Two Tears in a Bucket Skeptical: with all due respect, and without defending certain people who are insulting Padash, there is a reason(s) for the "hatred" exhibited towards her. This is nothing new.

1) Padash offends certain people's moral/religious sensibilites.

2) Padash offends certain people's sensibilities vis-a-vis what constitutes "good writing" and authenticity.

3) Padash also offends certain people because she is an outspoken woman.

These are reasons, and to dismiss them as "no reason" because WE think differently, gives them greater cause to dismiss what we think (plus it questions how far our own tolerance goes)

Having said all that, it would be great if people did not resort to such vile insults, and either walked away, or expressed their objections in a more civil manner, but here at Chowk, that is a pipe-dream.

I don't care personally whether what Padash wrote is an "aap-beeti" or fiction. Some feel justified to throw stones at her because this is written in the form of an "aap-beeti". It is unfortunate that they so vilely judge her, and it says something about them that is seen as no less horrible as their one-dimensional view of Padash.

I apologize, but just because someone writes about lap-dancing does not give someone the justification to hurl bakwaas about performing sexual actions on others here at Chowk. That is filth.

Two Tears in a Bucket tahmed saab: obviously some things are NOT for everyone. :-) Are you still in a battle of "wits" with hamid dada and the beleaguered one who is now an acronym?!

Two Tears in a Bucket cheema: not being defensive. :) Perhaps needlessly informative?!

tahmed saab: the dissection is already being done. I actually thought I'd give (this) piece a chance - having missed the previous ones.

Two Tears in a Bucket cheema: you should know that continually rubbing your eyes is harmful to them - if they aren't already damaged.

vaisay as much as you all want to joke about it, I did not "go away" this time. I got involved in a lot of personal stuff in the "real world" including working on a novel, and believe it or not, even being in Chowk spots other than OTW slipped my mind. You should try letting Chowk slip from your minds sometime. It is beautiful.

now let's all get back to dissecting this piece!

Two Tears in a Bucket Taji #17: Yeah, I thought about that after I posted that comment. I know that it caused quite the furor, but I guess I was trying to get where sz was going with that.

Fouz: I think cliche can be avoided, though it takes quite a bit to do that.

Two Tears in a Bucket re: the reference to "The Quilt"

The someone who wrote "The Quilt" or "Lihaaf" was Ismat Chughtai (one should remember the writer if one is to mention it) and it was translated here by a chowkie, Godot. And if the mention of "Lihaaf" was in terms of subtlety, well, Ismat apa, as she was known to many, had to write the story the way she did otherwise it may not have been published.

Not entirely certain how "Lihaaf" enters the discussion, par khair . . .

Two Tears in a Bucket Padash, I need to go back to your earlier writings, but I really liked this. You know aap beeti has fictional elements to it, and I don't mean in the sense that it's not the truth, but rather in how you tell it.

Have you thought about submitting your work to other publications? I think you should.

Also, regarding your "Reader beware"-like intro: I understand why you do that, a bit of the audience here is not quite prepared to tolerate what you write, even though what comes from them is just as "haraam" as what they think of your writing. Please do not feel that you have to be on the defensive for them. Good on you for bringing something creative (besides the mud flinging) to Chowk. That creativity is very much missed here!

Write on! :)

P.S. If the women whose names are protected really spoke like that, then some of your dialogue works. If not, it borders on caricature and stereotype. No offense meant.

Lashes to lashes, dust to dust Shandana,

Thank you for this.

[Time now to answer the most pertinent question of all: how many Pakistanis does it take to change a light bulb? One hundred and seventy million and counting…]

But the Pakistanis have to want to change! :)

** don't have time to read through all the posts, so apologies if this line was used already.

Company Style: Indian Painting under the British Rule A good and informative article!

Izzatdar - The Respected hahahaha, sheru! I was just kidding. This story tells the awful tale of what happens to a woman, and bhatti replied to most of the guys here and forgot the one woman who posted here. I thought that was funny. :))

anyways, apologies for interrupting the conversation between Punjabis. Do carry on!

Izzatdar - The Respected (It's working! I've become invisible on Chowk!!!)

Izzatdar - The Respected Bhatti,

This was, as Jugni said, an intense read. It does flow well. I think though next time if you want to put in Punjabi phrases, perhaps you could do a glossary type thing at the end, the flow would be even smoother. Some grammatical errors like mixing of haal and maazi, but if I elaborate any further I'll be accused of "flogging a dead horse."

Thank you for sharing this with us. :)

A Brief Survey Of Pakistani Novels In English Kamath,

Everyone makes mistakes here on Chowk, but if you think it is okay to come across looking like someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about - and I've done that often enough - then more power to you.

This isn't just a place where people come puffed up to put one another down, or a whole nation. This is also a place where people share serious interest in literature and music, and the arts. I'm sure Manoj is very interested in Pakistani novels and who should be considered a Pakistani novelist. It helps both Chowk as a "credible" website and Manoj to get certain things right.

A Brief Survey Of Pakistani Novels In English Chowk staff:

Seriously, have you stopped editing articles before posting them on the front page?

***
Kumar Manoj:

The survey is brief indeed, and for someone who obviously was interested enough to write this, it would have done you good to at least spell the names of the writers correctly.

It's Kamila Shamsie, and the writer of "The Buddha of Suburbia" among other novels does not spell his last name as Qureshi (even though that's how it should be spelled). He spells his name as Hanif Kureishi.

***
Cobra:

I guess you've made it your goal on Chowk never to sound intelligent.

Crumbling Away The shopkeepers asked us to read the board, which the Culture whatever Ministry has put up outside the Bhatti Gate. Another wave of disappointment overcame us when we could not find the ‘board’ that revealed the history of Bhatti Gate. Hidden behind layers and layers of political and religious invitations and advertisements was the history of the Gate. Like the Gate itself, the board had been tampered with, damaged and left to rot. Surprisingly, the shopkeepers and people who lived in the Bhatti Gate area were oblivious to this fact.

An old man helped us remove the dusty advertisements as a public service and also so that we could read what was beneath it. However, we were surrounded by dozens of dangerous-looking men by then, who asked us not-so-politely to take our unholy hands off the grimy papers that held God’s name and Ayats from the Holy Quran…Ironic, isn’t it?

Sadly, there are those who take things for granted. And maybe the shopkeepers were oblivious to the invisibility of the board because they were more concerned with their own business than a visible icon of their history.

Speaking of Bhatti Gate and dangerous men, it has not been a safe place for women to be at, and especially alone for a very long time. It was at this gate if I'm not mistaken, or in its environs, almost three decades ago that a blind woman was raped - I'm sure there were others - but I remember this woman's case specifically because I was back in Lahore around the time, and it caused a huge uproar in the city. Not only because a blind woman was raped, but also because under the laws that Zia ul-Haq pushed for, the blind woman was to be punished for being violated.

Yes, aarzoo, ironies have abounded there for quite a while now. . .and beauty doesn't always remain unmarred.

Crumbling Away aarzoo, thank you so much for writing this. I'm from Lahore and I still have some memories of the old city, having left it as a teenager. I lived in the "newer" part though, and as a child didn't see as much of the older part as I would have liked. My late aunt worked as a doctor in the environs of Delhi Gate, at a clinic called Delhi Gate Clinic. If I'm not mistaken, LanDa Bazaar is also in that area. . .

Someday I would like to revisit all these places again, or actually see some of what you did. :)