Dusk

Re: # 11

moazammudasar you cliam that ``Terrorism stokes the flames if anything. The dictats of propoganda-based Madrassas``

cool down the hyper-bole not every malady in society can be pegged down to the ``madrassas``

Re: # 19 husna

you are asking me to ``cool down the hyper-bole not every malady in society can be pegged down to the ``madrassas``. AS a matter of fact education is a universally accepted basic infrasturcture on which society is built. If society starts polluting the ears of enfeabled young innocents then yes they can be blamed for global terror.

Look at the root of the tree. Not its branches.

Re: # 21

Moazam

It is all too easy to sweepingly castigate every molecule of ill-doing on religion. But there are larger dynamics at play wreaking havoc with the human condition. Such as power, politics, ethnicity, gender, a legal system, feudal structures....and the shopping list goes on....

ozerkhalid a very profound and polished piece, yet there is one discrepancy:

``You are earnestly drinking and fair-mindedly chewing on Davidoffs. Spraining to invoke the illusion of permanence. There is NONE. ``

Above you revoke the presence of ``permanence`` like an article of faith. Yet in another sentence your article reads `` You long for some certainty yet remain consumed by the transient``.

Here you critique the ``transient``.

So by revoking ``permanence`` on the one hand and ``transience`` on the other what do you believe in ? Is this not a contradiction ?

Re: # 6

Kulsum

are not ``permanence`` and ``transience`` both threads of an illusory continuum ?

Re: # 6 good point kulsum ! interesting observation...

Ozerkhalid

This is an incredible piece of poetry ! It reveals a soul trapped in the confines of modernity trying to emerge out of its flames. It has a leftist/Marxist undertone with a nihilistic/Kafkaesque view toward society.

One of the best pieces I have read in a long time !

Re: # 5
Husnaangelique

Though this piece is dark and obscurantist, it is more Sartre than Kafka. Witness how the narrator is consumed by the sheer superficial veneer of society and the entourage rather than victimizing and wallwowing in Kafka-styel self-pity.

Re: # 9 moazammudasar

``Though this piece is dark and obscurantist, it is more Sartre than Kafka.``

Moazammudasar notice certain bits of this paper like ``Their Polaroid anorexic snapshot existences will click away without a flash`` or ``Oh babe the system swallows you like a Tsunami as though you are its natural victim`` or most gruellingly ``My blood-red patience wears thinner than a bulimia-laden epidemic``.

If this does not sound like Kafka in its tone, then what does ??

Cayenne

Your post states ``Whaddya want?.Booze...the taps overfloweth.Music...it`s `bollywood nights` every nite.Loose women......all nationalities.Ok.You into heavy metal, techno pop??.Any kind of music your ears will hear.Jazz?......YE can go to `Jazz by the Bay`

Do you not think the author is trying to show ambivalence and critique towards these post-modern artefacts and by-products ?

Oz

As when I read this article for the first time, I really think your style echoes that of Mohsin Hamid. You build up the ``moths`` of society such as the urbanites ignoring the beggar, the rowdy macho ladish lads in the bar and the pseudo-intellectuals whilst creating ``smoke`` in the form of the uncertainty shrouded around this girl and her wavering commitment.

Re: # 3

Sarah

Mohsin Hamid very compellingly caricatures Mumtaz. A lady many readers indellibly identify with. Like Mumtaz the girl in ``Dusk`` lurches with an insecure/uneasy/plotting status on the fringes of an elite-laden society, imperiled by its accoustics, as she is when she hears Tony Blair`s championing slogans. Mumtaz too is fascinated by the accoustics of modernity: namely a taste for recreational drugs, infidelity and sports.

OZER,
cayenne is right you writing depicts depression.change of place is must.
London it self is depressing ,huge building and narrow streets.

Re: # 2
cipram you mention ``cayenne is right you writing depicts depression.change of place is must. London it self is depressing ,huge building and narrow streets.``

this ``change`` is not needed from the city of london, it is needed from society as a whole. it is needed from a girl who is obviously buying time and leaving everything to fate. it is needed from the capitalist econo-political imposed superstructure. it is needed from the ``chattering`` classes of society who say one thing and do another.

Re: # 14

Husna

A noteworthy commentary.

Inequity spirals out of control. In the outside world. We all do. From the inside.

Into a degraded existence of moth-like metamorphosis. We remain but on the fringes of society through inaction. This age-old problematique must compell us all to harbour thoughts on how to stop playing out inaction once more.

As daylight fades to ``dusk`` with time`s ticking clock against the backdrop of our bodies and lives, do we artfully weave practical solutions that resonate on many levels.

Or do we ``escape`` like lepricons into the wilderness of inactive sanctity ?

Re: # 14 husna your logic

``it is needed from a girl who is obviously buying time and leaving everything to fate``

does not hold water.

i do not think ``the girl`` in dusk is leaving things to fate, like Mohsin hamid`s mumtaz she is craftily weaving a plot, witness how Ozer writes:

“She” absorbs the ‘All hail’ speech, breathing in his words like Himalayan air- She`s no Palin mountain-climber. Purposely pretending to be distracted?

her purpose-laden pretending to be distracted is a sign of ulterior motives