Because He Couldn’t Get It Up!

Re: # 19


``Dear Zen muni, ``

thanks a good nic. I will definitely use it, if ``Netizen`` is ever exiled from chowk :)

``Tell you what – YOU write an article analogous to this one on India, and we will see if I (or others on this site) get their rivers of writing roaring, or gears of tears turning! ``

I was not challenging you. For a ``peotically``-challenged person like me, it would be a difficult task to do what you have done in #5. Just wanted to use your gift for the benefit of our country and its citizens, too.

BTW, does Beej mean ankur?

sincerely

#17 Netizen

Dear Zen muni,

If you will kindly take the trouble to read #14, it would be evident that I did NOT set out to write the poem in #5 – it happened rather spontaneously – a phenomenon regular residents of this devious and dorky web site may be unfamiliar with!

Tell you what – YOU write an article analogous to this one on India, and we will see if I (or others on this site) get their rivers of writing roaring, or gears of tears turning!

I agree with your observation in #18 that it should not be turned into an India-Pakistan slugfest. We should move away from the poem and return the focus to the article – and the serious issues therein. I question the motives of those who have been talking about my poem, instead of facing the very troubling questions highlighted here regarding the abuse of power.

Sincerely,
Beej.

Re: # 8

arjun dude

lets not make it a india-pak slugfest.

Womans situation is our own backyard is pathetic, though improving. Wife beating, harassing of bride for dowry, sexual harassments at work place etc. are common. our subcontinent has produced many woman PMs but for a average woman it is still a long ardous way.

Re: # 5 beej:

can you pen a similar one for the suffering of bharatiya nari:

something like Pradeeps

mat rho, mat rho radhike
sun le ye binati hamari
jo vipida se har jayee
vho nahi hind ki nari
vho nahi hind ki nari
mat rho, mat rho ....

Re: # 6 manto:

``but may I ask my Indian friends to please put their own house in order first? Despite being the much touted largest democracy- the situation on the ground is pathetically similar to us- the scum of the earth. ``

well said. This is not the time/issue to ridicule others. Situation within india is not so rosy. Even though no appointed/elected official will give as an outrageous statement, the situation of Bharatitya nari is not very different either.

#12 Azra.Rashid

Thanks. And thanks for writing this article!

Sincerely,
Beej.

#9 FarzanaVersey

Dear Ma’m,

Sorry the deliberately provocative tone of the poem in #5 hurt your sensibilities – I can fully understand how it can offend the senses of those who may have delicate constitutions or those who only want to bring about changes a little sloooow….ly!

Not to offend any profound practitioners of the trade around here – but I do not consider myself a poet – I did not set out to write that piece in #5 – it just came out in ALL of two minutes – yes, by itself. If there are any people around here who have not already understood it – the term “gun” in the poem refers to brute power and its abuse!

Now that I have delivered this poem – it’s my baby and I stand by it!

The matters of “taste” are highly subjective – I’m sure if you ask Ms. Sonia Naz – she will fully agree that her sense of “taste” underwent a “paradigm-shift” as soon as she received her mouthful!

Feel free to write your own poem if this “minor” issue riles you up even the least bit! Nobody is holding your pen, or perhaps speaking figuratively, your very own “gun”!

Sincere regards,
Beej.

while questioning whether musharraf has been misquoted or not, remember, this is the man who personally jhaRofied a lecture on mukhtaran and told her she was ruining pakistan`s reputation or something to that effect in the world. as if pakistan was true to its name for all these past fifty-eight years. as if what happened to mukhtaran, and countless women didn`t matter.

arjuna: #11

dude, you are free to say whatever you want to wherever you want to as per the free speech you so righteously defend (as do many of us) but why insult your own intelligence in the process?

Re: # 5
Excellent poem beej. This is exactly how the situation is in Pakistan.

Hey Farzana..Dr Shazia is in the UK...can we now apply the logic you use the pandits? I mean, come on..it`s the UK...a million times better than being voluntarily relocated to another part of India....

I feel sorry for my Pakistani friends.

While it is true that every country has some record, be it big or small, of abuse of women, it is completely astonishing to hear that the President of a country can actually state, in public, that the accusation of rape by the woemn is his country is a money-making racket, and even more so, is a route to escape to Canada ( why Canada. in particular ?).

In any democratic country such a president would be instantly deposed - he would have to leave his chair.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is condemned by its own volition of being ruled by its Army. The President has absolute power. He can say whatever he wants. He can abuse anyone, even 50% of his people (the women of Pakistan), and he will have no problem holding on to his power.

In my limited view, this matches the power, and the idiocy, of Idi Amin. Only difference - the Israelis knocked his teeth in when he stepped over the mark. Will someone do that to dear old Mushy, who has (allegedly) foot in the mouth disease ?

But - has the President been misquoted ? I hear that he claims he has.

What is the truth ?

Azra:

What Prez Musharraf said is disgusting, and to question him and his role as head of state is incumbent on every citizen of the country, and women everywhere.

Someone should be asking the President: why would anyone go through such torture to end up in Canada? And how does he assume expats in Canada are millionaires?

Facile? Yes. And deliberately so...

For, I wish to draw your attention to the headline of your piece. I do not understand how and why you came up with it. It is striking, but do you realise we are not talking sex here, but rape? The dynamics are different.

It is a known fact that rape is about power and a tool used in war...Suketu Mehta by saying that rape is the beginning of all wars is being even more facile and alarmist.

And I wish you would have examined the politics of the goddess syndrome in most parts of the world. They are designed to keep women in their place -- as mute witnesses as their destinies are written by their so-called devotees.

The attributes of the goddesses you mentioned are full of the frailties that are exploited by patriarchal societies everywhere.

Instead of saluting these, it is time we fought for women to be just women and to have complete rights over their minds, bodies and destinies.
- - -

Yasser:

This is not an Indian vs. Pakistan issue. I would expect you to raise your voice had an Indian leader made a similar comment.

There are some of us who relentlessly pursue the ills that beset our own backyards...and take on those who turn a blind eye....let us not narrow our visions, though...
- - -
#5:

That poem was in poor taste for the language used in this particular context.

hey manto..i`m thinking of starting an online petition to open a canadian consular office in the tribal areas so paki women seeking canadian visas and riches can have a one stop shop..they can get raped and get visas without having to travel much....

maybe the paki army can provide some ``visa facilitation services``... we know they have enough experience in this field..in return, they can get a fixed percentage of the money these women will make once they get their visas and millions... it`s not like they`re busy doing anything else..like fighting to get back Kashmir or something....

#6 by Mantolives on September 18, 2005 4:39am PT


This.. coming from the land of millions of phoolan devis,


Here`s where you don`t get it...or maybe you get it and choose to be in denial...

I`m sure India has more rapes per capita than the land of the pure...this is about the number of women who were raped and then put on an exit control list under the personal orders of the military dictator..or women who were raped and then chased out of their country by military intelligence...

I love it how Indians love to exploit all such things and it gets their creative juices flowing... when Pakistan is getting a bad rep... This.. coming from the land of millions of phoolan devis, honour, caste etc.

We have lots of faults... but may I ask my Indian friends to please put their own house in order first? Despite being the much touted largest democracy- the situation on the ground is pathetically similar to us- the scum of the earth.

For Whom the Gun Fires
(By Beej)

Woman
Pakistani woman
The purest of the pure
So we make sure

With burqa
We drape you
With gun
We rape you

But
At times
The gun can not fire
It can not even get it up
For it only fires
To loot
And it only rises
To salute!