The Ancient Art of Making Gurrha Wonderful zeejah. I heard somewhere that you are also the undercover author of the social butterfliy diaries in Friday Times. If you are, I must tell you that those articles have VERY often pulled me through rough exam weeks.

Anyhow, I liked the fact that you called it ``gurrhA`` instead of gurr. The pathan pronuciation, and I should say teh REAL pronunciation. :)

YEAH PUKHTUNWALI!

Thanks again for the article. Took me home for 5 beautiful minutes.

cheers

Haniya

Porn for Girls I`ve been reading articles and replies on chowk for a long time now. But this kind of petty mid-slinging at each other`s religions really goes beyond any limit. I mean, what`re you people achieving by posting these stupid(I can think of no other word to describe these remarks) replies, aside from a smug grin on how abosolutely celever you`ve been. I mean, come off it! Camels in Mecca and a stinking Indian on a subway in NYC?

As for the Taliban, I beg of everyone to please STOP equating them with the world of Islam in general. These people are, well, different. Most, if not all have lived since childhood in Madrassay, brought up by illiterate mullahs. What is one to expect?

And if anyone expects them to see reason in not destroying the Buddha statues, forget it. They just think like the rest of us. And I`m very serious.

As for the destruction of art, be it of religious, historical, sentimental, any sort of significance, destorying art is a heinous crime. Afghanistan was once the centre of art, literature, and music for Central and even South Asia. The city of Herat was known for it`s culture and beauty. That was all razed thanks to the combined powers of the ex-Soviet Union, the grand old United States d`Amerique and our very own Pakistan. Why does war justify this kind of destruction?

Umm...I see I have strayed. Beyond repair. I`ll leave it at this. Please repects all religion, all art, and all knowledge.

Thanks for listening to me rant. :)

cheers

haniya

Porn for Girls The only thought that struck me when I read this little piece wasm ``Oh, I didn`t get that..`

Nit then I thought it might be interesting to read the replies. I certainly wasn`t ready for all taht I read there.

I find it exceedingly sad how frightened people, and Pakistanis in particular are frightened of losing their ``identities``, in anyway whatsoever. Chill out people. It`s literature. It might not be to your liking, or you might not have any experience with this kind of work. But the writer has a license for free art.

And if the chowk editors let it in, who`s anyone to complain?

Open up those minds and let some sun in! Things are getting mouldy in there.

cheers

Haniya

Beating the Donkey Great little story. Reminded me of a book I read recently. ``Papio`` by Abdul Basit Haqqani. Hysterical. A satire on vadera culture. Brilliant. Anyone who can must read it.

Later.

Touch First I`d like to congratulate the author. A very well written article, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

As for the discussion it has sparked, I`m very disappointed by how all and sundry become the victims of the generalization monster. This was just one person`s account of just one of Islam`s many rituals and celebrations. Not all muslim families standaround the goat or calf and applaud as it is clumsily killed. Throughout my life, my family always called in a butcher who slaughtered the animal as proffesionally and as quickly as was possible. I know some people might find the concept itself offensive but that`s all part of religion. There are a lot of concepts in other religions which I find offensive, but I don`t go around condemning them.

I`d just like to remind chowkwallas to be tolerant of others, and to accept others for who they are, and respect what they stand for.

Cheers

Haniya Aslam

He had no Choice! Ever since the coup took place on Wednesday I`ve desperately been trying to remain optimistic and I had almost convinced myself that it was the best thing that could have heppened at this point. I mean, the other option would have been a revolution and the only kind Pakistan could have would have to be an Islamic revolution, and that would have been long, and bloody. Then there was the fuss about democracy. I don`t know about anyone else, but I`m 21 years old, and I have no idea what democracy is. Our so called democratic goverments of the honourable Nawaz Sharif and Benzair Bhutto are a terrible pun on a text-book definition of the term democracy. The situation was such that any change would have to be an improvement. And that`s what I`m hoping this will be.

Bilal, I and the rest of my generation lay all our lives and futures in the hands of your father. I have great hopes, and I`m going to pray to God for your father, because right now the stability of the nation lies in his stability.

God help us all.

Diary of a Coup Sitting in the united states, wishing desperately I was home during this tumultuous time of change, I find the lack of interest most people seem to be showing alarming. I keep emailing friends and family at home to find out what exactly is going on but all I get is a ``Ho-hum, seen it all before``

Maybe it`s because I was born in Zia`s regime and don`t remember all the times we`ve had coups before, but I find all this very, how shall I put it, attention worthy?

Anyway, just wanted to get my 2 bits in.

Haniya

Fears of a Military Coup in Pakistan Some people are saying the army should not have taken over and should have left the eventualities of the nation in the hands of the people. The way things were going, I foresaw a very bloody and violent revolution as the only way things were going to change.

Isn`t a bloodless coup better than a long and violent revolution, where the outcome is as uncertain as our future at this point, if not more?

Just a thought.

Haniya

Pak-Millennium Conference 1999 I`m a student and actually did go to the conference. I might be ``starry eyed``, but at least I have hope. I came back from the conference completely motivated, and I think the fact that this conference achieved that is more than we`re achieving just sitting on our hands and complaining and criticizing.

It might all be elitist and in the hands of ``the chosen few``, but at least theyr`e doing something. If even one person out of all of those who posted something on this page criticizing the conference has ever done something constructive for the nation, I will be genuinely surprised.

Being part of the generation who only saw Pakistan Zia onwards, I have a very dim and pessimistic view of our future. Or I should say had. Having heard people like Naseem Ashraf and having talked to them, I actually feel as if there might still be something that can be done. Nobody claimed that the conference would be the solution to all of Pakistan`s problems, but I feel the least the rest of you can do is laud the efforts of those who at least have the will to try.

Instead of being so cynical and passing comments on petty issues like why they used the word millenium, please encourage those who want to help. You never know. We might end up achieving something.

Wouldn`t that be a blow to all the cynics out there.

I didn`t mean to sound so aggressive, but it truly upsets me when people don`t get the praise and encouragement they deserve, which is the root cause of the absence of a meritocracry in pakistan. A change in the nation-wide attitude is needed, and I plead chowkwalas to initiate it.

If not for yourselves, at least for our generation.

Thanks for bearing with me,

Haniya

Snakebite WOnder ful as always Ms Shah. I`m one of your greatest fans and when I read you`re releasing a book of short stories, I literally let out a whoop of joy. I`m sure it won`t be a let down.

Keep it coming Ms Shah, you`ll never fall short of readers.

Manto versus Insha Why Manto and Insha? I don`t get it.

The Marriage Trap Marriage is the of all evil, especially in Pakistan. That`s one point I agree on with our respected PM Mr. Sharif, abolish them rigt off the face of the earth. It`ll be the end of all the corruption, economic instability and population inflation our poor poor nation has to face.

but seriously, I find the fact that marriage seems to be the only thing on the minds of the female population of our country form age 19-30 extremely sad. I, for one, completely understand whare you`re coming from Bina. I didn`t quite understand why people said they laughed when they read this article, because personally, I haven`t read a a more serious article addressing a grave issue such as this in a long long time. Our female youth need to get their priorities right once and for all. Wake up ladies.....please.

Keep it up Bina, I`m an avid fan of yours, read everything you`ve published here so far. Hope you keep writing. Your articles are about the only pieces of writing I can truly relate to.