Revolution in the Westerlies

sap1:

What exactly was so original about this piece or the author`s thinking?

For one, this is defacto thinking in the west.

For another, whatever had been said in this article simply mimics what has been said by numerous other people at this very site.

I don`t believe for a second that Pakistani`s are capable of an original ``thought`` (at least pertaining to Pak. identity) given the multitude of overwhelming cultural influences in the region,

including the ever present British and American ones. The author simply proves my point.

I do not care if people liked your articles or not. I happen to think that it was fresh....it represented originaltiy in thinking....an originality that the young Pakistanis lack. I wish our elders (age 35-55) should stop stuffing arabic readings of Quran down our throats and let us be....so that we may learn to THINK on our own. A great article...nicely done....loved it.

Azam Khan

But thanks for the nice things you guys said. I love Karachi and I always will. But watching its reality makes me sad. Im sure you all agree.

More later

(gramatical=grammatical)

This article doesnt say much; it rambles on in search of something. Like we all do. Im sorry about the gramatical errors... I didnt think I would be put up...

Well, now that it has been, im going to improve on my mistakes... the next time my roommate leaves for home!

Tariq - enjoyed the flowery language... the twisted descriptive phrases, but didn`t understand the point... I mean what was the gist of the story?

=mariam=

My earlier comments were directed towards the attitude of the writer to I

salm.

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I think I can relate to you to a certain extent. Having been bombarded with religious lectures all my life, I consider myself to be immune to mullahs. There was a time in my life when I didn`t believe in God. That was a very agonizing period of in life. You see religious peaple all around you with no education or even common sense. You tend to see crimes committed in the name of God and you tend to become disenchanted with religion or even God.

My rationale for believing in religion is that it makes me a decent person. It checks my temptations. So you could say that I have decided to believe in God( sounds weird doesn`t it?). To me religion is not the fundamentalist crap that some mullahs preach but it is to do with all things which decent and right. And everybody knows the difference between right and wrong. I think I prefer the Malaysian model where there is more tolerence.

Anyway to the budding Salman Rushdie all I have to say is that you have got courage if nothing else. Hope nobody from Pakiland gets your email add.

Write against Islam and you get attention

by the way its not the Islam , its us.

God bless us

RAS#4

You loved Dacca at one time & you were forced to leave,you then adopted Karachi to wear out your Chappals,but probably for some good reason sort of abandoned it( eventhough may be temporarily hopefully)wouldnt it be easier to love all places past, present & future not get heavely nostalgic about any one of them.You get attached by living at any place & get reattached in a new place in course of time.IT HAPPENS!

Studebaker#3

I agree with you wholly.There is a Akbar allahabadi sheyr,Mein aise sab kitaben kabile zabte samjhte hain jinhe parh kar beta baap ko khapte samjhte hain.

If we have sons , descendents of maulvi & mullahs ashamed to assert there religous heritage,it is not only parents fault there is personal responsibility of adult(18 above)too.If that consciousness dont occur it is a case of deliquency not juvenile but ADULT!I have never seen jew kid or a mormon thinking a kahafa as silly or torah/ bible as ``uninformed````foolish``You can always count on a muslim to self destroy themselves

Related material published on CHOWK

A BEGGAR FROM KARACHI

Once like the current multitudes in Chappals
These legs also walked your dusty streets
As this was home but now all but lost in memory
Clifton Beach, Saddar and the market no
Empress would much care to bless.

Paan stains or is it the crimson of blood now?
Of the many young and now old, pierced hate
The metal of unholy bullets in still bodies
Widows, orphans and the ravages of
Jinns let loose in the bazaars of fearful lives.

Peace once walked through this city but
Like Mir, sons die there for many perceived sins
And the loss has now reached the healer Hakim who
By educating children was termed guilty of doing good
Sentenced to death at age 78 to leave us horrified.

Many names not as famous come to mind too but
Space and the pain of this madness erases
The dreams burnt in the hot Tandoors of hate
Bigotry, selfishness and the smoke of street heroin
All are now experiencing the futility of addiction.

Very easy it is to blame the outsiders for oppression
But amongst ourselves oozes a little truth
The City of Lights calls for an era that once was
When the people of Karachi lived around the clock
And were not forced to plead for peace
Like this distant beggar from the past.

Ras H. Siddiqui
11/98

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``The bright red spit congeals on the walls as a saturated ocean breeze flows through the naked streets before me.``

The first sentence is hokey. Perhaps barren is a much better word than naked...I guess that helps a little...

``They walk like zombies, in clusters, each unaware of his neighbor. Thoughts of sleep, the blazing heat of the coming day, are on their minds. Their act is automatic, a habit bound by superstition``

This is unfair. Yours is an attempt at writing about real people, not a fictitious world of your own creation. How do you know how the worshippers feel and what are they thinking about? You obviously wouldn`t know.

A good rule of thumb is to write about things that you have personally experienced. If you were writing about yourself, fine. However, projecting your own experiences on other people is bad form. It discredits the author. Thus, at this point, one wonders why the author should be taken seriously at all? There`s very little motivation to read the rest of the article since it`s obviously a bigoted rant. But, I guess I`m bored today so I managed to read on...

``But instead a cryptic book emerges, written in Arabic, translated by foolish and uninformed men.``

*SIGH *. Hyperbolae also dampens the effect of this piece. I suppose you could do a better job of translating? I doubt it. Have you seriously partaken in religious studies? Have you taken theology courses? Somehow, I doubt it. Again, all that comes out is your blatent arrogance and concete.

``The beauty of the human mind will remain untapped as long as we progress under borrowed opinions...``

Says Tariq, in English, parroting the de facto secularist attitudes prevalent in the west. I hope you see the irony....

``...as long as we view ideas as dangerous and as long as we live in fear.``

Good Lord, spoken like a true American!!!

``There is only so much gibberish you can read.``

Amen to that brother, the first intelligent thing you said in the piece. I stopped reading at this point.