A 24 Minute Journey Between Paddington and Slough

Reply ali1 # 26

You deseved to lose. You will always lose. You are a loser. We have enough people to kick your arse everytime.

Reply # 23 Ameer

[1947 1965 1971 Kargil]

Pakistanis are not exactly dissatisfied with these wars. We liberated 1/3 of Kashmir (and some more to hand over to China), sucessfully defended Lahore and Sialkot against a full blown Indian attack, lost East Pakistan which we deserved to loose etc. etc.

And mind you, the ``wars`` didn`t start in `47 and haven`t ended yet.

[Kutte ki dum seedhee nahi hoti.]

Bhai sahab, please don`t insult the kutta bhagwan, lest he sends the rat bhagwan to chew your lingum bhagwan. he is considered to be the most vindictive bhagwan of all, even more than the elephant bhagwan and the monkey bhagwan.

Reply # 23 Ameer

[1947 1965 1971 Kargil]

Pakistanis are not exactly dissatisfied with these wars. We liberated 1/3 of Kashmir (and some more to hand over to China), sucessfully defended Lahore and Sialkot against a full blown Indian attack, lost East Pakistan which we deserved to loose etc. etc.

And mind you, the ``wars`` didn`t start in `47 and haven`t ended yet.

[Kutte ki dum seedhee nahi hoti.]

Bhai sahab, please don`t insult the kutta bhagwan, lest he sends the rat bhagwan to chew your lingum bhagwan. he is considered to be the most vindictive bhagwan of all, even more than the elephant bhagwan and the monkey bhagwan.

Nice piece. Reminded me of a collage of beatles` songs.

re: scout

{{whoever said you should read during commutes is wrong....commutes are meant to think.}}

...or, if you take the number 6 new york subway, to look at hot girls (or guys, as the case may be)...

ali #20

[remind the banya of his real place in the scheme of things; if he dares to forget. He won`t though, don`t worry.]

1947

1965

1971

Kargil

Kutte ki dum seedhee nahi hoti.

.... here is bob dylan`s cure for the blues :

Well, lookit here buddy

You want to be like me

Pull out your six-shooter

And rob every bank you can see

Tell the judge I said it was all right

Yes!

......... hope that helped

Reply #: 9 Ras Siddiqui

[``Hello Northern California CHOWK readers! How about journeying to Sacramento this weekend? Peace Rally in Sacramento on January 25``]

Hello Ras Siddiqui, how about relaxing a bit. There will be NO war. India will dare not attack Pakistan.

Pakistanis with Jello filled knees, begging for peace in Bumfuk Idaho and Sacramento California give a very distorted picture of our country.... whose peaceful and resolute people are always ready to remind the banya of his real place in the scheme of things; if he dares to forget. He won`t though, don`t worry.

Pista, badaam, kaju and chilgoza are supposed to cure the knees.

Have a great weekend.

Great piece Asif. very to the point and yet so profound. anyways the important thing to do is to transcend and not to transgress(?)(does that make sense??) :-D take care.

Indians and Pakistanis,

A must read article in the Washington Post today
at:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6820-2002Jan19.html


Think about it!

Ras

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry on OPRAH show

Jan. 24, 2001

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020124.jhtml?promocode=002

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_pb_20011130.jhtml

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_20020124_discussion.jhtml

A Fine Balance Discussion

Rohinton Mistry took an unflinching look inside India during The Emergency and brought a new cultural awareness to our lives. Read the highlights from our on-air discussion.

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry Announced November 30, 2001

The time is 1975; the place is India, in an unnamed city by the sea. The corrupt and brutal government has just declared a State of Emergency, and the country is on the edge of chaos. In these precarious circumstances, four strangers are forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

Interview with the Author

Rohinton Mistry

``I`ve been asked why I keep writing about India, and specifically Bombay even though I left 26 years ago. It remains my focus and makes it all worthwhile because of the people…their capacity for laughter, their capacity to endure.``

``Perhaps my main intention in writing this novel was to look at history from the bottom up, from the point of view of people like Ishvar and Om. The dispossessed. The hungry. The homeless. [I wanted to] see what it meant to them to live during this time of The Emergency.``

An Unflinching Look Inside Bombay

``I suppose anyone from the West landing in Bombay would first be hit by the crowds. The density of the population—14 million people in a small city and half of them living on the streets or in slums.

The next thing might perhaps be the great contract between wealth and poverty.

The problem of homelessness is worse now than in 1975, because the population has almost doubled. There must be twice as many people living on pavements, in slums and in rudimentary dwellings. People keep coming every day from villages because there is no prospect, they feel.

The street is controlled by the local gang leader who might extract some kind of token payment from a beggar or a pavement dweller. People lay claims to corners and pieces of the pavements just as they would to a sturdier dwelling.

Traffic in the streets of Bombay is chaotic at best. Riding a bicycle is a dangerous occupation. However, there are hundreds of them on the streets competing with the cars and buses and lorries because it is the poor man`s mode of transport.

The train stations in Bombay are crowded…One needs to be physically fit to do the daily commute by train. People travel hanging out of trains, sitting on top of trains, and there are casualties every day.``

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

Announced November 30, 2001

About The Author

Born in Bombay in 1952, Rohinton Mistry immigrated to Canada in 1975 and was employed in a Toronto bank. He began writing stories in 1983 while attending the University of Toronto. He won two Hart House literary prizes and Canadian Fiction Magazine`s annual Contributor`s Prize in 1985. In 1987 he published a collection of 11 short stories, Swimming Lessons, and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag (1987), which describes the daily lives of the inhabitants of a Bombay apartment complex.

Rohinton Mistry`s first novel, Such a Long Journey, creates a vivid picture of Indian family life and culture as well as tells a story rich in subject matter, characterization and symbolism. It is set in 1971 Bombay, when India went to war over what was later to become Bangladesh. Mistry skillfully parallels public events involving Indira Gandhi with the misfortunes of the novel`s principal characters. When Such a Long Journey was published in 1991, it won the Governor General`s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was short listed for the prestigious Booker Prize, and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese. Such a Long Journey was made into a movie in 2000, starring Om Puri and Roshan Seth.

A Fine Balance won the L.A. Times Book Award for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writer`s Prize, Canada`s prestigious Giller Prize and was a 1996 Booker Prize Finalist.

Mistry lives with his wife in Toronto. His new novel Family Matters, will be released by Knopf in 2002.

hmmm sounds a bit familiar

the same footsteps we tread - the same doors we revolve thru - the same faces we see - the same expressions we make - the same rut day-in day-out

Pardon me but you dont need a little pickmeup - your life needs drastic overhauling. doable!! good luck !!

``or the tribe that seeks identity in round buildings that face one way, with calls to revolution that burn invisible boundaries in the air mirroring those a thousand miles away...``

Well said. reminds me of one of my frieds who made a rap about the subway. People staring into nowhere, mindless assimilation. Its strange.

Forget reading or reading, its the best place to meditate.

this was good

whoever said you should read during commutes is wrong....commutes are meant to think.

Zafarsaab;

Frequency mismatch? ;)

Regards,

Aamir

http://headlines.sify.com/popwin.html

Taiwan lady official is more popular than Osama

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

on the Net!

Singapore, Jan 24 And the most popular person on the net is...Well, it`s not Pamela Anderson. Not even Osama. A Taiwanese politician allegedly filmed having sex with her married lover has become the most popular person on the net. Search engine Lycos reported that more people hunted for Chu Mei-Feng than for any other name in the week ending January 19. It is likely people were trying to track down images from the video, which has appeared on black markets in South East Asia, Ananova reported. Copies of the video in Taiwan are being confiscated by police when they are found on sale. Lycos says searches for Mei-Feng had grown 15-fold since the week before, when she ranked number 45 in its Top 50 list. The secretly shot tape allegedly shows Mei-feng, former director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, and businessman Tseng Chung-ming during a sexual encounter. Taiwan police have been confiscating thousands of the videos but they have now turned up on sale in markets in Malaysia. Videos of the affair, said to have been shot secretly in Mei-feng`s flat, are being sold for 10 Malaysia Ringitts (about £1.80), Ananova added. Officers say the distribution of the video by tabloid Scoop Weekly violates laws against the sale of indecent material and the invasion of privacy for profit. They have also confiscated printing plates from an accompanying story about Mei-feng`s sex life. She is a former director of Hsinchu`s Cultural Affairs Bureau. Officers have been interviewing Mei-Feng`s `spiritual growth` advisor Kuo Yu-ling, who installed the camera at her client`s request.