Echoes

I like the colorful first page..

Other than that..

``..We believe that Farzana Versey is one of the most honest, unbiased and fearless person we have met... ``

This is very funny.. LOL..

......... i like everything about the new look ....... but here are two suggestions

...........ferozek should be give a weekly column, ``Lahore Diary and Europen History`` - for me his ilogs are worth the visit to chowk ........

.......... we should also have a ``Yo Mama!`` column where indians and pakis can dis each other on an on-going basis - arjun and rsridhar can be the editors ......... this will clear up the clutter elsewhere

A Suggession.

There are very few people in Pakistan who can read and understand English, not to speak of `good` English.

I have tried to contemplate the rationale behind the recent changes to chowk.com. The only thing I could understand is that chowk wants to become more sophisticated, more structured and more real. I think more important things are in queue.

Who does chowk really represent? I know that it has been founded and run by some lahori people. Absence of advertisments show that Chowk is not about money. Chowk has most of its writers from Pakistan and mostly punjab. Bulk of indian presence is from the north. I have this idea that chowk is basically concerned with problems facing present pakistani society, at home or abroad. Indian presence is there to spice up things a little and balance the perspecitve which would have been more polar if things were otherwise. Chowk needs to clear up its mind at this. I say that chowk will do just fine if it makes up its mind that it major representation is of Punjab and other major cities of Pakistan plus those in India who are in similar situations. Trying to mushroom the whole south asia is silly. I mean, theoratically it is possible but what`s the point? More generalization means less attention to details.

There always are and have been sophisticated people within every society. However, what Pakistani society needs at the moment is not a boost to the sophistication of the sophisticated, but to push the barrier of the ratio between the intellectuals and the naive.

We live in interesting times when internet is available to those who don`t even have good drinking water. There is high chance that more people can be involved in the thinking process than ever before. Only the right methods need to be adopted by the right people who are in a position to do so. Chowk is one such voice.

I don`t know how to do this. May be, get best of your articles translated into Urdu (or other languages if you want to `reform` others as well). May be, have some delibrate effort to get some real history lessons written for the Pakistani masses, also in Urdu. Brainstorming is job of the Chowkidars.

I can only say that even if you view urdu as an old fashioned cultural baggage, a mistake of medieval cultural winds, please have a look at the facts and the demand of the time. You have the resources to do it. Even if you put only a little link on the first page, it will do. The biggest reason for this is that nobody else is doing it. Masses in Pakistan just don`t have access to ideas that don`t stink of something bad. And yet, they are the real Pakistan, not the ones who are born to be users of such websites.

Re#61 by chowk-staff

beej seems to have something in his heart against chowk staff and that`s why he is trying to provoke them. beej, is there a special outcome that you want from it?

apart from it, beej`s objection is very valid. a shopkeeper cannot dictate to its customers. chowk staff, please don`t be authorotative, its not good for your own health.

Chowk Staff #:``This space should, however, be treated as a `Letter to the Ed` with suggestions/comments``

Here is a suggestion. I think Chowk needs to add more sex to its conntent. It already has the violence part handled. I suggest a, ``Chowk babe of the week`` section. As well as a, ``Men of Chowk`` yearly beach calendar..........

It has been just a little over 48 hours and Chowkies expect a revolution! This makes it possible for Chowk to believe that the community feeling is alive and kicking, just the way one wants it.

This space should, however, be treated as a `Letter to the Ed` with suggestions/comments and not to get into a dialogue with one another as has been clearly stated.

All constructive feedback is being taken cognisance of.

Thank you.

Re: # 50
hear hear! i agree with malik, scout and simran that the whole color me bright thing on fp isnt working. its hard to come up with color that works anyway and the reason the old scheme worked well for so many of us was because it limited the colors to spots rather than splashes. if you really want to do something graphically on the fp, then how about this:

move those color blocks to the space where the ilogs are now housed. as malik said the whole middle of page thing doesnt work and we really dont need a preview of whats lying in wait for us. i mean, you dont have sell those to the readers - they`re ilogs! besides a few ilogs in you already know what lies in store for you - temporal`s has poems, samina`s has articles, etc etc.

get rid of the colors and retreat to b&w. if you wish you can change the box into book outlines - you`d have six [or however many streams there are] books in a vertical row and the teaser or description or what have you would be beside it. so it`d look something like this -

/surrender monkey/ i give up i give up says rare lil monkey. awwww!
/chowk loves me / this week - pls give romair a hanky for his honky

and so on and so forth. surrender monkey would be one book, chowk loves me would be another book. or they could just be plain boxes. just leave the color out. or you could draw the outline in color.

shandana looks lovely - but not everyone is shandana [no offense, non-shandana writers] and anyway, i dont wanna know what any of em look like. the anonymity works. why fix it?

i`d like ilogs to be visible as soon as i open the page once more pls. some of us losers actually read the stuff and i`m lazy enuff for hunting to be a bore. sorry. :))

but hey, keep trying! and could someone pls get back to us about the scope of farzana`s title? thanks.

Congratulations to chowk staff and the outgoing and incoming editors for doing their fabulous work and i assume purely as an act of passion for all these years and for being unflinchingly upholding the ideals of free expression on this site. kudos to you.!

I also hope that the incoming Editor would give a thought to the ethical implications of being the chief editor And contributor to the content of this site, at the same time, all in one, and the fundamental conflict of interest and responsibilites that it entails.

Just like in the case of eg. a journalist signing up for security clearance would represent a fundamental conflict of responsibilities or a corporate-head heading a public corporate regulations entity would have it. I think this sensitive matter would be looked into by all concerned.

once again, you guys rock! and this is not only imo.

sincerely,
-R

To editors
Even on Front Page threads where I have not posted a single reply and even when I am absent altogether from chowk, I am still brought into the discussion and personally villified. This can be seen for example on the Saima Shah board and the Seervai board among others. Kindly put a stop to this.

The new front page of chowk is disappointing. The jarring strips of colour are disturbing and they look lost and totally out of place. Chowk had a much better layout before. There just seems to be too much confusion right now.

Farzana Versey`s appointment as editor in chief came as a surprise. In my opinion someone more ``neutral`` should have been appointed. Also, I personally think her style of writing isn`t clear at all. I would think that an editor should be able to put across thoughts and ideas in a succint and clear manner and get across to people with all kinds of views.

I was surprised to see that the editor in chief of chowk uses the term Bollywood in the editorial so authoritatively, forgetting that for many it is a derogatory term for the Indian film industry. Or has it been thus called on purpose?

The section exploring regional languages is a welcome sign.

Well since this decision has already been taken, all I can say is Congrats Farzana. I guess the apprehension a lot of people have about FV is coz she has taken rather contentious stands on various issues- which are reflected thru the pieces she writes. I think it is but natural that chowkies here fear that her `views` on issues are going to reflect on the type of articles published here.

Please do something about those garish colours! And as beej suggested, go back to the original design and presentation. What was wrong with it? Or is this the FV Effect?

Salil

`exploring chowk` and `topics` sections seem totally redundant, esp. with the other categories still on the front page (re: leafy glade, gulberg, etc.)


ilogs need to be on the side like before

By the way, chowk staff, the format of the front page right now looks like verbal vomitus, colorful, speckled, and without structure.....


there is no need for Nickelodeon colorful banners, there is no need for so much direct linking on the front page.

there is absolutely no need for self published and published articles to be on the same page, especially in the same font size....

published articles need to be spaced out like they used to be, unless you want chowkies to pull out their magnifying lenses to find them.

When I think of `unflinching idealism` I remember the Chowk where disrespectful interactors were eliminated from the website. This has not and is not happening in the current Chowk.

Tolerating certain interactors whose only purpose on Chowk is to disparage women and be abusive towards females, is not called `unflinching idealism.`

I would like to nominate the joint team of Urstruly and hamidm mian as the Co-editors in Chief of Chowk (CEiCoC...pronounced Chee-Cok). They live close to each other, have a, ``play hard to get`` affinity for each other, and have very strong, though opposing, views regarding the world. And most importantly they are, both, completely convinced, of the ultimate correctness of their world-view......The ying and the yang.......The zig and the zag........Their views, though extremely dangerous individually, balance out quite nicely when viewed jointly...............And I think hamid mian has a fascinating crush on Urstruly......

Will have to wait to see how Farzana will do.........But I, for one, will be quite sad to see the current editor@chowk.com leave. Whomever it may have been........he/she/they went out of their way to be nice to me......I was treated like the teacher`s pet.......everything i submitted, got published - including stuff that sucked even more than pieces temporal has been authoring recently........i once made changes, seven times, to something i submitted, and chowk staff incorporated every change!! And not a single one of my replies was ever deleted. And I was never asked to stand in the corner for two days, like Samina shah and Salim_Ch were, despite my making rude comments......

Based on this, I came to a conclusion, a long time ago, that Chowk Staff is, secretly, in love with me. Or, at least, has a big crush on me......Like all the Indian girls in my office.......

Anyways, Chowk Staff(s), thanks for the memories........All of you did a great job. This is the only Pakistani site I know, which lasted more than two years.........

For Chowk Staff

---

ab ke ham bichhray to shaayad kabhii Khvaaboon mein milein
jis tarah suukhe hue phuul kitaaboon mein milein

DhoonNDh ujraye hue logoon mein vafaa ke motii
ye Khazaane tujhe mumkin hai Kharaaboon mein milein

tuu Khudaa hai na meraa ishq farishtoon jaisaa
donoon insaaN hain to kyoon itnae hijaaboon mein milein

Gam-e-duniyaa bhii Gam-e-yaar mein shaamil kar lo
nashaa ba.Dataa hai sharabein jo sharaaboon mein milein

aaj ham daar pe kheinche gaye jin baatoon par
kyaa ajab kal vo zamaane ko nisaaboon mein milein

ab na vo main huuN, na tu hai, na vo maazii hai, `Faraaz`,
jaise do shaKhs tamannaa ke saraaboon mein milein

Had I disappeared? I didn`t even know I had, let alone that I have reappeared. Guess I must be more absent-minded than I thought. :)