The Thousand-Yard Stare

Saminasha, Adnan

``Glad to see Chowk has broadened its parameters to include how South Asian writers see, write and interact with the rest of the world. (So there, Stuka! :)) ``

Fine, fine. I apologize to the author. Feel free to write about any part of the world...including Burundi :)

Nice work; agree with the scaling back the drama comment.

Glad to see Chowk has broadened its parameters to include how South Asian writers see, write and interact with the rest of the world. (So there, Stuka! :))

LadyAna...being crabbier is nothing new on Chowk. . .there are people here who don`t give much of a hoot as to what is happening anywhere else in the world, who can`t see that a piece has universal aspects to it. . .some of us try very hard to ignore peeps like these, but it`s not easy.
Thank you for the piece, Anjum Sahib!

Zafar, Good Job. To the critics we are all humans and writing about a samantha living in harlem new york, or a Saima in Jammu, or a Samira in Gaza does not take anything away from another atrocity. We need to empathize with all, as only when we care about the palestinian kid, the jewish school gooer, the afghan refugee, the orphan of a Banker who worked at the WTC, the kashmiri rape victim, the murdered jammu pandit equally is when we ourselves will become better human beings!

This is not an exclusive south asia site!.. its called Chowk.... meaning convergence and divergence... correct me if lm wrong

RLeonard # 3

``Writing about a Samira or a Samir from Multan or Bahawalpur would not have made you any less of a Pakistani.``

FYI he is an Indian.

I thought this story was quite nice. If we don`t care about Arabs and others, how can we expect them to care for us? It`d be a mortally cruel world if everyone was just to be absorbed in their own selfish selves all the time. Good work Zafar!

And is it only me, or has the new Chowk all of a sudden gotten all too crabby? The older version had people encouraging each other`s ideas, visions, etc.., and when the new colors and tabs came on, looks like we all are so disgusted with it that we`re taking that frustration out on all the writers and contributors as well. That`s pitiful.

Writing about a Samira or a Samir from Multan or Bahawalpur would not have made you any less of a Pakistani. Am I right or wrong? Why is it that we have to write more on Arabs , when we need to take care of ourselves?

Nice try. However, the overly dramatic tone takes away some of the credibility of the story.
stuka, no one`s forcing you to waste your time reading this article. and please do post the tales of horror from Burundi and Rwanda. at least I (a South Asian) would be interested in reading them :)

Why do we waste time on the middle east in a South Asian site? If you want horror stories in general, I can post some from Burundi and Rwanda that would be much worse.

Enuff mayhem in Indo-Pak, let the arab and the yehood worry about their own problems.