Cocoa Butter and Strawberries: Florence Diary

firenze e sempre bellissima, brava for showing others the way...

I am sorry to barge in like this, but Musharraf is in New York staying at the Roosevelt hotel. While he is here it is time to send him a message.

I am prepared to organize a protest against the infamous, immoral, discriminatory, and unIslamic Blasphemy law of Pakistan. As it is Applied, it is nothing more than a political insturment used for the harrassment of minorities.

One Military dictator introduced it as law, another should get rid of it.

I urge all likeminded people who live in the N.Y area to join with me within the next 48 hours. I have already spoken up against the Blasphemy law in Dawn: Letters to the Editor in the past, now its time to take action.

Please e-mail me immediately to join a coordinated protest. The moment is ripe to send a msg, while the eyes of the press are focused on New York & the U.N Millenium summit. The more people that participate, the better. If necessary, i will do it alone. I will respond immediately to all e-mails received with details.

Feel free to copy this msg, & fwd to anyone else in the N.Y area who might be interested, or repost on the web immediately.

OMAR MIRZA

knotyourcupoftea@aol.com

hamza10 #49:


[..Not superior or inferior in any way..but just different..What exactly do you women on chowk want? To be able to talk about sex as freely as men do?]

Sir, do you see the dichotomy in what you verbalised?

and

[... well there are plenty of women that do that..they are called sluts, and they lack the respect that men give you right now..]


AND the `plenty` of men who do that are pimps or gigolos I suppose? And we can also label them as ....

(---shaking my head --- vertically and horizontally -- if you notice, hamidm!)

rgds (not so sure -- perhaps a force of habit or anal retentiveness?)

t

you ladies have got to turn the feminism button down a notch..you guys make Xena the Warrior Princess look like Betty Crocker..why does everything with you ladies turn into ``if men can do it why can`t we`` please...get a grip..ali5000 made comments that could have just as easily been made to a man...

women and men are different..PERIOD..they have always been different, and will always BE different..Not superior or inferior in any way..but just different..What exactly do you women on chowk want? To be able to talk about sex as freely as men do? well there are plenty of women that do that..they are called sluts, and they lack the respect that men give you right now..This Ali5000 character treats you with respect and you guys jump all over him with your ``I`m a Women hear me roar`` rhetoric..

way to go..

Zehra #37:

It`s okay... :)

``why has everyone assumed its a man when i havent really given my second person a gender``

hmmm... have you heard k.d. lang`s ``summerfling``?

For some reason I thought of this song when I read that. I wonder if she`d have anything to say on assumptions (at least mine) that it`s a woman she`s referring to in the song...

STORM’N A TEA CUP

Some are cursed more than others
creative people more than ...
is that good or bad?
depends on one’s perspective
the curse am referring to
turbo-charges the imagination
enabling some to view
a vision a trance
of dreams and fantasies
in fireworks that last
seconds or hours

mostly
it troubles the soul
does nothing to quench the fire
raging within
but the urge
to glean and share
that spark, gleam or vision
overwhelms that
which is better than valor...

and
footinmouthis helps not
zehra-o-zehra
rest of me friends
sheath the swords and daggers
storm it is
in a tea cup.

I think I ain`t gonna miss WWF Women Championship bout anyway. hmmm. Life is good.

i am truly sorry, because it was not my intention to trigger this line of discussion..i also have to reiterate that a ``veiled threat`` never even came close to entering my mind..i`m sorry if i offended you zehra, or anyone else who read my comments..although i don`t know you personally, i did enjoy your work and have a level of respect for you..my comment was made out of concern, and there was absolutely no malicious intent involved whatsoever..i guess the concern was misplaced or i may have been out of line, and i apologize for that..

toba, someone put a stop to this girl!

Intimacy between women? sick sick sickkkkkk!

YLH,

Now that`s a terrible thing to say. Zehra`s poetry was drenched in glucose but not bad.

Not a Man! what an excellent thought..

that makes this poem like 100 times hotter..

dear zehra,

thats the spirit! being shameless isn`t as bad as it`s made out to be (i should know :). and in an environement where people are in total and complete denial (``we`re special``..``women don`t think like that``)people like you help prove otherwise.

shandana

p.s: i also think (but only if you were..er..forced to..at gunpoint..or on the rack)you`d make a first rate fraud.

ylh: such kind words...thanks. am i such a bad fraud that i must be a third class one? why not first class?

bina: he isnt related to me...his brotherly concern is misplaced. but then again, if you notice, some men on chowk feel that they can make blanket statements to protect our (womens) integrity...we ofcourse, are incapable and helpless to run our own lives and make our own decisions and thus must be told what is right, wrong, appropriate for a woman or inappropriate.

slink...anything to get people to discuss issues they wont...(and call me names and throw words at me..)

rizvi.

A worthless, useless poem by a wannabe poet(ess) but in reality a third class fraud.

Yours truly

Yasser Latif Hamdani

Since I read Ali5000`s comments a few days ago, I wanted to respond, but as yet haven`t found the right words to do so. But, in short, I think Zehra is an adult and is perfectly capable of deciding which of her writings she wants up on Chowk and what is private. Ali5000, your response indeed seems like a threat of a sort, at least intimidation, veiled in ``concern``. Are you related to Zehra or do you just think you have a God-given right to tell her what she should and shouldn`t publish?

z,

`why did everyone assume it was a man` LOL.

issues to discuss:
why has everyone assumed its a man when i havent really given my second person a gender
and
why when a man talks about sex its ok but when i, a woman do its like, hai hai yeh bachee and interacts that sound like whines of ``do your parents know about this?``


lubna...ahh, i see..my mistake :)

rizvi.

a veiled threat? no my dear, more like brotherly concern which doesn`t necessarily have to be solicited in order to be genuine..

hai hai, yeh bachee hath sai nikalgayu

Zehra #32:

I KNOW what you meant honey, I meant something else... I didn`t mean it in the literal sense.

What came to my mind was an image of freshness and ripeness when you used strawberries to describe the texture of his skin. And then you used the scent of cocoa butter to describe the smell of his skin. Sooooo, I just took these - cocoa butter and strawberries - as IMAGES to describe how delightful this combination of skin and smell seemed and how I would prefer it in a person (man) as well.

Never mind!

one more thing..
fozia: i found it wonderful, the adoration of david. many people walk by it or take pictures or touch its base to say hey we`ve been there, done that, one more thing off our list...that disturbs me. one cannot walk into the accedemia and not be overwhelmed by the sight of david. i was inordinately pleased to see a person with a non extensive renaissance background point out to me what i had been reading in the books and had studied. it was something i didnt know we shared.
go to florence if you can...its much too wonderful to miss out on...i had been there before and had decided that i would go back for an extended period of time...and so did :)

slink, i totally think you should...

SR: thank you...it does mean a lot coming from you :)

lubna: strawberries only with cream darling, i was talking more of the scent of cocoa butter...like that cream from the body shop kinda thing...warm woodsy kinda scent..

ali5000...you sound like you are giving me some sort of veiled threat :) i have people come up to me randomly and say, hey are you that zehra on chowk? i think its wonderful that so many people are able to access mine and other peoples work at the click of a button. and no, i wouldnt put this piece up if i wanetd to keep it hidden and to myself..if you are going to write, expect a: to get heavily criticized and b: to be naked to the rest of the world. no faking involved. thanks for the unsolicited concern though..im quite all right with millions of known and unknown eyes taking a look at this work..

rizvi

Ahem! Ahem!

slink...

hunh?

SR :

you can call me nieve if you would like, but I am going to assume that Ms. F. Zehra Rizvi is in fact ``faking it``

zehra, you shoud think twice in the future before putting a piece like this on the internet, because you never whose eyes it will come across...

scout...

hmmmmm...

I enjoy reading your stream of conscience writing. My favorite lines were:

``Ours was a brown world

in the middle of pure White

shining Christianity

living,

half dead

on legends of 500 years past.``

Brought back some of my memories of Italy as well! Never went to Florence though. Maybe next time... Travelled with the family so my recollections are decidely more tame than yours... :)

One question: Would you not find your... ummm... friend`s enthusiasm for viewing David just a tad bit unsettling??

Fozia

slink #24, ``i`m actually thinking of becoming a romance novelist..``

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

well...

alright...whatever keeps your juices flowing...

OOPS, I didn`t mean it that way..plzz...don`t get me wrong...

sorry

scout

The sweet pain of seperation and the joyous memory of union make a powerful and mind numbing combination. You`ve done a great job expressing a lot more than your words actually say.

[``...Black eyes, black hair and bronzed skin
met cocoa butter and
long,
lean preciseness.
Sliding and Meeting
One in the Other.
Exhausted and refreshed...``]

Elegently veiled, yet expressive!!! This is straight from the heart, rooted firmly in memory. You couldn`t possibly be faking it.

Looks like the two month Italian experience was a real heart throber!! What better place in Europe for lovers to meet?

...SR

PM...finally...was beginning to worry you`d gone and done something silly like getting a job. my email is still the same, do drop a line so i can reply, lots of juicy stuff to tell.
and, coming to the juicy zehra poem, mushy sentimentality for the sake of mushy sentimentality i still can`t stand. but mushy sentimentality for erotic reasons...that i look forward to. i`m actually thinking of becoming a romance novelist..

``...We may never, never meet again

on the bumpy road to love.

Still I`ll always keep the memory of

the way you...``

* *sigh * *

Zehra:

Visiting ``Chowk`` after a long holiday - didn`t know where to start. Your piece caught my attention. Being a food-worshipper, what attracted me to your piece was the title.

Cocoa butter and strawberries didn`t quite taste right at first but now I won`t have my strawberries any other way!

I like the way you wrote the poem. Very sensuous and passionate. I admire you for sharing such personal feelings with us.

I loved:

``The scents and flavors

[cocoa butter and strawberries]

fit in my suitcase

between my laundry and books.``

``Cappuccino smiles`` was beautiful as well but for some reason I get the impression I`ve come across it before. Maybe I`ve read the poem too many times. :)

Aanyway, thank you for sharing a delicious treat!

Each one of my senses is grateful for this delight.

-Lubna

Multi-layered, sensual and sad...I loved it. Have to read it a few more times I think.

pizza pizza...


how can ANYONE spend a summer in italy, that too florence, food capital of the world, and NOT have pizza there..
that would be self depraved as far as im concerned.....
food is a sensuous pleasure that too many people miss out on..heaven for me is a big grocery store. to fully understand, watch for `water like chocolate`..no meal will ever be the same.

:)

PM: where ya been? i can just imagine the uproar if you were to send something like this in...i think its still too much sex for some chowkwalay to handle...and this is my censored version...

seriosuly however, it was the whole mood and feeling of one of the most romantic cities in this world...i think i may send in another diary, one that is less peroccupied with just a mood and trying to capture it..i didnt think there was as much a sexual component to this as so many people picked up on...sensual, evocative but not really a trashy romance novel...it takes so little for some people though :)

rizvi.

``SELF-DEPRIVATION``

The word ``self-deprivation`` is the key to understand the writer`s state of mind. She has brilliantly associated and romanticized the food items with the sensuality and erotic aspect of love or a love long lost. It is quite obvious that she is currently on a strict diet regimen probably with Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers. She has consummately described the claustrophobic environment of her room which is actually a simile that represents the bunged state of her mind. The open window in her room is a metaphor for a connection or a life-line to the outside world. The window represents hope- the hope that gives her confidence that she is strong- strong enough to pick up the phone and call ``Pizza, Pizza`` for a delivery.

Zehra,

This is soooo .... kewwlllll. No...... HOTTTTTT! I mean... ummm.... warm(ing), passionate, sad. And sweet.

I once wrote a poem pretty much in the same vein (tho doubltess far inferior in those little things that make a poem good poetry). Anyways, didn`t send it in for a couple of reasons, one being it probably would conjure up distasteful images in readers` minds. :-)

Anyways, good to see you again here. I always did enjoy your poetry,though I never took the op to say so.

regards, PM



Shandy, What`s this?!!! You`re liking this stuff?? Isn`t this the kind of mushy sentimentality that you claim ordinarily makes you wanna puke? Uh-uh, Arif, maybe a forthnightly trip to Kinara (is that place still open?) is called for. :-)

I enjoyed the sensuality in this poem very much.
The writing style is also worthy of note.
But like (maybe) some older folks here on CHOWK, I
prefer my strawberries with whipped cream.
But then again whipped cream is sweeter than cocoa butter and does not aid in tanning but the possibilities.........

Ras

Zehra, too much Danielle Steel back in ``those`` days? ;))

It`s good nevertheless. Are you going to be the desi Barbara Cartland? or the next Jackie (or was it Judith) Collins?

Did I miss any names?

frog goddess, try smelling it off of some warm skin...i recommend between shoulder blades or collarbones.

jamshed...if you want to fund me, sure i`ll compile something..

hamidm if i make brooks babble and ragged rocks run rascal, kill me.

rizvi.

....laptop and garlic ! so now the desi programmers are polluting the cafes and bistros in Europe ? ..... not that there is anything good about europe - a dysfunctional place with highly unpredictable cusines and predictable bad service ..... the trains do run on time.......is cocoa butter supposed to be sensuous? cappuccino smiles ? .... as a daily visitor to Starbucks I should take a peek under that lid ............ what`s next - ``burbling mountain brooks`` or ``around the rock the ragged rascal ran`` ...... all english teachers should be quartered, hung and beheaded for putting silly ideas in our young impressionable heads ..........

wowwwwww

the freshness of the lines and the flow of thoughts is so .....COOL!

the images of the poem paint a europeon environ ........florence or barcelona or tulousse ......tres romantique.......

is it like post industrialist......new economy.... kind of romance??

hi zohra......i think u r some kind of a real poet ....or something!

thats your first poem i read.....

n i remembered dh lawrence......

r u compiling a book or some thing?

jay

err... excuse me... cocoa butter doesn`t ``smell`` much... tis plain fat... what did you have in mind? Twice...

zehra..

excellent piece of work..the passion that this was written with comes pouring out with each written word..i admire you for putting youreslf out like this, and truly expressing your thought in such a beutifl manner..

hamza

zehra,

WOW!!! uneblievable poem..as I read it I could totally picture the thing in my mind, like one of those musical videos where they go through scenes of the romance that she is singing about..you know what I am talking about right? either way..excellent poem, and thank you for making my day...

chowk seems to be ``hijacked`` by 4 ppl...u see them in every interaction.....

and...as its surprizing coz what tahmed and stud pointed out,is so TRUE.

Re: Zehra

Well... first of all, welcome back and secondly, keep up the struggle! :)

Your poem was really a throw back to more lazy crazy days which are now just hazy in the memory. Thanks for the memory`s deja vu and for the reminder that once there used to be care free days!

Ciao!

temporal: i knew youd give it to me straight :)
even though i did send this piece in, i cringed when it showed up...felt kinda naked. also not fully formed.
im still figuring out my line formats...i never used to use cap letters at all...its a start :)

nakir: mills and boons would use something more romantic than garlic to create a mood im sure...i just happen to find garlic really sexy. it has to be fresh though :) i like trashy romance novels...everyone should live one as far as im concerned.

rizvi.

``I tasted the fragrance of desire``...PLEASE! Should you chose to use such boring cliches at least stand behind your work. You have put a piece up for ALL to read...don`t hide behind artsy statements that this is a ``personal piece`` and from the ``gut``...vault it in your diary. This is, at best, a Mills & Boon re-hash.

PS:

[im waiting for temporal to come on and cringe :)]

Oye larki! baaz aajaa.

Avoid on air duel between Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Comte Donatien Alphonse Fran de Sadeçois. :)

Zehra o Zehra:

Why do you do this? Inflict and overwhelm us with your catharsis, this abreaction?

Overall, I enjoyed the poem. You took me back and rekindled those feelings and memories ----I was awed when I walked over those stones and lanes, the balustrades, parapets, gargoyles, the plants in the windows (digression: some one once mentioned that those plants in the windows acted as a ‘matrimonial ad’ -- sort of placed by the parents of age girls to attract suitors) and thought of all those artists, writers, sculptors who spent their lives there. And those exciting, thriving and dangerous times.

Different. Evident early on the corneas of the protagonist are amor-foggy (with your self-proclaimed ....)

[My beef: and you are a sweetheart, you won’t mind.]

Please be consistent with the format --- if you use small letters do it consistently ---- if you want or don’t want to break into caps at the end of a line or stanza please be consistent.

If your ever overcome your Khayyamish reluctance you can re-visit the line splits.

[ The moving finger writes/and having writ/ nor all thy pity nor wisdom/shall lure it back to cancel half a line -- Omar Khayyam]

I cringed -----at boring holes in unwashed eyes --- ugh! you got to seriously have another look at it.

buhat sara pyar,

t

PS: The email shall be answered.
PPS: Wherever you got the notion of aloo-bhujia --it will be ready!

slink, K and aakar...

thanks...its a personal piece (duhh), written, as i mostly write my other stuff, in a fit of passion (the platonic, inspired, mused kind i reserve for writing)..
it needs revision so im glad you guys didnt nit pick at that stuff..its still a `gut` piece.

im waiting for temporal to come on and cringe :)

slink: is it still zarquon@.....i didnt get a response.
K: email.
aakar: no, its not just you....

rizvi.

dear F. Zehra Rizvi

i found your poem quite sensuous and evocative.

despite the hindisms/urduisms, however, also very occidental in its emotions.

i`m not sure if that`s just me, though.

regards

aakar patel

zehra, zehra, zehra...i couldn`t sleep so i logged on...and now...well, i definitely can`t sleep now. did i ever tell you that even now ``blood rushes`` when i read ``the temptress at barnes and noble``? well, this work is every bit as good .

loved the imagery, loved the ``lyrics``, loved the...feeling....at times i could taste and smell this poem. a veritable feast for the senses...you go girl.

in the short time i`ve known you, you`ve grown as a writer, as a woman...so much. it`s very exciting to see, y`know...

i think we both had a summer of re-birth. details soon. promise.

-!K!-

wooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeee!
what a sexy poem :) it made me `nostalgic`for the days when i too could roam unfettered, junglee, alive, and cram every bit of life i found into my mouth.
uh oh...you might have re-awakened my appetite. expect angry mail from my husband soon.:p