In This Together

# 52

Of course we make all sorts of (fig-leaf) justifications for our compromises.........

ali1,

What`s in a name? Isn`t it childish of you to pick on someone because their name doesn`t happen to ``fit in`` to your preconceived notions about how a parent should name their child.

Many ``Muslim`` names are Biblical names as well, does that mean that our parents felt subjugated by Christians?

Being unreasonably rude to people won`t get you anywhere.

ali # 55

Man, you are a sick person.

Reply Jawahara, Ali1 #: 53

“My parents did not compromise anything with my first name. We are Indian, so I got an Indian name. Apart from that my grandfather was a personal friend of Mr. Nehru`s and he (my granfather, that is) died quite soon after I was born...3 months later... and it made him happy before he went, that since I was born on Jan 26th (Republic Day) and that my parents chose to honor his friend and our country through my name.”

Jawahara, I wouldn’t bother explaining if I were you – when world views collide small hearted people always see any natural expression of big heartedness as a “betrayal”.

Ali1 – here’s a question for you. My grandaunt, one Fatma Ismail, named her only daughter Usha. So is Usha Ismail a Muslim name or a Hindu name? For what reason? Can names really have a religion? You seem to imply that they can. Can’t a Muslim be named, for example, Mohini Mangeshkar? Or a Hindu be named Akhtar Talibani? Reasons?

Zafar

Don`t change your name Jawahara - at least not by the forces of terror.

Subroto

Could I ever escape from myself if I wanted to

Change my identity

Take on a new name

Have plastic surgeons shape a new face

And then walk unrecognised in the street

Same flesh

Same heart

Unchanged DNA strands

A mind that still thinks

The same way as before

So must I then

Erase all the memories?

As if I never lived

Before this day

When I died

And was born again

A new me that I know not and may never will..

Zafar #58

[Jawahara, I wouldn’t bother explaining if I were you...]

[Ali1 - here’s a question for you. My grandaunt, one Fatma Ismail, named her only daughter Usha. So is Usha Ismail a Muslim name or a Hindu name? For what reason? Can names really have a religion? You seem to imply that they can. Can’t a Muslim be named, for example, Mohini Mangeshkar? Or a Hindu be named Akhtar Talibani? Reasons?]

There you go - falling in the trap yourself after sagely advising Jawahara.

Be prepared now for some filth about your grandaunt, her daughter, and your whole khandaan in general. You will also get to hear in lurid details about your lineage three centuries back, not to mention smug analyses of the motivation behind all that you do in your life.

``My parents did not compromise anything with my first name. We are Indian, so I got an Indian name. Apart from that my grandfather was a personal friend of Mr. Nehru`s and he (my granfather, that is) died quite soon after I was born...3 months later... and it made him happy before he went, that since I was born on Jan 26th (Republic Day) and that my parents chose to honor his friend and our country through my name.``

You`re a precious jawahar, Jawahara. Keep your head high here as well -- as you did in India.

Al Talib # 58

I was referring to the social rather than the religious aspect of changing names. But a ``beleaguered Indian pseudo-secular muslim`` like yourself couldn`t help jumping in, probably just to prove your secular-than-thou credentials?

There is no such thing as a ``muslim`` name. Arabic names are not muslims names. Haven`t you met an Arab christian named Abdullah? Persians, Afghanis, Turks, Indonesians etc. converted largely without changing their names. Do you think Asfandyar, Izzat Beg, Gulbudin and Megawati are ``muslim`` names?.

Indian converts chose differently because of two reasons, firstly to gain more acceptance within the dominant muslim society (a purely social phonomenon like a Harsha changes to Hersh in the US) and secondly to create a separate identity for themselves, which was/is a political rather a religous phenomenon.

Coming to your point, I would have more respect for a Usha Ismail or a Jawahara Saidullah if I would have known a Hindu Mohamed Talibani. Until it happens both ways, it would remain a compromise (aka suc_king up to Hindus) on the part of Indian muslims.

Unless ``any natural expression of big heartedness`` comes from the other side, this ``small hearted`` pakistani would continue to think of your kinds as spineless turds.

BTW what do you consider a ``natural expression of big heartedness`` from the other side these days? That they haven`t burnt down your house in the past 5 years and that you are not one of 17000 Gujrati Muslim TADA detainees?

Eklavia # 57

[``Man, you are a sick person.``]

Whatever. Go fcuk yourself.

Scout # 56

[``Isn`t it childish of you to pick on someone because their name``]

Isn`t it fun to pull the dhoti of nehruvian liberals once in a while??

Zafar:

beleaguered Indian pseudo-secular muslim`` like yourself couldn`t help jumping in, probably just to prove your secular-than-thou credentials?

Arrey, yeh to BJP waley kee tarah bolta hai. I didn`t know BJP had a following among Pakistani Muslims ;)

What kind of a name is Ali#1. A Pakistani-David Dhawan combo perhaps? A secret crush on Govinda maybe?

Ali1,

LOL...I could rip you apart in two minutes but I gave up that game long ago. Be happy.

ali the inbred mullah

What`s your beef with Zafar? That he is a highly educated and moderate INDIAN Muslim who doesn`t buy into your jehadi bull$hit?

ali1 #63
Thats how it all began. Muslims were considered less authentic if they lived in the same country with Hindus. Then Pakistanis were considered less authentic Pakistani if they werenot Muslims. Then Muslims were considered less authentic if they were Ahmediyyas. Then Pakistanis were considered less authentic if they were Bengali. Now Muslims are declared less authentic by any dissipated old debauch who cares to proclaim them so. This is called religion/identity/nationality by accusation. The one who accuses is more authentic. You are trying to buy yourself some authenticity, tell us someday why.

I seem to remember just the use of the name Sakina belonging to a Muslim heroine in a Hindi movie was considered a insult to Islam and the Prophet. If Hindus began taking to Muslim names in a big way, it could be called blasphemous. Is it more respectful to layoff Muslim names or more respectful to adopt them?

hows anNy for a paranoid muslim like me zafarsaaab?

ali,

here you go:

Ignorance

In Pennsylvania, among some mountain people, ignorant means rude. They also say backward when we would say shy. They are ignorant of our parlance, but they`re not rude, maybe just a little backward in our sense of the word. Surely someone, some farmer, or musician or mechanic, is thinking the same about us. Bliss? What we don`t know chains us, leaves us sitting in the valley with a stupid smile. We discover our ignorance as we go. After a lifetime, if we`ve been attentive, we should fall to our knees before the vastness, the ungraspable minutiae of our world. We should suspect that this constitutes our God. And we so called experts of this or that, could we have done more than play our one chord? Wisdom is to know, at best, that we make only a little good noise, a few small dents. Its why the wise laugh a lot, why the laughter of metaphysicians echo in the spaces they probe. We walk out of our houses into the enormity of our task. What kind of ant is that? Who named the phlox? Is that a path or a rut? -Stephen Dunn

RE Reply # 67 RSaxena

[``ali the inbred mullah``]

sexena the progeny of HIV positive devdasi and the village high priest

[``What`s your beef with Zafar? That he is a highly educated and moderate INDIAN Muslim``]

That a hindu bigot/muslim hater like you thinks highly of Zafar is proof enough that he is what I think he is.