The Sage

dL:

Finally a warm welcome to Chowk:) Very powerful and intuitive poem. Keep them coming.

love,

t

PS: Bina look at the words here ... rape, pillage, security, stare, raving, dig, deeper, smite, puerile, shadows, back, calm, quest, soothe ... see, THAT connotation is not here:)

sounds like a new age national anthem for Pakistan...

``She and her husband make their home

in England while maintaining strong roots in Pakistan.``

Good Poem! But...

So you go home for the holidays. Big deal!

Lo and behold they have all run away from there, and yet clamour at their self righteousness, at being called something they are not by virtue of their not being there in the first place.

Asim

Hey, i really like it...

I have read it twice and i am sure later readings will reveal greater meaning and wonder!!

-Hana

Be-you-tiful!!

--And powerful, especially:

``your search for treasure far

will calm your restless soul

your quest for treasure deep

will soothe your ravaged mind``

In this age of over-indulgence and vulgar and phony individualism encouraged by Big Business, how good it is to see something as self- and life-affirming as this.

Thanks for sharing.

rgds,

PM

Dear dL:

``the sage was always you``. Am glad others would finally get a chance to agree.

later

-sac

Enjoyed this writing. Welcome to CHOWK.

dRas

Here`s lookin` at you kid!

To the will to sustain that roving gypsy spirit. . .

To keeping alive the insatiable curiosity that compels you to question and explore the universe, the world, the very air around you.

To a fearless confidence in yourself which will inspire you to achieve beyond your ultimate potential.

To new ventures and adventures . . .

You are . . . as always . . . my Sage

why pakistan is not producing compressors for its airconditioners, but import it from other countries?

....not a v. original theme, i`m afraid....

...and literature has moved on since using big words was impressive!

I understand what the words mean. It is the sentences I am having trouble understanding.

OK, I read it one more time and I think I got it. Kind of like ``loosen up, buddy``, ``do something wild and crazy``. For example: Make wild assertions and dont dont worry about eating crow later (I figured out ``croweaters``, right?) - but I guess we Pakis do that all the time, so no big deal. Or perhaps: Think deep thoughts (``quest for treasure deep``). That`s sounds nice. But who on earth are ``Plato`s cavemen``? Are these, like, Platonic cavemen (cavemen that sing beautiful poems to cavewomen and NEVER hit them on the head before dragging them into the cave)? Or is there mention about cavemen in Plato`s Republic that I dont know about (to my shame)? And maybe I did not understand ``croweaters`` either. Maybe something to do with the ``hoof and mouth disease`` that inspired the UK-based dL? What we need is an EXPLANATION PLEASE. And no cop outs like ``It means what you take it to mean``.

``dL is a multi-dimensional spirit, with a multi-talented intellect, who transgresses the norms of conventional thought and idealogies. Her
rebellions, however, are not radical displays of alternative attitudes. Instead dL shatters the boulders of stereotypical psyches with the finesse of a rapier slicing through silk sheets.``

Does this mean the rest of us are idiots?!

re:

temporal, scout, Hana, PM and Ras: thank-you for the welcome and the compliments. I sent this in almost four years ago and had given up on seeing it on chowk. It was resent by a friend of mine so (Bina) you will have to forgive his enthusiasm in the intro! I seriously doubt it was meant to imply anything. I would stick to reading into the writing itself.

sac: i don`t suppose you are pulling my leg yet again ;)

manik: dylan and dL in the same breath - flattery my dear will get you places !

Imtiaz9: if that was meant to suggest that I am full of hot air, (as my husband insists it was) then I think it was very well put !

Asim: your assumptions are just that - assumptions. As I said before, the intro is not an attempt to make any political, social, what have you, points whatsoever.

Upman: Where I come from, these are not big words!

Platos Cavemen: apparently you did miss something (or maybe I read too much ;-). They (the cavemen and im sorry but i`m not yet pc enough to say cavepersons) sat in a cave with their backs to its mouth. And thought that the shadows that flickered on the walls in front of them were the real world. When one of them left and found that the shadows were just that and returned to show the cavemen the folly of their ways, he was killed. (I may have messed with the original metaphor but that`s broadly what I meant to suggest...)

For the chappie looking for an explanation, the writing was inspired by Coelho`s The Sage (which in turn I think was inspired by the Sufi fable - Mantaq ut Tair or Conference of the Birds) and the trials and tribulations of a friend trying to conform to the system that sometimes masquerades as society and as culture in Pakistan ...

Thanks for the interaction and the interest.

Cheers

dL

hey child:

what a can of worms you`ve opened. sigh.

if you`ve seen bina`s interact you presumably understand the reason for the panicked email i sent last week ;)

dL

Dear Bina

Reply #: 14

Bina

No, I doubt that it makes all the rest of us Idiots, I`m not sure how you concluded that out of what dL believes herself to be.

Perhaps you could not read into everything one writes and take it for face value. I understand being a Pakistani it`s very hard for us to not do that, but really I don`t think everybody writes on Chowk to make others feel small or less intellectual.

It seems when some on Chowk can`t see beyond themselves on Chowk they get threatened and are eager to make mince meat out of the writer`s words.

Relax please..

Looney.