Why Doesn’t the World Care? #215, behram, you forgot to submit it respectfully.

but your sentiments are so noble.

this board has got something magical to it. people are shedding their insecurities and being human for once. nice.

Halloween Party #66, you are right about the wholesale stereotyping. That is sad as well.

cycle rickshaws though seem to be getting rare. I wouldn`t say beggars or prostitutes need more or less help, it`s not fair to equate things. Besides, people don`t really need help, they need resources. Once you make something available to a person, they generally know what to do with it, and it won`t take them long to figure out how to benefit themselves with it. I know it sounds simplistic, but its true. If Raju had an education, he may not have found a job and maybe would still end up peddling a rickshaw, but he would know better than to buy a clay piggy bank that had breakage potential. He might have been able to sign a chit at a local Grameen Bank with the words ``Savings Account`` on it.

Beej, are you a socialist? I know I`m not.

Halloween Party #63 that was a sad article. why do such people go to ``tour`` asian countries if they want to come home and bit*h about it?

More Tales of Sufi Wisdom what is the above silly prattling all about? sorry writer, but it seems like fables to me, and that too not very coherent or moralistic ones.

5. why help a dog just in Medina? If a person really likes his beliefs, eg. the sufi liking the prophet Muhammed`s doings so much, isn`t it incumbent upon him/her to follow it to the letter. I`m sure the prophet wouldn`t have helped out a dog JUST in Medina. Oh, you`re an Austrian? Sorry, can`t help you.

That`s just silly.

4. what was the point to that? that the man could read minds? Lightning happens you know, you forgot to mention that it just might have been a stormy day..

3. That one is good. We ought to be thankful for everything, however small. I`ll bookmark that one for my grandkids.

2. Osteoporosis?

1. OK, so the prophet says HE will visit Jami, not the other way around. So that means he`ll still need to get out of his grave won`t it?

What I want to know is WHO makes up these things?

She took the frying pan out again a thousand times thank u :)

ah, no, the story wasn`t about my kitchen. THIS is my kitchen. http://dreamkitchens.com/dream-gallery/album21/Shinn_2

beej, you are right about that little plumbing detail.
btw, here, to hurl = to puke.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? re # 40 Many approve of Osama. In fact, some very Hindu friends of mine cheered 9/11

Exceptions...

Does ``exceptions`` explain why many Indian (Bollywood) movies make 9-11 out to be a joke?

Halloween Party Beej, I did not say you treat people badly, and when it makes you happy, why feel guilty? Brain smashing isn`t a bad pastime as long as you don`t cause hemorrhage. cheers!

Aftershocks and Afterthoughts It is offensive to me personally to see the author equate a human catastrophe to divine retribution. I know it`s only human to think that the earthquake may be God`s way of saying ``Don`t fight or else``, but it`s far from humanity to publicize such petty thoughts. Be a hypocrite if you have to, but please don`t belittle someone`s very real suffering in this way.

As for the world thinking Pakistan is no longer a nation of camel riding bandits and whatnot. That is only in your head. People have only thought what Pakistan and Pakistanis want them to think, and even then there have always been scores of intelligent people who know not to think what they`ve been asked to think. The media is not the world and never has been, no matter how hard it tries.

The gibbersih on infants dying instantly while angels sang lullabys to them was beyond me. Allah knows best, but humans should know better.

The fact remains that those people have been living in those areas for decades, and geology/meterology/etc are no new sciences. This nightmare, though it could not be avoided, could have been planned for ahead of time, contingency planning no matter when or where it occured, the governments of India and Pakistan could have foreseen that in this sort of area tremors and quakes can bring about all size of disasters and they could have budgeted/planned/trained etc for it rather than spending so much on useless defence budgets that cannot even deter kidnappers from hauling off citizen orphans for prostitution purposes. As for the billions in aid money pouring in, now that the world ``recognizes that a real Pakistan, and a really good Pakistan exists`` (just rephrasing author`s words), where is all that aid money going? President`s Relief Fund for relief of the president, as the name so truthfully states? These people lived on 2 dollars a day, give just that back to them and they can rebuild their lives themselves - they are poor, not retarded. Will they ever see all that aid money? Ha. Forty five rupee blankets, four paisa tea biscuits, recycled baby bottle nipples, torn shalwar kameez with missing zarbons. This is what they are getting and will get. And oh yes, Allah knows best.

Halloween Party I just read the brain smashing you gave the rest of the interactors. maybe I shouldn`t have posted.

you know though, reading the story, I didn`t at all feel it was a poverty thing with some hidden agenda to it. I sincerely felt like it was just a well laid out story. The title didn`t really jell with it, (the ``party`` bit), but I didn`t think it had THAT much emotion to it, as opposed to what I see in all your comment posts. Plenty of jumping up and down emotion there. Whereas the story itself was pretty moderate paced, matter-of-fact, told as it is, and yes, believable, c`est la vie.

Halloween Party Ah! the cycle rickshaw, as opposed to the ``auto rikshah``.. the picture was a nice reminder of a few childhood summer holidays. I always wondered how the boy on the seat used to be so carefree, waving to people of his trade when they passed by, while using his thumb to ring the bell on the handle bar, and his other hand to steer. And all the time his left buttock would go up and the right one down, right one up left one down, thighs pressing the sides of the bike together, his bum not even touching the seat, you could feel the muscles working inside his backside to push those enormous pedals, and him so small yet he would be flying in the air and you could make out the threads sticking out of his back pocket with the missing button, and the cuffs of his navy blue trousers rolled so tight with more navy blue threads sticking out and you`d wonder what would happen if a thread got caught in the wheel spoke or the pedal, and you squatting there on the ground next to your aunt`s white Bata chappals with the blue toe bands which are right up against another aunt`s dark brown kolapuris the ones she uses for visiting people on special occasions, and you dangling on the ground with your frock flying in the air like the rickshawala and then you tuck the dress under you as best you can without falling off the side and feel like a balloon coz the air is still getting in, and all the time the rickshawala is chirping like a cricket bibiji this and bibiji that and you just want to smack him for flying so fast and not having any thing to hold on to in this rickety transport mechanism of his with the red vinyl hood and the window cutout at the back where you can see the zigzag lines of the sewing machine and the cheap aluminium frame that he probably sits up all night to polish it glistens so! whew... memories...

Halloween Party Aww. Nice story Beej, well written, good tempo. Poor Raju. But I think a bike lock costs a little more than five rupees nowadays.

She took the frying pan out thank you :)

A Devastated Metropolis re: #88 ``as for mukhtar mai, don`t worry about her - she is doing okay now and i am sure she would be willing to donate some money to set up a home for some half-burnt brides in india .................``

tsk tsk. How very crass. ``she is doing ok now``... is she? How would you know? Money is everything for you people isn`t it?

Ever seen a half-burnt bride that you can coffee-table ping-pong so glibly? Filthy pigs.

It`s all very well to throw salt on each other`s festerings, without descending into the absolute abyss of inhumanity.




#95, are you sure $1,000 will rebuild an entire house?

There was a Sunday Times article that Gov. of Pakistan is giving $10,000 to people who lost their homes in the earthquake. Either that`s an outrageous lie or the $1,000 is a typo (?). Also, you did not specify which agency is doing the home rebuilding, so where to send donations? Incidentally, I received a flyer from a friend about earthquake relief and tried to go to the Human Development Foundation website today that sent out that flyer, but the link doesn`t work (www.hdf.com). Could someone here tell me if that is a legitimate agency? Thanks.

A Devastated Metropolis Too cool writing style! I can just see the clouds...

actually, it would be nice if people took other people`s death seriously. whether it`s one dead or one thousand, it`s still nine months of terribly hard work for someone`s poor mom.

Sufi Encounter God, I feel intoxicated. btw your formatting is neat, with the high-low opiate effect.

so ali, do you twirl a lot?

Sufi Encounter God, I feel intoxicated. btw your formatting is neat, with the high-low opiate effect.

so ali, do you twirl a lot?