When the Lights Hurt the Eyes

Hamzad,

The similarities between the words Kafir and Mallechha are striking. That again goes to show that those who continue to use these words are blood brothers of each other, though born in different `religious` faiths.

Ref hamzad afaqui #: 342

[The correct equivalent for kafir(as a general usage) in hindi is mallachiah.]

From the Sanskrit word mlecha.

[Mostly used for muslims by you know who.]

Don`t be coy. Call us the heeng-eating hated Hindoos.

Actually, used against ALL foreigners. You guys merely hung around for too long as opposed to the British who left India after about 350 years, so you think it was used only against you. Not at all. We are equal opportunity offenders, giving offense to one and all.

[The word means outsider(outcast), alien, foreigner, one who does not belong, impure, polluter etc etc.]

Seems to describe a non-Hindu quite well. And all that in just one word!

Art movies are not very common in Pakistan. People prefer to have shiny happy people dance for them than to watch Om Puri, deeply scarred and drunk, muttering half-truths into the heart of darkness.

Its depend on who you meet, though. My family loves Shyam Benegal`s Mammo, and now, Hari-Bhari. Scattered throughout the country, you have pockets of people who choose this kind of cinema over the more popular lightweight, mutka-jhutka variety. But these are few and far between.

How is it in India? Knowing us to be nearly the same people as North Indians I would assume it`s the same. Don`t know about the Southerners, though, from what dubbed versions we`ve seen, they have some good film-makers only.

Regards,

Aamir

Urstruly (#332):

I don’t understand – if your best love affairs were in your pre-teens, then your friend’s theory about hormones does not ring true, unless… I suppose rather than ‘shallowness’ of pretty, shiny things, it was the innocence that was appealing. Perhaps even the evanescence … that this might not last. Like a dewdrop on a flower. I agree about the short attention-span of men, but why do guys remember all the terrible things that were said to them? Why do they remember every past foible on a woman’s part? Why do they notice the guy in the street giving her a once-over but not her new hair-style?

So you think I am a “confrontation-junkie”? How mean! I have liked this board a great deal, but whatever I say at a given time seems right to me. Or I don’t say it. And I am surprised that there were as many responses as there were (not the grand tally but the ones discussing the subject) – I agree that a lot of other things come into play later, which is fine to some degree.

Oh, you and those Pathani women…I think I know where your penchant for the elemental woman comes from now! Btw, immersing those balls of aata in the sea meant feeding the fish. I do wonder what happened to those paper wishes, though. I recall asking a relative to put down some wish of mine; I have always been too lazy for such things myself. In fact, I find it difficult to ask for anything at a place of worship, if ever I vast one, usually on my travels. Perhaps an interesting and safe journey is all I want. I guess that about encompasses life…

Sadna (#335):

Thanks. I have already asked a friend to check about the Malayalam film. Chances are he would not know. The genre of films I was talking about is not strictly about just feel-good films, because they also deal with serious issues in a light manner. I wonder if ‘Monsoon Wedding’ will fit the bill. I think the film ‘Yes Boss’ was one such, and there was this absolute delight ‘Thodasa Rumaani Ho Jaaye’ directed by Amol Palekar – the full film’s dialogues were in the form of short verses and recited too! Please see if you can get hold of it. I am looking around for a copy as well. It did not do well at the box office and is obviously not too popular among the TV channels as well.

hamzad: I always wondered if Tundha (Not sure of the spelling, means cold in urdu...) has any link with tundra? And have u ever traced the origins of ``Allah`` or ``Kaba`` (the latter seems to be a combination of the two types of souls in ancient egypt-the ka and ba)?

what`s this about throwing balls of atta on the roof for the birds?

my siblings and i used to throw our baby teeth on the roof (which wasn`t really a roof but the pseudo-roof chajja under the bedroom window) for the birds. if they were gone the next morning, that meant good luck.

poor birds.

dost-mittar---340.

The correct equivalent for kafir(as a general usage) in hindi is mallachiah.Mostly used for muslims by you know who.

The word means outsider(outcast),alien,foreigner,one who does not belong,impure,polluter etc etc.



Fascination for words & their origin is one of my joyous pastimes.

.....

You,tAhmad & others might enjoy this:

One day I asked one of pukkaa British nephew,Asher,(14 years) in Urdu:

``Assher,Darvaaza band ker dO.

He said ``what``

I said I just spoke english to you with a very old accent.

and He asked what?

I said: Dar is door(opening)(an Iranian would even today pronounce daur).

va za(the door which opens(va) & closes(zeh)

Band is like ``to close``,other words:Bond,bind,bund(on river)

kurr(only exception)

and dO is like our hindi/urdu dO(soft d sound);)

hamzad #339 Thanks for shedding light on these interesting concepts. I was of course trying to explain the common usage of these terms in Pakistan. And it is interesting to learn about the Arabic roots of these words as you have provided.

tAhmad----334

Dehriyaa: from arabic Dehr:meaning Earth,world,material,tangible,temporal etc etc as opposed to spiritual & heavenly,and after-life.

A dehryaa may not necessarily be an atheist.He may be a believer in superstition for material gain or loss.In short one who has everything to do with material pursuits & has no use for anything ethereal.

Kaafir:One who denies Truth & that what is so obvious to others.If someone denies the achievements of Science we can easily term him kaafir as far as this aspect is concerned.It definitely does not mean Pagan which is Mushrik or Zindeeq which is atheist.

It is definitely a point of view & from a certain vantage point.We all do it one time or the other without realising it.These days if someone does not see things our way he is uneducated,ignorant,orthodox,obscurantist etc etc----the modern version of the same phenomenon.

re: Urstruly # 332

``She told her that it was a Hindu custom and she would go straight to hell for acting on that superstition. Since then mom started throwing just the balls of atta on the roof for the birds.``

LOL...Jesus Christ! How well Pathanis know about Hinduism :)

aryan: Yeah I see what you`re saying. Lemme be blunt. The area we`re concerned with is the right temporal lobe of the brain (the home of spirituality). By meditating INTO it, we can access a place of infinate nothingness (God?). From the Buddhist standpoint, one can dwell here and find the answer to a perplexing question. It isnt highly stressful. Once you`re in the correct position, maintain your breathing at a comfortable level and try and focus on something you want to know (truth). Whenever u feel ur drifting off, refocus. Like I said, theres no guarantee in this working, but thats the procedure (u know that it takes usually a long time for the Truth to be relayed to someone).

Cuz i have the attention span of a four year old, I dont particularly like the meditation technique . Keeping one intuned with the spiritual world is another technique. Scientists call this the ``subconscious``, while we call it intuition. The answer to a lot of sh1t just comes to people whenever (ie. while your shaving), even though such answers are not to questions as pressing as the ``truth.`` If u wanna induce it, just simply go anywhere and sit down and chill (Id be lying if I said weed doesnt help, lol)... If you calmly keep a question in your mind long enough, it eventually will marinate in the subconscious (this area is known for cooking up answers)...

``does it mean I already have all the data in my head to solve the problems of my life? To experience truth.``

Thats a valid interpretation (that, and u may not be ready yet, though I doubt that). I don`t think these questions are as difficult as people make them out to be. Is it not just as pious to live according to whatever one thinks is true (`God` would only hold u responsible for what you know, right?)

Lastly, I doesnt hurt to borrow some of the wisdom in older folk. There`s this ancient Buddhist story about how a mighty samurai asked a monk ``what is hell and what is heaven?`` The monk laughed and replied, ``you are like scum, I can`t be bothered with the likes of you!`` Upon hearing that, the samurai went into an uncontrolled state in which he swore at the monk and vowed to kill him. The Monk: ``That is hell`` (ie. losing control of your emotions). Upon understanding this invaluable insight, the samurai graciously bowed infront of the Monk. ``And that is heaven`` (humility etc).

The reason Buddha never expounded on a God concept was because he didn`t feel that knowledge of that concept was needed by the people of his day. They were thirsty for tolerance, to learn how to live with their fellow people. Maybe the ``truth`` isnt the most pressing question for u at this time, I dont know....

Peace

No salaries, no medicine, no food for patients, no heat for winter.

Shortages Hit Kabul Kids` Hospital

By MORT ROSENBLUM, AP Special Correspondent

KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - Dr. Mustafa Zmarai heaves a sigh when visitors to Indira Gandhi Hospital ask his worst problems. Slowly, he intones: no salaries, no medicine, no food for patients, no heat for winter.

``Let us say,`` he sums up, ``we have nothing.``

This is a critical condition for a 300-bed children`s hospital in a country shattered by 25 years of war, where polio and tuberculosis run rampant and even simple dysentery kills in large numbers.

The situation is bad enough in Kabul, which has 60 percent of the nation`s hospital beds. It is far worse in the rugged back country. Half of all Afghans have no access to any medical care at all.

Zmarai`s 70 doctors have handled their latest crisis: 40 children injured by American bombing before Taliban forces fled from Kabul. Seven died, but the others survived. Only Mohammed Salem, legless at age 10, is still in the hospital.

At Indira Gandhi, surgeons and sweepers alike earn the equivalent of $20 a month - in principle. No one has been paid since July.

Other doctors say this creates yet another problem. Desperate staff members sell scarce drugs, charge families for basic services and sneak out to do other jobs.

``How can you blame them at those levels of pay?`` asked Wilhelm Kemmer, a doctor with the German aid agency Hammer Forum who works at the hospital. ``Their first thought is the survival of their own families.``

Francois Calas, head of the French Doctors Without Borders (news - web sites) mission in Kabul, said such problems are endemic at most of the city`s 16 hospitals. ``We distribute our drugs and then find them in the bazaar,`` he said.

Calas and other foreign doctors say medical supplies and equipment are siphoned to the streets with mafia-like efficiency.

Although northern alliance authorities have delegated some doctors to look after health issues, there is still no functioning Ministry of Health, Calas added.

Even in normal times, Afghans frequent the myriad pharmacies in Kabul to buy whatever they can afford and think they need. Antibiotics are sold one by one, without instructions or expiration dates.

Long-term treatment of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, is a particular problem, Kemmer said.

``You can give someone antibiotics, but you can`t know if they take them,`` he said. ``Many sell them. It`s obvious. They decide between feeding their family today or treating some vague disease they don`t understand.``

Aid workers say the fragile hospital system all but collapsed when foreigners evacuated after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Some Afghan doctors stayed away from their hospital jobs to work in their own clinics. Sick people were afraid of going to hospitals for fear of the U.S. bombing campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)`s al-Qaida network, which is blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (news - web sites).

Things are slowly coming back to normal - to a situation that doctors say is not nearly good enough.

Indira Gandhi Hospital, named for India`s assassinated prime minister, receives basic support from the Indian government, with help from Hammer Forum, Save the Children in the United States, the French agency Action Against Hunger and the International Red Cross.

Kemmer said the donor assistance helps doctors meet their most urgent needs. But, he added, little real improvement can be expected until better wages are paid to hard-pressed staff.

``We do what we can,`` Zmarai said. ``I can get by because I have a private practice when I am not here, but what about the others? When winter comes, it will get worse.``

At best, Indira Gandhi is a no-frills hospital. Its information office is a box of nailed-together pasteboard with no one in it. Green paint flakes off the walls. Visitors and patients roam aimlessly in the halls.

``Conditions are quite bad,`` acknowledged Sanjoy Shivpura, one of three Indians who along with Kemmer are the only foreigners on the staff.

At least the Taliban are gone, Zmarai said.

During their five years of rule, Taliban authorities prohibited men and women from working together. ``We had to do everything separately,`` Zmarai said. ``It made our work nearly impossible.``

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011126/wl/attacks_critical_condition_2.html

Farzana #324
`` ?healthy dose of hope and shine? that you talk about is evident in most of Sai Paranjpye?s movie``

Farzana, if you can, ask around for a Malayalam movie, name translated `Golden egg-laying goose`. It has a deceptively simple story line set in the simplest of Kerala ambiences but is full of subtle humor similar to the Sai Paranjpe variety. I think the director/writer? is Sathyan Anthikaad. And my Malayali friends thought this was nothing special, only one of many movies made this way..

Dost Mittar #331 ``What`s the difference between ``Deheriya`` and ``Kafir``?``

Deheriya = Atheist, generally used in Pakistan for a person who openly and proclaims that he/she does not believe in God.

Kafir = Most commonly used in Pakistan by Mullahs for someone who considers himself to be a muslim and whom they wish to declare to be a non-muslim (through some God-given right that they presume to possess), as in declaring Ahmedis to be Kafirs. The word is used more loosely used than deheriya. Thus, of course, at other times and other places it has had a different connotation. E.g. kafir used to be the word used somewhat pejoritively in the apartheid era in South Africa to refer to blacks, and at other times has meant people of religions other than the Abrahamic ones.

Stuka

Shab-e-Barat is Muslim festival of lights. The `barat` is usually pronounced as the urdu/hindi word barat which means wedding but it is wrong. The actual word `Barat`is spoken by stressing vowels very differently. And it roughly means ``exemption``. So the phrase Shab-e-Barat means `the night of exemption`.

According to Muslim dogma, on this night the prayers and fasting was made mandatory for Muslims. But originally God mandated a large number of prayers and fasts (some say 50) but at the request of our Holy Prophet this number was reduced to 5 prayers and a month of prayers. And hence the `exemption`. This characterization of this night is a phenomenon particular to subcontinent Muslims only. I think Muslim Sufis when they first came to the subcontinent found it necessary to let the new converts retain something from their old roots (Deepawali) but gave it a new meaning.

Farzana

I believe that my best love affairs were in my pre-teen years. But when I mentioned it to a friend she responded –``naaah you just get attracted to pretty and shiny things, you are as shallow as one can get``. She also put forth her theory of hormones and theory of male-short-attention-span syndrome, which prevents them (men) from enjoying the love affairs in mature stages of life. But I think I will stick with my belief. If it felt so good it must be right.

I think your article has brought out good in people in general so it must be best. Surgery is not the only profession in the world; sometime one has to look beyond tumors, fistulas, gangrene, and puss. But I know you`re a confrontation-junkie. It is just a matter of time. Right?

I know I came to the Mehfil late but I think it is either during first 50 responses or responses beyond 300 when you can actually calmly talk to the writer or other interlocutors; In the middle, usually, it is like a towel-fight in the boys locker room.

As far as chits in the balls of aata (flour) is concerned, I vaguely remember, my mom used to do that. But instead of throwing them into sea or river, she used to throw those little balls on the rooftop where crows and other birds would peck them up. But one day my teacher who used to teach me Quran saw my mom doing that. She was a Pathan lady who used to wear a green eye-patch on one of her eyes-that eye was lost in a botched surgery-and always had a ball of Naswar packed between her cheek and gums all the times. She was a nice lady in all respects accept when she used to talk. It was her pushto accent, which made her sound like as if she was yelling at us all the time. But actually she was not. She loved me very much and let me play with her little round metallic Naswar box with a mirror on one side. Oh Boy! That stuff smelled good. Even better than my uncle`s Erinmore mixture Irish pipe tobacco. So one day when she was not looking…………..I`ll tell you this story some other time. Anyway, she saw my mom throwing the little balls of atta on the rooftop and gave her a lecture that scared the Bejesus out of my mom. She told her that it was a Hindu custom and she would go straight to hell for acting on that superstition. Since then mom started throwing just the balls of atta on the roof for the birds.