In Sanity

Zehra

naalaique@netscape.net

Urstruly and Zehra,
I just wanted to let you know that
Noshi Gilani, who is a resident of the San
Francisco Bay area is thankfully still very much
alive and well and continues to remain one of
the finest Urdu poets resident in the USA.
The person Urstruly was possibly thinking of was
the late Perveen Shakir.

Ras

U know reading your work felt like someone had just read my mind and put it up on the site...i guess what I`m trying to say is that its by far the most brilliant piece of work that I`ve read on chowk in a long time...more so because I cud relate to it...about the shaadi bit..here`s an insightful(?) lil observation...99% of desi gals go thru the eternal `shaadi karr lo warna bhudi kunwari ho jao gi`...but if u just flick em (the rishtas) left, right and center, it`ll go away...just like it did with me (or so i believe!! hehe!tho im not a bhudi kunwari mind u =p)...on a more serious note, you`re not insane...perhaps you`re the only sane one in this fake madness! take care and keep writing...look forward to reading more stuff from you...luv, samina =o)

Z,

regd my earlier remark that .. ``You are (were?) suffering the existential angst that any sensitive, contemplative, realistic, basically uncompromising, rather idealistic, strong-enough-to-feel-one`s-vulnerability type of individual will often suffer.``

I forgot to add ``looking-to-ssuck-the-marrow-of-life`` as a compound adjective up there...

Then again, maybe I subconsciously sensed some ambiguity with one of the verbs there`` :)

rgds,

P.

PS. ditto slink`s remark

Re: F. Zehra Rizvi and her ``In Sanity``

It`s quite noticeable that it`s ``In Sanity`` and not ``Insanity.``

``My ayah began to put mirchi on my fingers before I went to bed.``

- You should get a coke bottle.

``The matter is that I was born Muslim and never got to decide. At 23 its past the age of decision.``

- No, you don`t get to decide when you`re 5 or 10. But at 23? Many cultures, including Muslim, consider that adulthood, free to make your own decision.

``they`ll kill me.``

- Trust me, no one would. Some would say good riddance.

``I want out.``

- Please, here`s is the door. It will be someone else`s filth.

``I invite all my lovers one by one to invade me``

- Otherwise known as a gang bang.

This essay is, in true tradition of Hanif Kureishi, another piece of excrement masquerading as literature.

Wonder what the ``F`` in F. Zehra Rizvi stands for.

Zehra,

By ``this too shall pass``, I mean the utter helplesness and senselessness of it all. Been there, saw it through (only to be revisited -- wake up calls??)

Sure, embrace the despair all you can,... but stop short of wallowing in it.

Things WILL start ot make sense, if not seem any more acceptable... that`s when you could say you`ve found lost and found God. But you have to find that out for yourself... beyta! :)

about the one-time idol... oh yaar... aise baate publuck maiN nahiN battana chaheyeh... uss shux ko achhi nahiN lagaygi!

rgds,

P.



slink... would you say the feeling is like mutual??

t-bhai #15, ``.what is that oozing out in spurts?``

it is the blood oozing out of my ears from my slaughtered brain while i was reading your post.

apkay luvs meray sar kay uper say, ander say, aur kaat-tay hue guzar gaye

;)

Rizvi:

Nicely written. Too disjointed for my taste though. An abstract tapestry is moving if its various strands are each strong & profound but it comes across as deliberate and contrived if the threads are weak & inane. Don`t mean to be harsh... just honest.

I did find one aspect of this piece a little disturbing though...

I think everyone`s contemplated suicide at some level. Very few actually try and a vast majority of those who do deliberately ensure failure. Then there are those that have the misfortune of having someone near & dear try and succeed... or `almost succeed`.

To those that are acquainted with it... suicide is neither romantic nor sensual. The circumstances under which a person finds the necessary conviction to slit his own wrists are extremely dismal and depressing.

Only in pretentious or hallucinogen-assisted writing do people kill themselves because `they are in love with themselves`.

You know why Ricky Fitz in American Beauty says, ``Some times there is so much beauty in life that I think I cant take it anymore``? Because he`s smoking pot!

Latif Chappu.

ABCD

dont need to say more ..

rizvi

your public is wonderfully tolerant. they forgive everything except genius.

Disgusting as ever... good job

Asim Hayat,

Pakistani Intellectuals are representative of the disappointment that our society has faced for the last 2 decades. Most of them are now just capitalizing on this disappointment, cashing their cheques...

The Pakistani Nation and the Nation-state, faces a dire crisis... but the threat is not from the outside, but from the inside... constantly depressing drivel that the so called Pakistani Intellectuals vomit on this board is most alarming.

These ``meaningless`` stories, written to show the world that ``I am a creative person``... are indicators... of a national psyche... we have nothing better to do but think up rubbish.

-Yasser Hamdani

After reading this, it seems as if only a female can truly depict the tearing up of the lumpen fabrics of social order/behaviour- particularly that of the immigrant american community which claims to be secure but is acting defensively simultaneously.

Thankfully the piece did not end up glorifying it all.

re. Yasser, #28

Get a grip, will ya! This has nothing to do with Pakistan or being Pakistani.

----

Is it just me or is Yasser overplaying his Youthful Indescretion card

If you`re seriously gonna make any inroad into the Pak politcal machinery, hope you lose some of that sophomoric attitude... remember, a man with many times your achievement, much-admired, and half your smugness still didn`t win didly at the polling booth. If there`s anything the Pakistni voter hates more than an incompetence, it`s probably arrogance.

So, my sincere advice to you is to try and accept that there are areas of experience you can`t relate to...and that is no reason to fear and deride them.

good luck...

rgds,

PM

Asim Hayat #2

What literauture you expect from a certain category of people.

Empty life and whatever life presents pen it down without thinking.

Or it is probably a cultural crises of women first time exposed to a liberitarian society. In that case although it is not creative writing but depicts the life in better way.

I agree with you that life has many manifestations even in America for all sorts of Pakistanis. On Chowk life has only one manifestation.

If you blame chowk staff, that is bad. Jawahara has written to my reply already that it is the choice of Chowk staff. And I have absolutely no plan to refute this claim.

Ras Siddique

No I am talking about Karachi`s own poetess, Noshi Gillani. She died of a heroine overdose in 1995/6. It is also said that it was suicide. Her life & death later was glorified and now it is portrayed as a symbol of the plight of intellectual woman in Pak.

Unfortunately I do not have any poetry at this time to share at this time. I like her poetry

So we are talking about two different people.