His Hurry

Pls dont mind ... but I did not enjoy the reading at all... I couldn`t capture the central, logical point in the play ... the only thing that I could see in the play was a gay relationship with of course F words being used multiple times.... I am trying to ponder what exactly is the author trying to prove in this play? seems quite enigmatic to me ... better luck next time :)

Well well well, after this two scene play again and again I could not get the central idea. May be the author never had one, obscure & quite explicit as it seems.
Aarman (no gender specified for this character, if its a male then the central idea is;
Aarman and David are two Guys involved in some Gay relations and have sworn to each other shall never show their backs to each other, shall live & die together. As the roots of the play belongs to Canada which is yet another multi-cultural country-cum-continent. So I picture the central idea as ``People rushing towards west and suffering from adaptation and ultimately are regretfull (somehow) as their siblings/childs lost their culture``. -OR- if Aarman was a female ``Again we see Nadia and Aarman are getting married (lesbians) and their beloved mother is quite cherished about it``.)
David (His character wasn`t well defined, why did he left?)
Nadia (She was recalling something about Aarman`s father but interuppted by Mrs. Nawaz)
Mrs.Nawaz (A very satified character over all, happy all the way, living in fools paradise?)

I request a summarised central idea of this play to the author please respond.

Thank you & Regards,
S.A.Rahman

ana jaan:(..........

please dont be mad or disappointed its all in fun .............i have a deep and profound respect for pakistani women......i mean im not pakihunk here u know doing cheap pick-up lines every minute in liberty (i have cousins who do that i find it funny) ......... pakistani women force guys like me to be jimmies to go to pakistan(iran is an option but jaanam the women there are so materialistic ) ............hum kya karey ..........hum tho be insaan hai ??? i mean i want a nice intelligent independant pakistani woman who speaks her mind and is my friend not a woman from lahore who sees me as a meal ticket as understandable as that may be ............if we approach women in a direct way hum ko tameez nahi hai ........if we dont we dont get anything ............this is our problem........dating should be more open here and parents should encourage im tired of this cloak and dagger games i have to play .........i dont know but most of the shaadis my mom draggs me to( i hate paki parties and fxs they are so .......indian parties are much better alcohol and scantily clad women !!) is mostly and i mean in my experience and what i sea and hear ...........1 partner is from pakistan .........guy or girl ...........its enough to make a tehrani become namaazi ??????

janam there is a saying in farsi .........when you corner the dog he is most dangerous ...........jimmies are dangerous to women i dont want ot be a jimmy but again if im cornered.........

1) i dont use pick up lines at all its just that a lot of my friends who u and lucy would call ghondas do i picked them up

2) thanks for the patience ...............

love and respect :)

dostan

fawad agha

fawad..

violent responses...how `bout like throttling you till you`re one flat board like Wily Coyote in road runner...or plunging your head down the toilet (and thanks for making the hole bigger yaar), and flushing it at least three times (three being a significant number)...or how `bout my not doing any of that, and you just brainlessly (don`t ask me to elaborate on that)walking and jumping into an already poisoned river...hain? hain? hain?

*takes slow deep breaths *...phew, that felt good. Now I can resume my peacenik activities.

And you say love,fawad...harrumph! At the risk of sounding like your ammi and mine, and possibly those of us who care...I`m really disappointed in you yaar..but as I keep saying these days, as long as there is breath, there is hope..chalo..go learn how to write and speak in urdu and leave the femmes alone, you Austin Powers wannabe you. grrrrrrrr....aaaaaarrrrrrgh....love (still, don`t ask why), ana

iranian vs paki women--ana this bud`s for u

1) piety irani--this is a joke these girls dont even pretend to be religious they are all nonpracticing all basically are not muslim

paki----basically they are not pious but they pretend to be and when it gets time to get married some of them put on the holy sister act some are covertibles--hejabis by day hoochie by night

3) what me and my irani friends call the ``b-factor`` how ``btchy are they`` this depends on individuals but since i am sterortyping id say irani girls way more esp to other iranian men its like they are allergic to iranian men they wont date irani men but when they wanna get married lo and behold look who becomes a nice ,virtuous, virgin!!!!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

paki girls---id say it varies but the b-factor is there

4) who is more ``controling`` now this is a toss-up paki women wanna wear the pants most of the time but they yield on the big decision irani women run the god-damn houselhold.......

5) who do you have to buy stuff more for? irani hands down as a people(trust me) they are materialistic..........

6) what do paki women look for in a man when they wanna get married ?????? most although they dont say it want a rhitk rhoshan with an MD .......but they will settle for the MD even if you are a fat slob !!!! enigineer -comp, lawyer etc next (ps if ur a pharmacist like me u will get a lot of compoder jokes from fobby paki girls!!!!!)

irani women---cash cash cash cash bmw and a nice body like i said materialistic........although paki women marry fobs from abroad usually they are poor saps who are doctors who dont know that good ole aisha fcked half the campus in her college days and they just want a green card!!!

last who makes a better wife ? depends if u want respectability marry a paki girl if u want mind-blowing sex do it persian style but forget about respectability and islam!!!!!!!!!!!!

disclaimer: the views of the above post do not necesarily represent those of the author they are just gross generalizations meant to provoke violent responses from gorgeous, short -haired , femme fatales like ana ha ha ajaan:)

``If catholic priests & nuns can live without sex how difficult can it be for some to not do it wrong if they cant do it right at all.``

What consitutes right and wrong here? Your apparent misinformed notion of what is natural?

Would heteros `doing it` with contraceptives be right or wrong? why? or why not?

And is being a homosexual all about `doing it`?!? Get yourself checked!

re. scout #46

[fawad79 #45, ``is one nice pakistani girl too much to ask for?``

unfortunately dearie, most pakistani girls are wondering the same thing....something`s screwed up. ]

Omigod!! When this happen?? I mean, I thought the only Pakistani lizzies were those on its hovkey team!

;) I know, I know!

``Mostly gays are artists either literary or theatre films etc...no matter how much money they make they are dispensable members of the society .Afterall ppl. xcan live with 2nd class entertainment by 2nd class artists as opposed to first class ones who tend to be queer weird & gay .But straight citizens are in professions mostly not huigh paying but indespensable considering there 90% of the population``

What is all the `professional` money-making for if not, eventually, to enjoy the arts and finer things in life?

i woke up and decided something ana screw pleasing women.........and it feels pretty damn good! im gonna try to not care if they like me or not ...............its better not to worry about women thats what hookers are for !!!!!!! viva las vegas(all guys have jimmy in them or eminem) thank god i dont live in the islamic rep of pakistan !!!!!

hope for me ? in terms of what? gettting women well i could always do what jimmy did hey since paki girls refuse to date me only god knows why oh well apna maqam pada karo right? too bad for the girl i will force to dye her hair blonde and wair leather mini skirts

love fawad

translation : its down with where did u get burden? u ever head mazandarani farsi its like a paindoo speaking urdu the punjabi still comes out

ps if you dye your hair blue will u make dye her hair blonde?

drdr

``If they show any interest in desi men, it`s because they are either ugly, short or mentally unstable or all of the above.``

...are there any other kind?...:)

ana #54, ``And I refuse to dye my hair blonde...I will however dye it blue..electric blue :)``

way to go, blonde hair is for pansies...blue sounds good.

fawad...

sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh...oh well, you are still young, I still think there IS hope for you, but right now, you are so incredibly hopeless... *sigh *

And I refuse to dye my hair blonde...I will however dye it blue..electric blue :)

fawad..

well, I didn`t exactly die laughing...bichare dukhtar who married Jimmy...but yes, it is quite amusing in terms of the men. I think I wrote something similar about marrying a girl from back home to the pakihunk :).

And you never told me azizam, whether my translation of the farsi was close or not...don`t you know???? love, a.

drdr,

yeah why the fck is that , whenever i hit on a hot desi girl shes always seems like (sorry ana and samina ) a real class A btch but say if there is a white guy or any other non desi type shes all sweet and nice ..............personally i like blondes all desi girls should die their hair blonde ...............

fawad, hit on by women?! U`ve got to take charge. I was at pottery barn yesterday looking at their pillar candles. (They have got some of the most fragrant candles you`ll find, the lavender are the best) This sales girl came by and asked if I needed help. I said no. She came by again in a few minutes. I got the hint and whipped out my card. I said will U call me. She seemed to stop cold but then said it`s almost time for my lunch break. I said let`s go to starbucks next door & I`m buying. We had a great time. She just got out of college with a degree in International Relations (I said that`s great! Ur merkin, me ferner) and teaches ballet on weekends. Will be seeing her this friday. I`m making pasta from scratch and after that may be we`ll go to The Good Girl. I hear it`s a chick flick. The woman is a knockout. Tall, slender and with legs that go on forever.

At starbucks we were within earshot of a lesbian couple who were arguing the whole time. Who knows what about. May be they couldn`t decide who would take the trash out or who cleans the bath room.

A bit of advice. Avoid desi girls. If they show any interest in desi men, it`s because they are either ugly, short or mentally unstable or all of the above.

ana jaan , janam i thought this one would make you die laughing .................enjoy.......this applies to pakistanis some what not as much

Bridal imports

We are dealing with a generation that is a bit shaky upstairs

August 20, 2002

The Iranian

Most of us Iranian men are at the verge of nervous breakdown. We just don`t know it. There is a considerable number of first generation Iranian immigrants in there mid thirties and forties who are mentally unstable. Trust me on that. I`m a lunatic myself and I know a cuckoo when I see one.

I`m not suggesting that most Iranian baby boomers that live abroad should check into mental hospitals (that actually might not be a bad idea). But as a whole, we are dealing with a generation that is a bit shaky upstairs.

This has nothing to do with our schooling, profession, social status, or intellect. But it has a lot to do with the way we perceive ourselves. It`s not really our fault. It`s just the way it is. Growing up away from loved ones, in unknown and peculiar cultures, naturally put a damper on one`s mental well being.

But the real reason for our occasional psychological burps can be summed up in three words, ``lack of sex``. That`s right folks; shortage of sexual activity combined with highly impulsive libido irruptions are responsible for turning us into a bunch of hairy, mental, nutcases.

I be the first to admit that I`m completely whacked in the head and I`ve had my share of nervous break downs. That alone makes me an authority on the subject.

What I find most entertaining is how some of us cuckoos embark on a journey to the old country to find ourselves a good old-fashioned, virtuous, virgin wife. Imaging the poor, unsuspecting lady back home, properly trained, highly pampered, innocently naive, awaiting for that one hero on a white horse with shining armor (and off course a Green Card) -- the one man of distinguished valor who has set sail over deserts, mountains, and seas, coming to sweep her off her feet, fight the forces of darkness, save the day, and take her to a far away place where life is so much better.

What a bunch of crap!

What the poor woman doesn`t know is the fact that some of us so-called, wife searching, Green Card carrying, SUV driving, expatriates are whacked in the head. Nothing is more amusing than watching a guy bring a perfectly healthy, beautiful, intelligent woman from the old country into his screwed up life.

I`m sure you have seen the look. You know what I`m talking about, right? The look of realization on the newly arrived. Women who met their husbands last month and just discovered what a mess they got themselves into. We see that look in parties and family gatherings all the time.

``She has the look!``

``What do you expect? She married Jimmy.``

``Who?``

``Jimmy. You know, Javad Agha.``

``You`re kidding!!!!?``

``Kid you not.``

You see, Javad Agha -- also known laughingly in his gas station as Jimmy -- is a typical Iranian man like you and I. He is short and round with a magnificent nose that can easily sock in 2000 cubic feet of air per second. His hair has migrated from all the right places on his skull to all the ones and he has a temper that only his mama can tolerate.

There is nothing wrong with physical shortcomings so long as the man is blessed with a pleasant personality, right? Well, let me put it this way: Javad Agha`s 1980 TOYOTA pickup truck has more personality than Javad Agha.

Javad Agha -- sexually frustrated and horny like a dog -- repeatedly finds himself humping the bedpost in the middle of the night. There was no doubt that little Jimmy was ready to enter the ``adventures of matrimony``. After all, forty years of fruitless bachelorhood had taken its toll and lost its fun.

Javad Agha soon packed his bags and left port on an expedition to dig himself a mate. After consulting with his mama, he picked up his round-trip ticket from Los Angles to Tehran to Shabdolazim and found himself pleasantly surprised by prospects.

``It`s so cool over there dude. It`s like a big orgy. They`re gonna open whorehouses in every street corner. I`m telling you. Young girls everywhere and they are all horny.``

Women actually acknowledged Javad; they respected him, and talked to him, which was one hell of a change from Los Angles where Iranian women ran out of the room when Javad Agha entered.

Javad Agha mingled, socialized, and charmed the prospects while saving himself for the right woman. After all, one has to be patient when it comes to choosing a wife who is submissive and willing to cook, clean, serve... cook, clean, serve... cook, clean, serve...

Javad Agha searched and searched until he -- in two weeks -- found what he was looking for and the rest is history.

Javad and the newly imported wife are now back in Los Angles and while Javad Agha walks around with a smile on his face that runs ear to ear, the wife stares at an infinite point like a zombie. At first the common notion was that the wife was suffering from sever jetlag. But a year later, the argument hardly holds ground.

Now, don`t get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against the practice of importing spouse from the old country. As a matter of fact, I would have done the same myself if they would let me out of this damn psychiatric hospital.

fawad, hit on by women?! U`ve got to take charge. I was at pottery barn yesterday looking at their pillar candles. (They have got some of the most fragrant candles you`ll find, the lavender are the best) This sales girl came by and asked if I needed help. I said no. She came by again in a few minutes. I got the hint and whipped out my card. I said will U call me. She seemed to stop cold but then said it`s almost time for my lunch break. I said let`s go to starbucks next door & I`m buying. We had a great time. She just got out of college with a degree in International Relations (I said that`s great! Ur merkin, me ferner) and teaches ballet on weekends. Will be seeing her this friday. I`m making pasta from scratch and after that may be we`ll go to The Good Girl. I hear it`s a chick flick. The woman is a knockout. Tall, slender and with legs that go on forever.

At starbucks we were within earshot of a lesbian couple who were arguing the whole time. Who knows what about. May be they couldn`t decide who would take the trash out or who cleans the bath room.

A bit of advice. Avoid desi girls. If they show any interest in desi men, it`s because they are either ugly, short or mentally unstable or all of the above.

fawad, samina

no no, don`t ask me for the translation, because as i`ve told the little one before, I don`t speak farsi..but looking at that phrase, my rough translation would be, neither east nor west..we want an Iranian republic, death to the burden of the Islamic republic. Long live freedom!

Am I close, fawadsters?!? love, ana.

samina

in iran if you ever been there i can tell you one thing nah sharq va nah gharb faqat johmoori e irani marg bar jomhoori eslami azadi azadi zinde bad

ask ana for the translation

peace

Family members of 15 liberal Islamist dissidents protest their secret trial in Iran`s hardline Revolutionary Court. REUTERS/STR/IRAN

Queering Democracy in Iran

by Kelly Cogswell

JANUARY 23, 2002. In the last 20 months in Iran, the hard-line judiciary has pulled out all the stops to try and destroy the pro-reform movements. Some 60 newspapers have been closed down. Scores of journalists, politicians, and student activists have been jailed, thousands have been harassed by state security forces.

The latest wave of repression began in early January with the trial of 15 people, including journalists, intellectuals, even a former cabinet minister. Tried in the Revolutionary Court for ostensibly plotting to overthrow the Islamic system, they will have no jury. The judge will be the prosecutor, and the defendants` lawyers will have to maneuver through the trial without having seen the several-hundred-page indictment or meeting with the prisoners.

So far, the crackdown doesn`t seem to be working. Members of Parliament, like Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, are increasingly outspoken. One of the 11 women in Parliament and a former student activist, Haqiqatjou was charged for libel and slander for daring to read out a letter in Parliament holding Iran`s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameinei, accountable for the anti-constitutional actions of his judiciary. Her 22-month sentence was upheld last month.

Thousands of ordinary citizens streamed into the streets following soccer games in October and November, shouting, ``Death to the Islamic Republic`` and ``Death to Khatami,`` Iran`s President, who was once hailed as a reformer. They are fed up, not just with the controlling, punitive clerics, but with a disintegrating economy, widening unemployment and a host of other ills, including an AIDS epidemic that simply cannot be addressed in a fundamentalist Muslim state.

Increasingly, Iranians feel that the Islamists have had their chance to run the country and failed. Many now think that, one way or another, hard-line clerics will eventually be forced to relinquish power. The only question is, what then? Will the new Iran include women, queers, religious and cultural minorities? Will it turn to the East or to the West, or embrace both?

Even without a shift in government, society is already changing inside Iran. Despite the government attacks on the news media, and on reformers, Iranians now have access to information from the Internet and illegal satellite TV dishes that spring up all over the country as quickly as they are torn down. Two expatriate satellite TV stations operating from Los Angeles actively encouraged Iranians to take to the streets during last year`s soccer protests.

Pro-democracy students are using the Internet to organize, and report on their demonstrations. Homan, a queer expatriate group, is using it to provide information about Iranian lgbt lives and issues. Queers in Iran, despite facing the death penalty, are taking the risks to create informal social networks via email, occasionally meeting in private homes.

Niloufar, a Homan member now living in California, marveled at the progress inside Iran. ``People are beginning to believe that they can identify as gay or lesbian and be accepted some day. More importantly, lgbt people are beginning to accept themselves.``

Outside Iran though, even in countries like the U.S. and the U.K., the expatriate Iranian community seems mostly untouched by the dramatic gains of queers worldwide in the last decades. Of the handful of Iranian queers I talked to, only Nassim, one of Homan`s founders, felt there had been some progress in the decade since the pro-reform expatriate group he once worked with in Britain refused to address lesbian and gay issues. Neither Niloufar nor Nassim felt safe enough to use their full names in this article.

Niloufar, like other Iranian queers I`ve spoken with, says she usually avoids the Iranian immigrant community because their bigotry is too painful. ``They still have a lot of prejudice,`` she says. ``Many of them still believe homosexuality is a Western thing, and that we are imitating Westerners, that we`re not really gay, just acting.``

This ambivalence about ``Western`` influences is not just a struggle about homosexuality, but with democracy itself. As the United States, the most powerful democracy in the West, makes its presence increasingly felt in the Middle East via a disturbing combination of bombs, aid packages, and oil interests, many there, from corrupt, autocratic governments to virulent Islamists, are characterizing human rights as a hypocritical Western construct designed to manipulate and discredit the East.

The Iranian state, though, pleased to watch the downfall of the enemy Taliban, has shown small signs of unbending to the West, in particular, the United States. The Iranian street has also begun to enthuse again over Coca Cola and rock and roll, less out of devotion to the United States, than a desire to tweak the greying, malevolent beards of the humorless hard-line mullahs.

It`s hard to know how the Middle Eastern fascination for American culture, and hatred of the American state, will play out in Iran in the long run. In the ``East,`` women, queers, religious minorities, anyone who dares to speak up for equality, will always be vulnerable to charges of ``Westernization.`` Unlike homosexuality which blesses all nations alike, democracy and the idea of equal rights were undeniably born in the West. To advocate human rights means you can suddenly be held accountable for the whole history of Western Civilization, crimes and all.

At best, the charges are draining and demoralizing; at worst they lead to scapegoating, the sacrificing of others to save yourself.

On the defensive since the September 11 attacks and the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, some Middle Eastern feminists have been reduced to thinly veiled lesbian-baiting to prove their nationalism. Accused of being contaminated with ``Western`` ideas, they`ve declared that they don`t want to be like Western feminists, who all want to be like men.

Iranian queer activists like Homan`s Nassim may lead the pack with the only real solution of how to address the ambivalent charge of ``Westernization.`` That is, they admit it. They claim it.

As Nassim, and others have said... ``though ideas of gay rights, women`s rights, freedom, democracy and human rights originated in Western civilization, they are not only the West`s values; they are human values and belong to the whole world.`` No simplistic divisions of Good and Evil, East and West, Muslim, Christian, Jew. In the name of Iran, they just take what`s theirs.

Related links:

For The New York Times` Opposition TV Stations Stir Up Unrest in Fundamentalist Iran (registration required).

For The New Republic`s Reza Pahlavi`s Next Revolution. Will the Shah`s son bring a ``secular democracy`` to Iran?

For Human Rights Watch World Report 2001: Iran: Human Rights Developments.

For the lgbt Iranian group Homan.

For the site of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran.

fawad79 #45, ``is one nice pakistani girl too much to ask for?``

unfortunately dearie, most pakistani girls are wondering the same thing....something`s screwed up.

my recommendation.....enough with the desperation, just chill and seek gratification in other ways. take up knitting or something.

scout,

im attracted to wo-men not men...........yet i get men this is why i am an atheist...........is one nice pakistani girl too much to ask for?

fawad :)

[.....i swear ive been hit on by men more than women and no im not effeminate at all.........]

---Not quite echoing what scout said (but agreeing with her), you don`t hafta be effeminate to be hit on by men...it happens to my baby (!)brother often.

as for the rest...awwww...you`re making me blush again...bas karo baba! and thank you! Now go work on those vibes of yours!!! :)

love, ana.

fawad79 #41, ``.....i swear ive been hit on by men more than women and no im not effeminate at all.........its weird i just wish i got hit on by women !!!!!!!!``

i think u`re being ungrateful....take what is offered to you kiddo. maybe you give off some legitimate gay vibes even you don`t know about yet.

;)

scout,

no im not i just think they are cool people....i had one gay friend and he told this other guy to schoo off the other gay dude was basically staring almost eye-fcking me its weird

.....i swear ive been hit on by men more than women and no im not effeminate at all.........its weird i just wish i got hit on by women !!!!!!!!!!!! too bad scout we could have made a nice couple:) just kidding ........

ana jaan :)

only if you were years younger or i was older and if were on the same side of the country ...............

any man will be or is lucky to have you:)

love

fawad

Hamid,

Actually, any two people arguing for longer than 3 minutes about lace and china patterns is too weird for me...my goddess, The Ruffles School of Interior Decorating; I literally become incapacitated when I`m led into a room of yards of infernal doillies...

12 head,

I don`t understand your logic at all.

Charlie Howard`s Descent

Between the bridge and the river

he falls through

a huge portion of night;

it is not as if falling

is something new. Over and over

he slipped into the gulf

between what he knew and how

he was known. What others wanted

opened like an abyss: the laughing

stock-clerks at the grocery, women

at the luncheonette amused by his gestures.

What could he do, live

with one hand tied

behind his back? So he began to fall

into the star faced section

of night between the trestle

and the water because he could not meet

a little town`s demands,

and his earrings shone and his wrists

were as limp as they were.

I imagine he took the insults in

and made of them a place to live;

we learn to use the names

because they are there,

familliar furniture: `faggot`

was the bed he slept in, hard

and white, but simple somehow,

`queer` somthing sharp

but finally useful, a tool,

all the jokes a chair,

stiff-backed to keep the spine straight,

a table, a lamp. And because

he`s fallen for twenty-three years,

despite whatever awkwardness

his flailing arms and legs assume

he is beautiful

and like any good diver

has only an edge of fear

he transforms into grace.

Or else he is not afraid,

and in this way climbs back

up the ladder of his fall,

out of the river into the arms

of the three teenage boys

who hurled him from the edge-

really boys now, afraid,

their fathers` cars shivering behind them,

headlights on-and tells them

it`s all right, that he knows

they didn`t believe him

when he said he couldn`t swim

and blesses his killers

in the way that only the dead

can afford to forgive.

-Mark Doty

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

... what the heck is going on here? ...... on one board we are talking about putting blasphemers to death and here we are discussing gays as if they were day old bread ...... i don`t have much of an opinion about gays and lesbians, but i still can`t get used to the idea of two grown men arguing over china and pillow-cases ...... i don`t mind them having hot and sweaty sex, but quibbling over lace and floral patterns is kind of repulsive .....but then, what do i know - i don`t have any gay or lesbian or black or chinese or zulu or martian friends ..........

Very absorbing work here by Hamidah Hemani.
Content may seem a bit strange to some but
I for one also never thought that CHOWK would publish a screenplay.

A nice first.

Ras

fawad79, #33,

does this mean u`re gay? by the way, i supported the LGBA by wearing blue jeans on gay pride day in college so it`s all good.

and he says `ana jaan, it`s meant in good fun, `cause he knows...how bloody predictable...:)

[1) few women to buy gifts for]

---vaaat eeees theeees? you wouldn`t buy gifts for a man...you, you, you kanjoos makkhi choos!!!!

[2) no stupid pick up lines to think of like ,``baby your pants are a mirror and i see myself in them or my personal fav:baby u must be tired cuz urve been running around in my mind all day `` ]

---obviously you haven`t been in gay/lesbian circles very much...their pick-up lines are just as stupider sometimes :). Please restore my faith in you and tell me that you do not use your favorite pick-up line...and if you do..it`s no wonder your mind isn`t functioning properly :)

[3) cool parties]

---okay...you can have this one. Although I think my parties are waaaaay cooler!!!

[4) making girls jealous]

---lillah! You mean with your looks and charm, a man wouldn`t be jealous too??? Fikr not..we will survive :)

[5) ``being hip``]

---you should be whipped!

[6) not having to worry about whether ur woman on is ortho tri cyclen after last night]

---and you wonder why we feminazis don`t readily accept olive branches from you!!! By dhee vay...just out of curiosity...since you say `ur woman` or is that how you refer to them in casual flings as well...shouldn`t you know if she`s on Ortho tri (or any other bc) BEFORE???? And mere laal, have you ever heard of condoms (yeah yeah..i`m gonna hear it now-- the excuses why males cannot go through THE TORTURE of using condoms). And baby, are you planning on NOT having sex with ur maaaaan?!?!?

All in good fun azizam..all in good fun..just indulge..love a.

Brat: Homophobia? Does that mean I hate other men?

Examine the issues all you want. I was only taking exception to the specific description of ``making love`` to describe unnatural copulation. Besides, if they were ``making love`` how come they broke up with each other so quickly? Where was the love, huh?

Brat: Homophobia? Does that mean I hate other men?

Examine the issues all you want. I was only taking exception to the specific description of ``making love`` to describe unnatural copulation. Besides, if they were ``making love`` how come they broke up with each other so quickly? Where was the love, huh?

being gay has benefits

1) few women to buy gifts for

2) no stupid pick up lines to think of like ,``baby your pants are a mirror and i see myself in them or my personal fav:baby u must be tired cuz urve been running around in my mind all day ``

3) cool parties

4) making girls jealous

5) ``being hip``

6) not having to worry about whether ur woman on is ortho tri cyclen after last night

please not the above is not meant to offend anyone so ana jaan please its meant to be in good fun ........so before the PC police come and hang me it was just meant in fun ...........so just indulge

Yuck!

(err...yeah, now the bigot comments roll)..

Waisey, the script was a bit starched, but effective.

Correction:

stanza 17 shoud read:

``...is the DIVINE body...``

Hold on to your wigs, kids!

Homo Will Not Inherit

Downtown anywhere and between the roil

Of bathhouse steam-up there the linens of joy

And shame must be laundered again and again,

All night-downtown anywhere

And between the column of feathering steam

Unknotting itself thirty feet above the avenue’s

Shimmered azaleas of gasoline,

Between the steam and the ruin

Of the Cinema Paree (marquee advertising

Its own milky vacancy, broken showcases sealed,

ticket booth a hostage wrapped in tape

And black plastic, captive in this zone

Of black fronted bars and bookstores

Where there’s nothing to read

But longing’s repetitive texts,

Where desire’s unpoliced, or nearly so)

Someone’s posted a Xeroxed headshot

Of Jesus: permed, blonde, blurred at the edges

As though photographed through a greasy lens,

And inked beside him, in marker strokes:

HOMO WILL NOT INHERIT. Repent and be saved.

I’ll tell you what I’ll inherit: the margins

Which have always been mine, downtown after hours

When there’s nothing left to buy,

The dreaming shops turned in on themselves,

Seamless, intent on the perfection of display,

The bodegas and offices line up, inpenetrable:

Edges no one wants, no one’s watching. Through

The borders of this shadow zone (mirror and dream

Of the shattered streets around it) are chartered

By the police and they are required,

Some nights, to redefine them. But not now, at twillight,

Permission’s descending hour, early winter

darkness

Pillared by smoldering plumes. The public city’s

Ledgered and locked, but the secret city’s boundless,

From which do these tumbling towers arise?

I’ll tell you what I’ll inherit: steam,

And the blinding symmetry of some towering man,

Fifteen minutes of forgetfulness incarnate.

I’ve seen flame flicker around the edges of the body,

Pentecostal, evidence of inhabitation.

And I have been possessed of the god myself,

I have been the temporary apparition

Salving another, I have been his visitation, I say it

Without arrogance, I have been an angel

For minutes at a time, and I for hours

Believed-without judgement, without condemnation,

That in each body, however obscured or recast,

Is the diving body-common, habitable-

The way in field of sunflowers

You can see every bloom’s

The multiple expression

Of a single shining idea,

Which is the face hammered into joy.

I’ll tell you what I’ll inherit:

Stupidity, erasure, exile

Inside the chalked lines of the police,

Who must resemble what they punish,

The exile you require of me,

You who’s posted this invitation

To a heaven nobody want.

You who must be patrolled,

Who adore constraint, I’ll tell you

What I’ll inherit, not your pallid temple

But a real palace, the anticipated

And actual memory, the moment flooded

By skin and the knowledge of it,

The gesture and its description

-do I need to say it?-

The flesh and the word. And I’ll tell you,

You who cant wait to abandon your body,

What you want me to, maybe something

Like you’ve imagined, a dirty story:

Years ago, in the baths,

A man walked into the steam,

The gorgeous deep indigo of him gleaming,

Solid tight flanks, the intricately ridged abdomen-

And after he invited me to his room,

Nudging his key toward me,

As if perhaps I spoke another tongue

And required the plainest of gestures,

After we’d been, you understand,

Worshipping a while in his church,

He said to me, I’m going to punish your mouth.

I can’t tell you what that did to me.

My shame was redeemed then,

I won’t need to burn in the afterlife.

It wasn’t that he hurt me,

More than that: the spirit’s transactions

Are enacted now, here-no one needs

Your eternity. This failing’s city’s

As radiant as any we’ll ever know,

Paved with oily rainbow, charred gates

Jewelled with tags, swoops of letteres

Over letters, indecipherable as anything

Written by desire. I’m not ashamed

To love Babylon’s scrawl. How could I be?

Its written on my face as much as on

These walls. This city’s inescapable,

Gorgeous, and on fire. I have my kingdom.



-Mark Doty

Brat #27, ``These issues are always shooed away in south asian culture, how many of you heard criticism of Monsoon Wedding because people simply don`t want to believe that life could be any different than the typical smiling families of `Hum Aapke Hain Kaun`, where everyone trips over each other to be nice to each other, and only traditional, fun things go on at weddings!!``

These are only movies....glamourized/stereotyped in their own ways to produce box office results. None of them even come close to depicting reality.

Hamidah:
I like your writing style, keep up the good work. Sorry for hijacking your board to tell off 12-head.

Regarding Homophobia (DrDr) and Homosexuality in South Asian culture:
Hamidah has started examining these issues (in her other articles as well), and I`m glad someone is doing that here on Chowk.
These issues are always shooed away in south asian culture, how many of you heard criticism of Monsoon Wedding because people simply don`t want to believe that life could be any different than the typical smiling families of `Hum Aapke Hain Kaun`, where everyone trips over each other to be nice to each other, and only traditional, fun things go on at weddings!!
Jawahara`s article titled `Sound Quest` struck the same chords as the movie Monsoon Wedding.

12-head: AAmir, Ashok, Sadhna, etc:

Don`t assume that I`m DRUMZ unless I say `fukk` about 10 times in my post ( sorry DRUMZ don`t know how else to distinguish you)
Please, either work harder to make us believe that you are a distinct identity in each of the id`s that you use, or give up and take the much loved id we`ve given you -- ``12-head`` and go ahead and interact freely. I`m sure by now all of us have come to accept/tolerate you. You know that you are not fooling anyone here, so why bother? Why clutter the space with unwanted and totally irrelevant posts? I`m sure you can contribute a lot of sense, why not finally come to that?

It dosen`t make sense that someone would persist on producing such gibberish..unless of course they were paid to do that :) Are you? Lucky you.

Brat

Hamidah:
I like your writing style, keep up the good work. Sorry for hijacking your board to tell off 12-head.

Regarding Homophobia (DrDr) and Homosexuality in South Asian culture:
Hamidah has started examining these issues (in her other articles as well), and I`m glad someone is doing that here on Chowk.
These issues are always shooed away in south asian culture, how many of you heard criticism of Monsoon Wedding because people simply don`t want to believe that life could be any different than the typical smiling families of `Hum Aapke Hain Kaun`, where everyone trips over each other to be nice to each other, and only traditional, fun things go on at weddings!!
Jawahara`s article titled `Sound Quest` struck the same chords as the movie Monsoon Wedding.

12-head: AAmir, Ashok, Sadhna, etc:

Don`t assume that I`m DRUMZ unless I say `fukk` about 10 times in my post ( sorry DRUMZ don`t know how else to distinguish you)
Please, either work harder to make us believe that you are a distinct identity in each of the id`s that you use, or give up and take the much loved id we`ve given you -- ``12-head`` and go ahead and interact freely. I`m sure by now all of us have come to accept/tolerate you. You know that you are not fooling anyone here, so why bother? Why clutter the space with unwanted and totally irrelevant posts? I`m sure you can contribute a lot of sense, why not finally come to that?

It dosen`t make sense that someone would persist on producing such gibberish..unless of course they were paid to do that :) Are you? Lucky you.

Brat

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Did the ``make love`` because that`s the politically correct thing to say? Homosexuals have sex, not make love.

Ms. Hemani,

This is an interesting beginning. While I understand that this scene may be short for the purposes of submitting on Chowk, I agree with the interactors that some of the dialogue seems forced and hasty. Give this some time and give us a developed, nuanced idea of who each person is. For example; the exchange about Aarman`s scar from his father`s beating. My experience and instinct tells me that a son who has had this kind of abuse may not be so loquacious about it? David is blackly flip, which is a nice touch, but what about Aarman? Yes, he gets his knocks as we all did, (being South Asian/muslim in the West) but is his outburst/feelings of alienation related to his father? Esp. if his feelings towards his father are a combo of ambivalance; love, respect and the desire for acceptance and from his father, sadness, betrayal and rage that his father was an alcoholic, was abusive and might have been wailing on his son for being gay. His father`s illnesses (homophobia, alcoholism, abusiveness)probably have had some impact on Aarman-which would be FASCINATING to see him sort out.



Those kinds of themes, as well as Aarman`s and David`s relationship and the fantasy life of the mother would really make this work mindblowing. Why? Because we can all relate to this. Btw, I support you in these interrogations of homo/heterosexuality and interpersonal relationships. This could be an opportunity for you to examine heterosexuality as a strange and marginal existance. Over here last spring, Edward Albee`s play ``The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?`` got a lot of attention for examining the themes of morality and a husband who is in love with a goat :), which of course was a darkly comic metaphor...

Also, in dealing with some of themes, you might want to fashion out a grid or system with events, objects, words, gestures, actions that refer to each other.

Well, let me stop....my apologies if I`ve blathered on for too long...best of luck with this piece; I`d love to see how it comes out!

Did the ``make love`` because that`s the politically correct thing to say? Homosexuals have sex, not make love.

interesting play, reminded me a great deal of both ``My Beautiful Launderette`` and ``The Wedding Banquet``.

One thing that bothered me about this, though, was the stiffness of dialogue. The conversations didn`t seem entirely realistic. Perhaps you could use contractions like don`t instead of do not, isn`t instead of is not etc to give it a more contemporary, urgent feel. Also consider breaking up larger bits of dialogue like speeches etc. with interjections like ``Uh-huh`` ``Oh I see`` ``Yeah`` to make it sound like real conversation.

I`ll confess at first I got confused whether Aarman was a man or a woman! These darned modern names!

Hamidah:

you have packed a lot in ten minutes...considering the seriousness of the subject matter this could be longer...perhaps that is why i felt the ending a tad forced...no?...khaire nice to see you here again...pls. keep sharing your efforts...

lve,

t


PS: for urstruly...let us have that play from you...you do not appear to be an easily daunted type;)....and oh! by the way...were you around for the first `tele-play` on chowk?

http://www.chowk.com/bin/showr.cgi?f=yhamdani_mar1200&n=40#reply13

I loved the piece. Its very contemporary.

Sadhna

Please look into your own `gire-baan` before pointing fingers at others. If you take on 2000 id`s does mean that everyone around does the same. We have too many things to do with our time.

Perhaps you could put all of your 12 heads together and write a reasonable article for chowk? no?
Brat

Sadhna

Please look into your own `gire-baan` before pointing fingers at others. If you take on 2000 id`s does mean that everyone around does the same. We have too many things to do with our time.

Perhaps you could put all of your 12 heads together and write a reasonable article for chowk? no?
Brat

Reply #: 15
writer_77



`AJNABI TUM JANE PEHCHANE SE LAGTE HO.......`

Everything including your pseudo sex is PSEUDO !

I would be fool if i just gave a name like Solitude to you hence

itna hi kaafe hai ke

even little that we know is a LOT .

what i find annoying is that well settled gay men can actually have their pick of women for their sham marriages .......

the play was a little half baked ....

writer #15, ``Its seems like your homophobia ignores the issue and focuses more on senstionalism.``

excuse me? from exactly where do you come up with the assumption that i`m homophobic?

as a `writer` you should be smarter than that.

Hi,

Reply to Urstruly #2

Its Hamidah Hemani not Himani. Read first then form biases.

Reply to scout #4

“hmmmm, where would we be if we didn`t include something homosexual on Chowk every now and then.``

Well scout, at minimum ten percent of the world’s population is gay, so leave alone chowk, you will see homosexuals in the world every now and then,

Where would chowk be?

Very behind.

Its seems like your homophobia ignores the issue and focuses more on senstionalism.

Reply to fawad79 #11

Thanks, deeply appreciate it.

Thank you,

Hamidah Hemani

Reply Scout # 8

“what do you mean? i didn`t say there was anything wrong with it. it is however frustrating, living in NY, the gay men here are better looking than their straight counterparts.”

Sabar se, Scout Begum, that way lies madness…have you thought of moving to Alaska? (I hear Lajwanti hangs out there in the Summer months, so you’ll have someone to discuss chowk with if you visit.)

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12 head/aamir/whatever

re:``...INteresting family without FATHER figure disintegrates in chaos imperfection & ill discipline ...sab chalta hai after death of father ..women administration...``

Hahn ji. That would explain the man-boy love perversions in the Taliban.....sab chalta ho gaye after your poor ma dropped you on your soft head...

re: spout

{hmmmm, where would we be if we didn`t include something homosexual on Chowk every now and then.}

...without it, ali1 and hobbyty would stop visiting chowk...you have to cater to everyone`s interests to keep the hits going...

i like the format of this piece of fiction-short , almost disconnected sentences i scan ...like a ghazal almost .............niece story we nees stuff like this i know a lot pakistani homosexuals who will attest to the above..............

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Zafar bhai #5,

what do you mean? i didn`t say there was anything wrong with it. it is however frustrating, living in NY, the gay men here are better looking than their straight counterparts.

hmmm...strange but interesting....[i have no patience with plays generally...thus my aversion to all things shakespearen (darn spellings!)]...anyways the interaction between Aarman and David kinda left me disturbed...take care...=o)

“Love is not what its used to be.”

Indeed.

Reply Scout #4

“hmmmm, where would we be if we didn`t include something homosexual on Chowk every now and then.”

Just that little bit less inclusive and representative than we are now, no? (And it was more like My Beautiful Launderette, I thought…)

hmmmm, where would we be if we didn`t include something homosexual on Chowk every now and then.

interesting short play hamidah... kind of reminds me of the movie `The Wedding Banquet.`

ah Truly baba..being the playful childish brat are we?!?! Read the play, beta, read it..koi baat nahin! Aur bhi firsts hain duniya main... :) Let me guess, you probably wanted to always be first in your class too..and you hated the guy who did because you weren`t?!?! :-)

I hate you Hamidah Himani, cuz I wanted to be the first to write the first stage play at Chowk. Haven`t read yours yet cuz I hate you :)

I liked this, but Hamidah..I`m just curious about one thing:

[Mrs. Nawaz: Ofcourse India is beautiful. Me and Aarman’s father went there together after our marriage. When I saw Taj Mahal I felt very envious of Nur Jehan. How can any man love a woman so much. In those days your father promised so many things and I was-]

---Either this is intentional to `show` the unawareness (or ignorance) of the mother OR is it a mistake on your part..you do know that it was built for Nur Jehan`s niece Mumtaz, don`t you? :-)