Growing Up Red

# 58

oops, I called your mother Salima Hashmi in one of my posts. I appologize.

Thank you to everyone who took time to read the article and respond. Writing it was cathartic for me in a way, although it brought back some painful memories. Thanks to everyone who loves and admires Nana`s poetry, I count myself as one of you. I wish I had begun to understand and appreciate his work before he died so I might have discussed it with him but c`est la vie...
I am not going to comment on the politics of his life or my own social/political/religious beliefs (that would require another article and I`m not sure I want to open that Pandora`s box ;-) except to say that yes, a person`s life`s work defines his life and those of us who chose to pursue goals higher than simply working for a paycheck pay a price for that (unfortunately, I haven`t had the courage to do that yet).

Thanks also to all those who have contributed titbits about Nana`s life that I never knew about. It has been informative and illuminating.

I`ll respond to the braindead moron who calls himself HP, and his fellow travellers, in a day or so when I have more time but you can read about the hit list from the horse`s mouth, ;-), yourself. Take a look at footnote #4.

http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR25301.shtml

As to how serious was the coup attempt and how likely was the CCP to carry out the killings, that is immaterial. The leaders of the party planned to do so. If they didn`t plan on it, I doubt Tariq Ali would deliberately strengthen the Army`s case against the plotters. Or is the fact that he is a Trotskyite enough for him to side with the Army against the Marxist-Leninists (assuming you idiots know the difference between the two....).

fuzair, HP, kulharee...
fuzair saheb, your bracketing faiz with lenin shows your bitterness with the commies, faiz saheb was a drawing room communist who like sajjad zaheer and other high profile intellectuals was worried about the masses and wrote about it in their works but they wanted their comforts too...here a grandson is reminicsing about his grand father and growing up with the tag of a dahriya because of his association with a supposed dahriya... it`s immaterial that the one throwing the stone at him or his progeny was no where in the same class as faiz as a poet, as a human and as an artiste... look at his poetry, look at his humanity, look at his concern for the people and look at his popularity across the social class... he was a great poet, probably the greatest after ghalib, a wonderful human being million times better than a maudoodi, qutub or osama...as for rawalpindi conspiracy is concerned HP`s clarification is better than army`s lying...

hum parvarish e lauh o qalam kerte raheNge
jo dill pe guzarti hai raqam kertay reheNge

re #51
What Stalin has to do with conditions in Pakistan or India?
Dunno about Pakistan but Naxalites (violent communists) in India do not shy away from executing the bourgeois and other assorted ``reactionaries``. There is a passage in one of Naipaul`s books (Million Mutinies?) where an ex-Naxalite justifies killing a small baby if the baby was born in a landlord family.
Currently the Communists of Nepal are the leaders in commie style revolutionary executions in South Asia.

#47 by fuzair
“We have it on record, from no less an august revolutionary than Tariq Ali,”

Your record as usual came from the cooked up army history books in Kakul.
Tariq Ali was never in the communist Party of Pakistan so how did he know?
Tariq Ali left Pakistan when he was barely out of college. Never worked for the communist Party, did not know a single soul from the party. His parents Mazhar Ali Khan and Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan were communist sympathizers but never members of the communist Party.

In fact, His father’s magazine “Viewpoint” was reportedly financed by Russians.
Most of the communist in Pakistan were Urban intellectuals and Labor/ social workers none of them was capable of killing even a bird. Only a person with Fauji background and a follower of bloody thirsty generals would accuse a humanitarian and peaceful person like Faiz to be part of a plot to kill people.

There is no historic tradition of political killings and massacres in Pakistan during any type of coup. Four Generals have successfully attacked the civilian governments in Pakistan but even those general never killed anyone during the coup. What they did afterwards is a different story.

What Stalin has to do with conditions in Pakistan or India? Russia had a tradition from the Czar era and before of killing political opponents but that was never the case in India and Pakistan. So historically, your accusation is also not tenable.

Only a blood thirsty fauji would accuse civilian political workers and intellectuals of plotting to kill people.
Read some more about your hero Tikka Khan before coming out with lies about Faiz or any other civilian politicians of Pakistan. Stupid fauji murderers.

#35, #50 by Kulharee
``I consider him to be my spiritual Guruji.``

Then what is the need to be disrespectful to someone’s nana or nani?

Faiz and Mrs. Faiz met in London. Her father owned a book store and Mrs. Faiz worked along with her sister (who married another Pakistani intellectual from Lahore). Faiz used to go there to buy books and that is how they met.

Thanks

Re: # 51
just a correction. faiz and alys did not meet in london. they met in india where alys was visiting her sister who was by then married to dr taseer.

Re: # 51

Dear HP Sahib, Thank you. I had read that much. It was an honest question, and not meant to be disrespectful. I could never even imagine being disrespectful to Faiz Ji.

Manzur yeh Talkhi yeh Sitam hum ko Gawaara
Dam hai to Madaawa-e-alam Kartey rahenge

Re: Faiz and Teshah #42

We have it on record, from no less an august revolutionary than Tariq Ali, that the Communist Party of Pakistan had a (presumably long) list of people that it was going to kill as soon as the coup was carried out; no trial, no hearing, just executions. This was standard communist practise since, after all, if Stalin can kill a few million people, how hard can it be for his followers to kill a few dozen or a few hundred?

Just curious, Mr. Hashmi, how much input did Faiz have in preparing this list? Did he contribute a few names? Veto some? Or did he prefer not to know which eggs were going to be broken in order to make the glorious revolutionary omelette he craved?

I`ve never understood the fascination some people have for a pathetic man who slavishly followed every order his masters gave him. When Britain was allied with the USSR, he followed their orders and joined the British Indian Army (Lt. Col. Faiz A. Faiz--no one remembers that, even if it was just ISPR. But isn`t that worse? Prostituting your intellect for the Party?). Did he, like Khruschev, at some point repent his past? Did he apologize to the ghosts of the millions killed by his fellow Communists? Did he return his Lenin Prize? Considering that it was awarded to him in 1962, he clearly spent a long time knowing of Stalin`s crimes and not criticizing him, or his beloved Party.

When Faiz was working for Arafat, was he uncomfortable at the thought that millions of Palestinians were living in such abysmal squalor while Arafat was, even then, worth millions? Or did he not believe in criticizing fellow revolutionaries, lest this aid and comfort the reactionaries?

We all know that Zia and Co. were lying hypocrites of the worst sort. We all know that members of the JUI/JI/LeT/HuM/etc are deluded dupes at best and homicidal psycopaths at worst. What are members of the Communist Party? Why not just admit that, at best, Faiz was modern day Bahadur Shah Zafar: someone whose poetic gifts do not excuse all his failings. While the children are not responsible for the sins of the fathers, neither should they glory in them.

Re: # 47 Fuzair.

``We have it on record, from no less an august revolutionary than Tariq Ali, that the Communist Party of Pakistan had a (presumably long) list of people that it was going to kill as soon as the coup was carried out; no trial, no hearing, just executions. ``

What is the evidence to support this statement? How has Tariq Ali corroborated it. I always thought that the Rawalpindi Conspiracy was just a bunch of huey and at best it was a sort of a pre-emptive strike by the GOP at the urging of their Americans masters.

Re: # 47

Have you been following Algerian politics lately? Has Khomeini or his regime apologized to the moderates and leftists that were imprisoned, tortured, raped and killed? I could go on, but these examples drain me.

Dear Ali Hashmi...

Welcome to Chowk:

Your article was amazing. BTW recently the word ``Dehria`` was in the press... Ch. Shujaat Hussain promised the Mullahs that he will expel all ``Dehrias`` from the Muslim League.

... on another note are you Muneeza Hashmi`s son?

Sincerely

Yasser Hamdani

Re: # 45

Yes, I am Moneeza Hashmi`s son.

Re: # 45

Ok maybe welcoming you was not on the dot... since you`ve been on Chowk for atleast 6 years...

sorry about that slight.

Dear Ali Hashmi:
You have all reasons to be proud of your family legacy, or in particular Faiz, the poet.
I have heard my elders telling me about him, who happened to know him personally. I have read his poetry, no doubt, he was one of his kind. the beauty of his legacy as a poet is that he still is one of his kind. somehow, always, when we talk of him, I can see the shine in the eyes of most present there, which has sorrow for not having him around in person, and has pride for having him there for always.

Pride of family legacy brings responsiblities along. I hope you and ur sons and the rest of your family will be able to carry that with them.

but one thing I would like to mention. I happend to see a copy of a dewan of Faiz, gold crafted, signed by him on every copy, worth of more than 5000 Pounds. when I heard of it, I couldnt believe Faiz could sign such a copy, when I saw, I believed. it no doubt is a worthy gift, however, I wonder ever it was thought, for who would exactly buy such an expensive collection? only those who can afford it, and those who afford it, will never read it, will never understand it, will never believe in it and in Faiz himself as a legendary person, but will put it in ther study room or their ``library`` as a decuration piece. I believe that is the worst treatment any art/intellectual piece of work can ever get, that too of an immenent poet and of a revolutionary like Faiz!

teshah sir ji, tusi te baRhe ee purane niklay O. tuhade naal diaN buildingaN choN vi ittaN khiskan lagg paiyeaN te tusi ajjay vi internet highway te dauRangay laa rahe O. jeenday rahvo!