Mandela and His Women

Re: # 14
dear tahir...thank you for being a constant source of amusement and putting a smile of my face...sincerely sohail

The next article will be titled: Women with their Mandelas!

Re: # 10
Asadi sahib,
"Tahir's post says a lot about the 9 hit wonder article..."

You sure know what an empty look means, just like the blank interact!

PS: BJ2 can you understand it now?

Re: # 9
BJ2,
"Tahir miaN, thanks for that comprehensive list of your past witty statements on this website."

What can I do, the Chowq goat is so hungry, it gobbles up my eco-friendly green posts?

With just 1259 hits and 10 interacts, THIS is marked as one of the most POPULAR artciles on Chowq!

Chowq Stuffed are strange little things.

Tahir's post says a lot about the 9 hit wonder article published by the shrink.....and that should certainly get me banned because this 'humanist' shrink sits on the chowk board....Chai anyone?

Re: # 8

Tahir miaN, thanks for that comprehensive list of your past witty statements on this website.

Re: # 6Dear BJ2...thank you for your comments. The funniest is Allam Iqbal's love life. I wrote an article in Urdu and my dear friend Rafi Aamer liked it so much he translated it in English titled
Iqbal and his women
It was published on chowk. You would really like it.
sincerely
sohail

Dr. Sohail,

Interesting piece abount the Mandela. Most public figures have scratch marks if one looks close. In similar vein, Dr. Gill did a piece on Einstein's love life but he was funnier than you! :)

Masadi sb,

Don't worry abt the Harvard referencing. What's ur comment on the article, plz?

At the risk of appearing to be frivolous in the context of a serious subject, I would like to add one more historical name to the list of personalities at the beginning of the article, although my nominee does not exactly "belong" there for reasons that will be obvious if you read through this email.

Samartha Ramdas Swami is a welknown sage from western India, who was a contemporary of the famous Maratha King Shivaji Bhosle. (King Shivaji: 1630-1680?).

Legend has it that as a child, Narayan Thosar was being married off in the traditional, arranged manner. When the priests uttered the ritualistic words alerting the friends and family present on the occassion about the imminent moment of betrothal, the would be sage felt that it was a warning to him, and fled the marriage shamiyana.

He spent the next years wandering through the jungles, contemplating in caves, and eventually penned his epic "Das Bodha" which is said to be an evergreen treatise on how a man should lead a fruitful and successful life, contributing meaningfully to society.

Ramds Swami's wisdom made King Shivaji seek his advice from time to time in spiritual, strategic, as well as adminsitrative matters. After Shivaji's death, while the royal Prince Sambhaji was busy destroying what his father had built, the saddened Ramdas Swami wrote to the new King, asking him through simple verse to remember what his own father had accomplished against phenonomenal odds, and to behave as a worthy son.

It was a courageous act, because here was a young and arrogant man of power who had imprisoned his own mother, executed a step mother; and killed many loyal officers who had been his late father's lifelong associatgve es on the slightest and ill-founded suspicions of disloyalty. The same Sambhaji was eventually captured by Aurangzeb the emperor of Delhi, and given a choice of conversion to Islam or a horrible death. Sambhaji chose the latter, and through the pain of his suffering, perhaps redeemed his guilt. Despite all his sins as a impeturous young man, Sambhaji remains a positive figure in the Indian folklore.

But back to Ramdas. All his verses have a simple charm of their own, and are profound in terms of behavioural truths they talked about, centuries before psychology or behavioural sciences were heard of.

One wonders if Ramdas had married and suffered as a hen-pecked husband like another Maharashtian contemporary saint Tukaram, what impact it would have had on his writings.

Marriage certainly did not come in the way of Tukaram's enlightenment - he too is an evergreen saint in India. Perhaps Ramdas would have benefited as well. :)

regards ... E

Dear Dr.Sohail,

Very nicely put, asking pertinent questions regarding the
institution of marriage in the context of political struggles.

Another interesting work from South Africa is
Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country
by Gillian Slovo

Regards
Prashant

I haven't even read this article properly yet, but just wanted to thank you for writing it. This is a fascinating aspect of my hero Mandela, and one that proves he is not a saint!

Sohail writes "1.Mandela Nelson… The Struggle Is My life
Pathfinder New York 1990"

Shrink sahib learn to cite references properly. It is a simple formula:

Mandela, Nelson. 1990. The Struggle is My Life. New York: Pathfinder.


There you go,

Have a nice day and get a goddamned education,

TNITC masadi