Ruzbihan and the Eunuch

Wow! I loved it. The best thing about it was how you managed to connect numbers, colors, and emotion to almost a state of ecstacy. I loved the 8 symbol to represent infinity. It was even sideways! with the walking motion of the eunuch. It`s great to see writing on chowk which uses some mathematical imagery along with the usual stuff. Good Job!

Samina

ShoreSahib,

- I have been reading a bit of Sufi history and philosophy. It`s the way of life of a Sufi that touched me. The Sufi derives his/her strength from the Summation of everything that exists. Ordinaries like us can never understand what a Sufi seeks and feels. All we can share is dry words about them being the exalted beings. I, or anyone else who does not feel what a Sufi feels can not write anything about them in a story like this.

- The second important thing is the faulty System all of us live in. What I wrote is just my perception, and the reader has every right to repudiate the abstract generalizations.

- You probably noticed that I used the numbers 5 (for the number of beats in the music), 7 (the number of times Ruzbihan circled around the Eunuchs), 8 (the sign for Infinity which Ruzbihan sees in the Eunuchs `chaal` and in their dancing style) and 0 (the circle). There`s one extra beat in the music instead of the `usual dhum chika dish chika dhum chika dhish` music, and they use that beat to praise God. Then there`s Infinity, the number/sign Ruzbihan falls in love with. He found it in the Eunuchs dance, and he traced it on the mosque`s straw mat. He wants to make a connection, but he can`t. And the reason he learns when he meets the Eunuchs INSIDE the Region of Monochromatic Lights.

And finally, we have the 8 inside the 0, when Ruzbihan encapsulates Inifnity. When I was a kid, I used to think about the `end of the universe`, and I thought that there are giant machines, gears, motors and stuff like that outside which is being operated by God (maybe that`s why I`m a mechanical engineer now), and that was to satisfy myself. Somtimes I think that all of us are just one big `story` being told to another universe by our universe. All that has happened in this universe will then happen in the other universe, and so the chain continues. And THAT`s where the Eunuchs philosophical dialogue comes in! They are NOT in that Universe everyone else lives in, and they are not part of the system. They are not part of the story! Naturally what happens in one Universe can`t happen in the other IF the Universe doesn`t tell what`s happening inside it! But Ruzbihan wants everything to unite.. he wants the Region of Monochromatic Lights to be a part of the system. After walking 7 times around the dancing Eunuchs (the number of time a Muslim walks around the Holy Ka`ba) he is PULLED in by the inhabitants of the Forbidden Universe, and inside that small circle he made he finds a different Reality.

I hope I haven`t confused you those nonsensical ramblings, ShoreSahib! :-) You are free to develop any concept of the story in your mind. Thank you for your interest.

- MF

Azure, I have a request for you. I would appreciate if you would further elucidate and elaborate the various themes and moods you had in mind when you were writing this story. Were you thinking of Amir Khusro`s Rang hai Quatrain. I just felt something very mystical when I read your story. A Mafooq-ul- Fitrat yet Roohani Experience felt by not just Ruzbihan but I as well. Tell us more, let me pick your brain. :)
Asim

Many thanks Nadia, ShoreSahib and rahul_capri. I actually did write the story with many things in my mind. The walled city of Lahore has always fascinated me, even though there`s not much left there to see now. And that is what I wanted to project in this story, in a mildly exaggerated way. I also want to mix things, events, people and moods up to make a sort of colorful halva. And that`s why, mr. rahul_capri, I had to use that sort of language to give it a different taste. Maybe I didn`t succeed in my attempt, but when I had reached the end of the story I was satisfied because I knew that everything I wanted was there, even though at some points I had to just splatter the paint across the canvas.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

- MF

Muhammad farhan,One of the nicest piece of fiction read on chowk in some time. Very nicely done.
``The mechanics of his super mind came to life as he used the images gained from extrasensory perception to develop a three dimensional figure of the mysterious human form ``
This type of language seemed out of place and took away from the natural beauty of the story.
Secondly, IMHO it is always better that the moral conclusion is left to the reader; between the lines.
Not something as explicit as-``they dont think we are humans.``
The beauties are too many to list.

Muhammad Farhan,
When I read ``Ruzbihan and the Eunuch``, two impressions stick in my mind. At first, I think about the Eunuchs of South Asia and how they are treated by our society, but the first impression soon gives way to a second deeper read of your story. As if a mystical experience is being cloaked underneath a more mundane one.

You give many many allusions to Sufism. There are the Eunuchs who are understood to be near to God by the older generations, thier lives unencumbered by the matters of raising families. Then you mention canopy of colors, song, dance, ecstasy, love of God, a separate Mohalla.
Perhaps I am reading too much into your story. I would recommend that you read the following two books.
Me, Myself, Mona Ahmed by Dayanita Singh
MONA AHMED, a 61-year old eunuch, lives in a graveyard in Old Delhi. The Indian photographer Dayanita Singh has documented Mona`s life for more than thirteen years, creating a moving visual biography of an extraordinary life. In numerous e-mail letters to the publisher of Scalo, Mona Ahmed describes her life and worldview in her own words. Together, the images and letters tell the dramatic story of Mona`s life: her early years as a boy, her life in the eunuch community, her friendship with Dayanita Singh, how she adopted and lost her daughter Ayesha, and her life in the graveyard. We encounter a unique individual – who has transcended the limitations of both mainstream Indian society and the secretive, tight-knit world of the eunuchs. This powerful book enables us to see Indian society from its margins, and is a testimony to the deep friendship between Dayanita Singh and Mona Ahmed. Most of all, it conveys the passion, warmth, and wisdom of a truly exceptional human being who has managed to leave behind the prison of sex and gender.

„If God came in front of me, I would ask him, why did you make me like this. Why did you make me born, if you had to make me born as the third sex? And if you did make me the third sex, why did you not ensure respect in society for us? We are not like men trying to be women, we are the third sex. You in the West will not understand because in your world everyone thinks of only man and woman.”
http://www.transx.ch/books/boo_details.asp?ID=42


The Invisibles by Zia Jaffrey
``As a woman of Indian heritage and American upbringing, Jaffrey is able to balance her disdain for the way in which women and others are treated in Indian society with insights arising from a familiarity with the traditions of that society. She acts as an informed go-between for Western readers (who may be confused by such an exotic culture), while showing readers familiar with India that she isn`t trying to tell just another stereotypical ``orientalist`` yarn. It would be no great task to present this subject matter in a lurid, sensationalist manner -- ``Crossdressing Tranvestite Eunuchs Roam Indian Streets!`` -- but Jaffrey pursues the story calmly, albeit not detachedly. The book is as much about Jaffrey`s role as investigator as it is about the subject of her investigation. It isn`t always a pretty story; some of the hijra have been kidnapped into the community, or handed over by families when they are too young to choose for themselves. Jaffrey`s conscious attempts to understand the hijras on their own terms, however, create a balanced portrait that dispels many of the rumors surrounding this outcast community without being unduly sympathetic.``
http://desires2.desires.com/3.1/Word/Reviews/Docs/invisibles.html

Muhammad Farhan,
I loved it. Simply Beautiful!

Azure,

Nice Read!

``Its like walking through a naked room which is thought of empty in our scruples, but has every element of substance of life in it, though in an acute manner. ``

I have read in many historical novels that the place of ``Eunuch`` had been as slaves/Low paid Labours in ``Harm Sara`` of Ashraaf. Or they are to act wierdly their original behaviors in a tactiful manner to make people spree money on them.
They depict the society annd they very precisely show the structure of our society. The way we proudly humiliate them and don`t let them enter in our pure peripheries show abjectness of moral and thinking issues.
Disgracing, making them a debasing asset give us pleasures unlimited and strengthen our own shortcomings and falls.

Your story seems to be of a child who is seeking truth under bleak fog of falsity which has created hollowness in him and he is haunted by light which after prism spreads into many color each carrying its own wavelength and strength. And he founds one of such attribute of light...