Who is This Mysterious ChowkStaff ?

hats off to the Chowk people.
It truly is an exhilirating experience surfing through its pages in a somewhat impatient manner -- (thanks to PTCL, it does take quite some time ) to watch the screen disappear
- only to reveal another world in itself.

temporal:

this is overwhelming-I am stunned at the inspiration and your word smithing ability. wow.

thank you very much for all the faith and affection. As Ginni said, we arent dead yet, and feel humbled at your generosity. Inshallah we will have the inspiration and energy to make this poem true.

regards and thank you for the past 6 years.

Saima

Are Saima Shah and Safwan Shah related? Just curious, since they have the same last name....

I would like to thank all the people behind Chowk for the excellent job day have done :-)

I know this is not the right place to exchange messages, but:

Jawahara: That email (dhart2@yahoo.com) isn`t working. Did you make a typo? Email me at: noorulislam@msn.com

``For the rest, if I had one advice for chowkies, it would be: let us stop taking ourselves so seriously!! Come to the chowk, do your thing, and get along with your life...`` (VEERESH)

...and get along with EACH OTHER.....

Sohair:
Parda uthe salaam ho jaye!
Thanks for lifting the naqaab from the parda-nasheeN of chowk so we could salute them. It is not only a labour of love, they presumably are also digging out from their pockets to keep the chowk running.
Thank you Safwan Shah, Saima Shah and Ginni Dhindsa. And may your Laxmi keep your pockets deep.

The chowk has been a great roller coaster ride for me over the past 5-6 years. I have enough reasons to be here and also not to be here. And like most roller coaster rides, you want to go again and again.

Would it become like a real chowk?

Well, in my humble opinion, a chowk is a place where society permits everybody to exist. From junkie to pusher to prostitute to small trader to political leader to soldier to saint to mendicant to doctor to passenger awaiting bus to rich man / woman / child to banker to pickpocket to lunatic to thinker to dog / goat / chicken / pig to sweeper to commissioner to diplomat to student to sailor to spy to software infotech dude to battery salesman to pakoda hawker to good mood to depression to infidelity to navel gazing to non-vegetarianism to fake medicines . . . as a human being you have to spend at least once in a lifetime a full 24-hour cycle at a place like Daryaganj/Chandni Chowk in Delhi to understand this.

The most important thing is that a chowk grows by encouraging crossroads and traffic.

Towards that, any and all participation is of some value.

When I started on chowk, the DTC bus with Delhi plates overtook my desire to drive a Delhi plates car in Pakistan. Now all I want to do is to drive into Pakistan in a car which has Delhi licence plates, and had Lahore plates at one time, an Austin-7 restored by a friend of mine.

For the rest, if I had one advice for chowkies, it would be: let us stop taking ourselves so seriously!! Come to the chowk, do your thing, and get along with your life.

Ref ferozk #6

[...``ich haben ein kamaraden`` - I have a friend. In Chowk, I have a friend, and in the Chowkidars....]

The best way to make friends with Chowkidars is to kiss their butt.

The only reason they tolerate me is because it increases traffic on their website. Otherwise they would happily censor every damn post I write.... as they have done in the past.

But I do persevere in trying to bring some knowledge of history (not the crap put out by Romila Thapar or by the Pak school system) to the one-dimensional beings who form the majority of Chowk readership.

Some very interesting and passionate posts. and an equally passionate and perhaps long overdue article about the creators and builders of chowk, and a nice introduction to Ginni.

Chowk Staff:

Credit should be taken when it is well deserved and well earned. We all know you want it to be about US not you but its our part as equal members of this loving community to highlight the efforts of all `you` from time to time, for the benefit for the new comers and for ours :) so thank you Rabbani Sahib. and thank you safwan, umair and everyone and a special thanks to Ginni and Saima.

I was 16 when i first visited Chowk in its first year and have grown with chowk, and it won`t be wrong to say that chowk has helped me in the process, helped me think more objectively, beyond the box, and perhaps more rationally. Its been my favourite hangout on the net thankfully keeping me away from the menace of irc that was so addictive and popular those days amongst my generation.

Thanks.Viel Gluck.

Ich haben ein kamaraden

fourth line should read `woh khwaab...`

fourth line should read `woh khwaab...`

sub baataiN
aik khwaab say hoti haiN shr’u
fursat kay lamhay maiN
who khwaab jo khulli
aankhiouN say daikhay jaatay haiN
neem khwabi maiN nahiN

great dreams become
infectious and
no barrier
no hurdle for them
is impassable

so with ease
and belief in their dreams
infectious people
make them come
alive


SR:

…you beat me to this:)…now will have to rethink what i would next year…also now i know why ginni was so coy when i gingerly broached the subject with her earlier…

khair…you did a good job in introducing these unsung heroes…

…just a reminder to chowkies…if you have time to volunteer and help chowk grow please check out joinchowkand click on become an associate

rgds,

t

One of the most moving pieces I have ever read.

My deepest respect and admiration for Umair A. Khan, Safwan Shah, Ginni Dhindsa, Radhika Nagpal, Wasiq Bokhari, Saeed Jaffer, Asad Khan, Adnan Lawai, Saima Shah, and Shahid Mahmood-but particularly Safwan, Ginni and Saima.

I believe that Chowk is a cyber ``contact zone`` and has the potential to be part of a South Asian knowledge making and documenting movement. And this potential is unlimited!

Please put this piece somewhere where it is readily accessible-every person who logs onto Chowk SHOULD read it.

Hi MNI *waves* Yes, I am finally zinda. Barely :-) Drop me an email some time. What are you up to? Use my dhart2@yahoo.com address.