Breaking News: Suicide Bomb in Karachi

Roohi, Sadna, Ana

I have read many good things about Chitra Devakaruni`s two books and even heard an interview in which she discussed her latest one. I will def. read them in the next two monthes. Her work sounds masterful. Roohi, perhaps you could write a book review on the second one-and we can all get a copy in time to interact on it...just pitching the idea to you ladies!

Drumz

Will do!

Rsax

My brother used to call me ``geek girl``...now I`ve got the Lisa Loeb specs to work the look....only, too vain to wear them all the time and contacts are too complicated and expensive...so, yes, I do some amount of tripping over furniture...:)

Pakistan has finally published pictures of ``Most Wanted`` criminals; Mush is second from left in the middle row. Some of them are clean shaved and possibly raw agents. Others who appeared to have vowed not to comb hair or take shower for months at a time look more like self appointed allah`s agents.

The legs season comes to an end with the Brazilian victory over Germany.

Roohi,

I`ve read `Sister of my Heart` and I really liked it. To me it reads better than `Mistress of Spices`..I think the novel sprang out from her collection of short stories. I recommend it.

roohi #451
`In an Antique Land` is on my list too..

re: saminashah

{Well, apparently all I have to do is show up on a board and everyone leaves...(sigh) guess I`ll take my ball and go home.}

...nah, i was just kidding :)...

sadna, samina - have you read ``Sister of my Heart`` by Chitra Devakaruni ? I liked her ``Mistress of Spices`` ... don`t like starting anything unless I know it`s good because I`m an obsessive reader and my kids will be running around hungry in grubby cloths if I get hooked. But all this talk is rubbing off ...

Aslo has anyone read ``In an Antique Land`` by Ghosh ? Another one on my list of ``someday I`ll get around to it books ...``

Rsax,

Well, apparently all I have to do is show up on a board and everyone leaves...(sigh) guess I`ll take my ball and go home.

Samina: Send me a mail and ill send the only pic i have scanned. I dont have a hair situation. LOL @ Dred. My hair is always covered in a cap (tilted 22-180 degrees back) a kaffiyah or a turban with an (abe lincoln) beard.

Samina,

Not showing films..I made the mistake of having them read too many books, and it`s only an eight-week course. Will recommend them however, and will keep you posted.

saminashah #443

Thanks, but you rule :).

``Do you read South Asian Women`s Literature alot?``

Not a lot, alas. `Daughter of Persia` was the last `woman`s` writing I read, not literature of course.

Though I did read Gita Mehta`s Karma Cola a few years ago and then faithfully followed the promotions of her next book where she said how people(particularly women) on the subcontinent are constantly talking, narrating stories to each other:).

..looks like this board`s been hijacked by nerds :)...

Your Attention Please

The Polar DEW has just warned that

A nuclear rocket strike of

At least one thousand megatons

Has been launched by the enemy

Directly at our major cities.

This announcement will take

Two and a quarter minutes to make,

You therefore have a further

Eight and a quarter minutes

To comply with the shelter

Requirements published in the Civil

Defence Code - section Atomic Attack.

A specially shortened Mass

Will be broadcast at the end

Of this announcement -

Protestant and Jewish services

Will begin simultaneously -

Select your wavelength immediately

According to instructions

In the Defence Code. Do not

Take well-loved pets (including birds)

Into your shelter - they will consume

Fresh air. Leave the old and bed-

ridden, you can do nothing for them.

Remember to press the sealing

Switch when everyone is in

The shelter. Set the radiation

Aerial, turn on the geiger barometer.

Turn off your Television now.

Turn off your radio immediately

The Services end. At the same time

Secure explosion plugs in the ears

Of each member of your family. Take

Down your plasma flasks. Give your children

The pills marked one and two

In the C.D green container, then put

Them to bed. Do not break

The inside airlock seals until

The radiation All Clear shows

(Watch for the cuckoo in your

perspex panel), or your District

Touring Doctor rings your bell.

If before this, your air becomes

Exhousted or if any of your family

In critically injured, administer

The capsules marked `Valley Forge`

(Red Pocket in No. 1 Survival Kit)

For painless death. (Catholics

Will have been instructed by their priests

What to do in this eventuality).

This announcement is ending. Our President

Has already given orders for

Massive retaliation - it will be

Decisive. Some of us may die.

Remember, statistically

It is not likely to be you.

All flags are flying fully dressed

On Government buildings - the sun is shining.

Death is the least we have to fear.

We are all in the hands of God,

Whatever happens happens by His Will.

Now go quickly to your shelters.

-- Peter Porter

A bit of ironic fun:

Philosophy

I used to sit in the cafe of existentialism,

lost in a blue cloud of cigarette smoke,

contemplating the suicide a tiny Frenchman

might commit by leaping from the brim of my brandy glass....

-Billy Collins

Sadna,

You truly are a goddess! I believe we`ll have to call you Sadna Devi from now on! (and not of course ``Sadna Baby``!) Thank you for that most excellent list-you got exactly the volume I`ve been looking for-and the other collections aren`t bad either :) Do you read South Asian Women`s Literature alot? If so, what are your thoughts on Gita Mehta, Bharati Mukerjee, Jhumpa Lahiri?

Oh, I did a google on M. Devi and Gayathri Begum all over the screen!

Ana,

Your class sounds excellent! Wish I could take it. The class discussions must be fascinating in themselves....

I have read Fantasia and liked it. Must look up the South Asian women you listed.

Are you by any chance showing films as well? Battle of Algiers is quite interesting, as might be Fire...

Please post on how the class progresses- I would love to read about it.

Samina,

Me give you tips?! I`ll see what I can come up with. Summer has been garama garam here. I`m teaching for the first time ever, and my first class is tonight..not quite in high anxiety yet.

The class is called Women and War..and we`re reading Bapsi Sidhwa`s `Cracking India`, Assia Djebar`s, `Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade,` Etel Adnan`s `Sitt Marie Rose` and selections from Urvashi Butalia`s `The Other Side of Silence` and the anthology I referred you to. It`s going to be a lot of reading, but hopefully the 9 students that I have will get something out of it, as will I. We`re going to kick it off with `Three Guineas.` That`s what`s going on with me! :) What about you?

saminashah #422

Here is some more information about Mahashweta Devi:
http://www.indiatogether.org/events/jan02/mdworks.htm

(Guess who turns up in the bibliography:))

And the movie based on her novel(though I read it as a play?) was `Hazar Chaurasi ki Ma` with Jaya Bhaduri playing a lead role:
http://www.expressindia.com/screen/nov28/review3.htm

About that two-volume set you mention, here are a few candidates from B&N, do let me know whether the ones you and ana mean are among these so I can look them up too:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=688BJAKEU5&isbn=1558610278
Women Writing in India Volume 1
Susie J. Tharu (Editor) K. Lalita (Editor)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=688BJAKEU5&isbn=0966460707
Thousand Worlds: An Anthology of Indian Women Writers
Adriana Husta (Editor) Usha Nellore (Editor)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=688BJAKEU5&isbn=155861088X
The Slate of Life: More Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of India
Kali for Women Kali for Women Editors Satya Mohantry (Introduction) Chandra Talpade (Introduction)


Also came across these:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=688BJAKEU5&isbn=0863560393
Hoops of Fire: Fifty Years of Fiction by Pakistani Women
Aamer Hussein (Editor) Mumtaz Shirin (Editor) Jamila Hashmi (Editor)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=688BJAKEU5&isbn=1859641148
So That You Can Know Me: An Anthology of Pakistani Women Writers
Yasmin Hameed (Editor) Asif A. Farrukhi (Editor)