I think it`s not Charing Cross where you eat chaat and other stuff, it`s Regal Chowk, right?