Protest March on the 30th of March (no pun intended!)

just wondering... how is this march supposed to help iraqi children?

Deadline

The night before war begins, and you are still here.
You can stand in a breathless cold
ocean of candles, a thousand issues of your same face
rubbed white from below by clear waxed light.
A vigil. You are wondering what it is
you can hold a candle to.

You have a daughter. Her cheeks curve
like aspects of the Mohammed`s perfect pear.
She is three. Too young for candles but
you are here, this is war.
Flames covet the gold-sparked ends of her hair,
her nylon parka laughing in color,
inflammable. It has taken your whole self
to bring her undamaged to this moment,
and waiting in the desert at this moment
is a bomb that flings gasoline in a liquid sheet,
a laundress`s snap overhead, wide as the ancient Tigris,
and ignites as it descends.

The polls have sung their opera of assent: the land
wants war. But here is another America,
candle-throated, sure as tide.
Whoever you are, you are also this granite anger.
In history you will be the vigilant dead
who stood in front of every war with old hearts
in your pockets, stood on the carcass of hope
listening for the thunder of its feathers.

The desert is diamond ice and only stars above us here
and elsewhere, a thousand issues of a clear waxed star,
a holocaust of heaven
and somewhere, a way out.

-- Barbara Kingsolver

....sobia, aurat foundation did take out an ad in sunday`s dawn...but otherwise you`re right, it was mostly through word of mouth...i only knew about it since one of my friend`s mom was organizing it...will let you know when the next one`s planned...

i can`t believe i missed it :-( I read about it on monday..how come it wasn`t publicized more??? Or was it, and I live in twilight zone!?

i-am-the-cheese: which city are u at?

hi hira
this was interesting, hope youll interact... i got stuck in a traffic jam outside my workplace a few days ago and was astounded to see all these extremely nice looking boys and well dressed aunties weaving through the jam.. turned out there was a peace march and the cities glitterati had com out in full force... i got out, ran into some friends and hung out for a while.. what i saw: there was no narae baazi, very high strung emotions, lots of very neat posters, nice looking people wearing really nice clothes and one adorable baby who had lipstick on her forehead... protest trends too, get globalized :)
more power to you

For some strange reason, shalwar-kameez with sneakers is a big turn-off for me. somehow it takes away all the effort put on the upper body to look attractive or fashionable. I guess it is because of not wearing sneakers with pair of dress pants or even casuals - only with jeans or shorts during summer. As soon as I see Pakistani beautiful ladies wearing sneakers with nice Panjabi suit (shalwar-kameez), I start imagining Indian women wearing sneakers with reshmi and Banarasi saris and Gandhi wearing Saucony sneakers with dhoti, Jinnah wearing Nike with sherwani and Nehru wearing Adidas with his pajama and keeping another spare pair in his Pajama`s rumali. My favorite brand is NewBalance and I hope not to see them with shalwar-kameez.

abhi clearance sale nahi
khoon ka badla tael nahi
bairuni dakh`l der muamlaat-e-andruni, haye haye
nee kuRay Heer, are you wearing Jean Patou`s Joy
Amrika haye haye, Bush haye haye
chalo khaiyay pajjhay day seri paye
hum Iraqi awaam kay sath haiN, sath haiN
Gucci kay dastanay maiN meray hath haiN
ZalimaN day zulm dee akheer honi thah, thah
matching color-e-shalwar-o-lipstick, wah wah

And how about Gullu and Bubblee and Sajja? Did they have a blast? Chammo baajee couldn`t stop talking about it! ``Hai, itnay saarey log, I tell you, it was like a sale at Macy`s, only outdoors. By the way, sweetie, when are you going to New York next? Meri Elizabeth Arden nail polish remover khatm ho rahi hai; be a jaan and get me some. Good make-up is so hard to find in Pakistan. Almost like men, no?``

This one made me laugh. I can imagine the Lahore crowd gathering to protest against the war and I think you did that justice in your piece. You catch the conversational tone very nicely.

I`m glad you had a good time, Hira. And maybe it did make a difference. Maybe now more people are tuned in to the war than were previously. Some of them may even dare to say a quiet dua in private sometime, which is really all we can do.

Regards,

Hira

You made a great difference. Normal decent liberal Pakistanis speaking out for a cause which was almost hijacked by the Mulla`s in their own narrow world.

You are a great person.

Persons like me only sit in the drawing rooms and propound theories.

you are a gem -- and a veryprecious one-- hira nabi & preciousme

You are certainly not alone.

The language of peace is universal.

Ras

...hey hira...i was there too:)...the best thing was all the teenagers....nice to know they haven`t become jaded yet...so you had a whole posse of friends?...nice...all my sorry as s friends were either sleeping or couldn`t care less...so it was just a friend and i...too bad i missed the speeches at the end...

of course it made a difference. shabaash.