Dusk Re: # 41

T Ahmed

Your post is hillarious. Zer iz one diferunce: Inspecteur Clouseau waz gud in hiz profession. Beejay iz onlyyy beginur

T Ahmed: your take on this article ?

Dusk Re: # 38

Beejay

It seems you have a lot of spare time on your hands and that Iam going through some kind of police interrogation !! Problem is you are entering without a search warrant with grotesque ineptitude. Anyways I need to justify nothing to you, but out of kindness, and since I have nothing to hide, I will adress your suspicions/queries/questions one by one:

1. ONLY two of the interactors, are personal friends of mine, and have read my poetry in other journals, newspapers and magazines since years. So whenever i write a new piece they are on my mailing list and being fans and friends they decided to join the forum to provide feedback.

2. As for the similitude of language, I see no resemblance whatsoever. Many of the interactors here fiercely criticize me or find lacunae, contradictions in my arguments, some to which I respond others I ignore as they get responded to by various other interactors. Many Chowkies launched scathing comments to my previous article UK General Elections 2005. But I always give them a piece of my unfettered mind.

3. The unusual hours of the posts are because, in case you did not realise, cross-cultural global time-zone differences, get various clocks to educate yourself Beejay. Since we are in different time zones. I live in the UK so ofcourse my hours of interacting may seem odd to Chowkies in the sub-continent.

4. As for the rapid frequency of responses, LO and Behold, certain members are logged on at similar times would you believe !! and feel an urge to comment on other people`s posts as well as mine so they post 3 or even 4 interacts at the same time.

A lot of what you asked me is mere common sense. Utilise it. It has been bestowed to you for a reason Beejay.

I would appreciate constructive comments on the article itself and not a self-stylized baselessly inept Sherlock Holmes inquiry.

Dusk Re: # 37

Dr Lokraj

Profound thanks for your feedback. How did you interpret ``dusk`` ?

Dusk Re: # 35

Sul

Your interact most staggeringly hits the very pulse of my inner-most feelings to the fore. Your take on “machiavellian machinations of today’s actors” on the socio-political stage is poignantly well orchestrated amongst the “ruling minority” that they shrewdly take the whole audience for a royal ride ! Their contrived script has managed to fool the popolace of a sub-continent for over 56 years.

More so you type “The paradox created by the vivid description of colour that evokes images of a resplendent, multi-textured world juxtaposed by reference to time and the fading light is excellent”.

You intricately dissect the symbolism I envisaged harnessing in ``Dusk``. I did indeed try fashioning a “multi-textured world” by differentiating ``the actors`` from ``the audience``, highlighting the various complexities of a discerning yet deprived beggar (audience) to the antics of the pseudo-intellectual wise-wits (mere actors).

Sul your keen eye to detail on “fading light” is subliminally profound as I tried to climax this piece to a thundering crescendo from daylight to dawn and from dawn to pitch darkness. Sul you accentuate

“readers take the ``girl`` so literally”. This indeed is typical of those who do not read between the lines. Lest we forget that many ``mockingbirds`` are mindless rovers strolling life with no bit of purpose. Forget the “hymn sheet” these guys would not know a “chorus” if it was neon-lit staring them in the beady eye.

Sul lastly your suggestion “but don`t transpose your own insecurities to his literature. Its too revealing!” Well I must confess here again that so many readers on this e-forum unadulteratedly lash out their inner demons in a most whimsical and out-of-context manner.

Sul yours is the best interact I have read thus far. I thank you for these thoughtful comments and insights. And hope to get many more of its ilk.

That perhaps remains wishful thinking given the general callibre of most.

Dusk Re: # 21

Moazam

It is all too easy to sweepingly castigate every molecule of ill-doing on religion. But there are larger dynamics at play wreaking havoc with the human condition. Such as power, politics, ethnicity, gender, a legal system, feudal structures....and the shopping list goes on....

Dusk Re: # 11

Moazam

An interesting twist of ``semantics``

Dusk Re: # 6

Kulsum

are not ``permanence`` and ``transience`` both threads of an illusory continuum ?

Dusk Re: # 3

Sarah

Mohsin Hamid very compellingly caricatures Mumtaz. A lady many readers indellibly identify with. Like Mumtaz the girl in ``Dusk`` lurches with an insecure/uneasy/plotting status on the fringes of an elite-laden society, imperiled by its accoustics, as she is when she hears Tony Blair`s championing slogans. Mumtaz too is fascinated by the accoustics of modernity: namely a taste for recreational drugs, infidelity and sports.

Dusk Re: # 14

Husna

A noteworthy commentary.

Inequity spirals out of control. In the outside world. We all do. From the inside.

Into a degraded existence of moth-like metamorphosis. We remain but on the fringes of society through inaction. This age-old problematique must compell us all to harbour thoughts on how to stop playing out inaction once more.

As daylight fades to ``dusk`` with time`s ticking clock against the backdrop of our bodies and lives, do we artfully weave practical solutions that resonate on many levels.

Or do we ``escape`` like lepricons into the wilderness of inactive sanctity ?

Dusk Re: # 27

Aimie

Thanks. It would be glad to hear your interpretation ?

Indeed the divisions between gender, class, and opportunity provide a not-so-subtle commentary on the fissures that run through contemporaneous society. Tellingly, a historical/cultural fragment about the internecine wars of morality are fought on battle grounds beyond the reach of the ``meandering mass majority`` of people, in air-conditioned sanctuaries of ritzy endroits. India and Pakistan are poignant epitomes.

We are all, like Emperor Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal):
imprisoned in our own ``Agras``, receiving as gifts the ``heads`` of

innocent civilians, raped victims, genocide

Though the largest Coffin on our Conscience

``Poverty and Ignorance``

Dusk Dear Readers:

Undeniably a posse of prodigious authors have graced our pages: exploding onto the scene: Albert Camus, Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Jean Paul-Sartre and the inimitable Mohsin Hamid. It is gladdening to see comparisons being made. Yet endless debates by certain participants on Chowk as to whether ``Dusk`` conformeth to a Kaka-esque Camus-Esque or Sartrian/Marxist genre should not bear gravitas.

For it conformeth to all. Yet conformeth to none. It takes a body and shape of its own.

Mind-numbing theoretical neatness as to whether this typology of writing fits into one particular brand: existentialist, neo-realist, marxist is irrelevant. Why the sudden fever of categorisation ? Certain works of art, be they paintings, architecture etc... are non-conformist, non-discript, or perhaps a luminously cocktail blend of ``genre-defying``.

Like a lion in his den : This debate can theoretically and frantically roar, rage and fume, though these exercises dilute the core and underlying message behind ``Dusk``

So many other authors have influenced me: Francis Fanon, Arundhati Roy, Voltaire, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Seth, Bharati Mukherjee--the list is legion.

All Im saying is that it is too ``Western`` a tendency to grope towards some understanding of the turbulence in our post-modern universe through theoretical prisms. It is only natural that, along with the histories and the political analyses, we turn to literature. Yet rattling our ``intellectual `` sabers, offers us confining entrees and categorisations which we, as mind-using humans must dispell.

A frustration of the less fortunate in a kingdom where a rampant ``Blingocracy cosmetic ruling`` class live in Ivory Towers is disconcerting to any one with a modicum of conscience.

An economic divide has be-devilled us all: where the moneyed suits can insulate themselves from the rules that bind the rest of society.

A visceral pride felt by them of painting the earth a sickly shade of pink

When lands are littered with diabolical blood-red.

Dusk Re: # 1

Hey Cayenne

A few readers took what you said to me LITERALLY (LOL). Are you on vacation yet ? With internet-fuelled action ? Sorry you had a balcony seat to watch Brain-Dead Bravado !! Re: this article: Depression and mood-swings are in tune with the natural state of being, in tandem with prolific William Shakespeare:

``There are tides in the life of man``. (Julius Ceasar, with reference to the Ides of March 15th)

These ebbs and flows pre-require balance. Though with the ``metaphorical`` gravitational pull of gravity it is impossible to control the vagaries of high-tides and low-tides. Surely part of nature`s intention I surmize ?

One counters all the tides.

As baggage.

The High.

And the Low.

Islam vs. Islam Cemendtaur:

you acidly observe ``this storm seems to portray the notion that the way life is presently lived in the west can be lived in the Muslim lands, with the native cultural stamp affixed and a light coat of Islam painted on it ``

A salutary tribute to your writing: this article feasts a magical backdrop of modern Rock and Qawalli favorably fused: yet accentuating an identity confrontation within American-born Muslims/Pakistanis. The truths and contradictions about themselves, a pluralistic dual identity crisis will hopefully mesh and metamorphose itself into invigorating strength.

Music is a potent instrument that both unites and divides this captive Junoon audience. Fence-sitting is only a natural by-product of a super-imposed class of civilizations. Junoon mythically meander through their lyrics crushing Huntingtonian trodden paths to offer an alternative-

Not clash but co-alition.

Not contempt but caring.

Junoon are emblematic in that they are one of the precious few bands who reveal their music with poetic, evocative and philosophical underpinnings: enticingly re-inventing the cultural wheel fortifying an inquietude: One can reside in the West and hold traditional beliefs simultaneously: be they Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi or Jain.

An endless search for transcendental passion only comes of age through internal cultural conciliation.

The shimmering air and light of dawn, even amongst torrid tensions of identity, finds its way through the capturing confines of obscurantism.

Your piece is a gift for any music fan and a must-read for identity conciliators.

Two months and counting Re: # 5


Zehra

Mr Rumble in the Jungle once prodigiously remarked ``I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger. ~Muhammad Ali, 1967, refusing to fight in Vietnam

Let me expound on Miss X: aka the female k9 species of cheap pedigree (a rather diplomatic way of saying ...well you know what)

Collective fear in X has stimulated her ``herd`` instinct, and she tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the ``herd``. So whilst she sheepishly waxes lyrical sunken in the oceans of liquer-induced racist ignorance, feel emboldened by the blissful fact that you are not part of the ``herd``. Perhaps a ``wolf`` in sheeps clothing ?

Or maybe a feline awaiting to get her claws on a South African k9 ? a Sri-Lankan rumble in the jungle Zehra ? heh heh.....Should I get the Kodak ready !

What x does not realise is that Accomplishments are race and color-blind. Amidst all the background snicker of her racial jibes she will probably pass it on to her offspring: the poison of Apartheid still not snuffed out of her celluloid.

Hailing from the streets of Brooklyn to Sinhalese-beaches: you have crossed bridges !

Racism is just one more you are learning to cross.

Which has been the toughest bridge you have crossed to date ?

Final thoughts: those who have helped to re-build Sri Lanka are not of ``one race``, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture. Or helping out during the Tsunami.

Racism isn`t born.
It`s taught.
Its bred.
Its launched like a deady grenade.
It eerily becomes part of a vernacular.
X was probably bull-dozed hatred into her blood from tender infancy.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.

Zehra: I love brown skin. Always did. Always will.

One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.

And to conclude, in the indellible words of Martin Luther King:

``I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism that the bright daybreak of peace can never become a reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word ``

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 74

cayenne

when the cards of the trip to london have been placed on the poker table give me a shout (my details including e-mail are on my profile) and we can partayy !

America’s Frankenstein Monsters Syed Javed Hussain:

Washington war-mongering will only fabricate futuristic Frankensteins. Uncle Sam`s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde duplicity stands no longer opaque.

Simultaneously for the Mujaheedin-i-Khalq’ (Mk)- Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, a theft from;

those who hunger and are not fed,

those who are cold and unclothed.

Syed Javed Hussain, gazing into the future what do you perceive will be the ramifications of nourishing MK Frankenstein ?