The Playboy Interviews

Words like Sex and Nudes seem to come to many people's mind, if you mention Playboy Magazine. Should the magazine be banned? "YES" say hordes of people. I realize that the fact that semi-nudes featured in it were considered terrible in many people's mind and, I suppose, banning it in Pakistan seemed obvious. Sad as it may seem, I supposed that this was OK, despite my believing that there should be no censorship. After all, sex outside of marriage - and even looking at semi-nudes - was not allowed in our religion. Although, being in the Merchant Navy, I did get my Playboys after the ban when I visited UK, USA, India.

After the ban?

That's true. The ban happened much later. Otherwise one could buy it openly in a few bookstores: TIT BITS (What a name!) being my favorite book spot where I bought this and a lot of my SciFi, Perry Mason, Mickey Spillane books. All this happened during my school days and well onwards …

But let's get to 'Playboy':

Did I enjoy the nudes. Sure. I even had 3 of them framed and posted in my room at home and took them with me to my (rather short) days at Government College, Lahore. They hung on the wall there, too.*

Then there was also the delightful page after the fold-out nudes. It had jokes that were not (mainly) for the public.

Those were all enjoyable …  yes! But my love was the Playboy Interview. There has never been anything like these. Thinkers, Writers, Philosophers, Politicians, Humourists, Scientists, Actors, Sportsmen, whatever - you name them. They all appeared in Playboy. Most of these were finally sold separately as books. I have them all.

My First Book

My Second Book

My Third Book

Some Extracts from the Interviews

If you haven't got any of these, get them and read them.

Lives will be better, I promise.

Do You Like Religious Fiction?

 It can be very close to the truth!

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Next to SciFi (a subject I was strongly interested in - until the genre seems to have died down), Religious Fiction is another great favorite of mine.

For many, this interest may have started (and could have ended) via Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The Edition most people bought was probably this (or similar).

But my love for Religious Fiction is also associated with my love for Art (as well as the interest in the stranger things being represented in it).

So I had this edition. And I'd strongly suggest that those of you who have read the first one should really go out and buy this edition, anyway.

It has the Art mentioned in the book and gives you the same pieces as you read the text. As an example here are two artworks that you read about in the book and you don't have to 'Google' them to find out what they are.

The Isaac Newton Monument

The Last Supper (Detail)

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Isn't that brilliant?

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The next 2 books that I wanted you to read were by Scott Adams. Yes. He's the Hilarious Man that does lovely Dilbert stuff :) Have you seen his work? Here is one of his Dilbert books. But I digress …

Well these are the two Religious Fiction books that he wrote. They are a Series of Two Books and you need to get both to really enjoy them.

&

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And, finally, another book.

This one should be delightful for many of my readers.

Specially the Muslim ones,

though all others will love them, too,

as it was for them that the book was written.

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Would love to see your comments.

Hinduism fascinates me …

Gandhi Ji's Favourite Piece

For years in my writing blogs - often at times on religion and other beliefs - I have always found the Hindu belief system - now being 'demolished' by the idiotic Hindutva ideology (they think!) - has been a very strong favorite of mine. 

To say that Hinduism is thousands of years old as a religion is falsifying the fact. Imagine a thousand or more years ago: No eMail, no TV, no Internet; no means of sending your religious beliefs from say Bombay to Calcutta and back were difficult.

The way they all learnt about each other's beliefs (which had demi-gods and goddesses) was best done when travelers and business people visited these different sides. Several Hindus accepted that and added him along their belief system.

When the Calcutta people had Kali and the Bombay people had Ganesh, both sides added this into their beliefs: Hindus were very accommodating. Only a few years ago I found out about a group that accepted Hazrat Ali as a godsent person and even had 2 bhajans with his name.

The French and Persians call India as Hindu in their languages. The Arabs also once called them Hindus (some say that it meant those outside Arabia) and their beliefs - many as they were - were those outside Abrahamic Religions.

Unlike Abrahamic Religions where one believes that their God is the only true God, Hindus never had a God,  or a Prophet or a book.* You could believe in some but not all; you could be an Atheist; you could believe in Abrahamic faiths. You would still be a Hindu. You could even add others as demi-gods and leave some. You could still be a Hindu. 

(*Religious books, like Vedas etc., have came about later and Statues meant as GodSymbols came even much later.)

Going through their books (I did read many translations) might be fairly difficult. But if you are interested in Hinduism and it's current (mis)role I would suggest you buy Shashi Tharoor's Book …

It gives you a fairly interesting look at Hinduism and it's range of ideas, the differences among various groups (though they all accept that others are just as good) and include many quotes that are interesting in themselves to many people of Abrahamic religions.

Let me add a small piece from his book

The first challenge, of course, was definitional. The name 'Hindu' itself denotes something less, and more, than a set of theological beliefs. In many languages, French and Persian amongst them, the word for 'Indian' is 'Hindu'.

Originally, Hindu simply meant the people beyond the River Sindhu, or Indus. But the Indus is now in Islamic Pakistan; and to make matters worse, the word 'Hindu' did not exist in any Indian language till its use by foreigners gave Indians a term for self-definition.

Hindus, in other words, call themselves by a label that they didn't invent themselves in any of their own languages, but adopted cheerfully when others began to refer to them by that word. (Of course, many prefer a different term altogether- Sanatana Dharma, or eternal faith, which we will discuss later.)

'Hinduism' is thus the name that foreigners first applied to what they saw as the indigenous religion of India. It embraces an eclectic range of doctrines and practices, from pantheism to agnosticism and from faith in reincarnation to belief in the caste system. But none of these constitutes an obligatory credo for a Hindu: there are none.

We have no compulsory dogmas. This is, of course, rather unusual. A Catholic is a Catholic because he believes Jesus was the Son of God who sacrificed himself for Man; a Catholic believes in the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth, offers confession, genuflects in church and is guided by the Pope and a celibate priesthood. A Muslim must believe that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His Prophet. A Jew cherishes his Torah or Pentateuch and his Talmud; a Parsi worships at a Fire Temple; a Sikh honours the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib above all else. There is no Hindu equivalent to any of these beliefs. There are simply no binding requirements to being a Hindu. Not even a belief in God.

I grew up in a Hindu household. Our home always had a prayer-room, where paintings and portraits of assorted divinities jostled for shelf- and wall- space with fading photographs of departed ancestors, all stained by ash scattered from the incense burned daily by my devout parents. I have written before of how my earliest experiences of piety came from watching my father at prayer. Every morning, after his bath, my father would stand in front of the prayer-room wrapped in his towel, his wet hair still uncombed, and chant his Sanskrit mantras. But he never obliged me to join him; he exemplified the Hindu idea that religion is an intensely personal matter, that prayer is between you and whatever image of your Maker you choose to worship. In the Hindu way, I was to find my own truth.

Shashi has a personal deity (as do many Hindus). His favourite is Ganesh, his Ista-Devta (his personal god). He talks about a few different stories he heard as a child and I find them most amusing. (If I were a Hindu and had to have a personal god, it would be Saraswati)

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My own experience was that when I was in Calcutta (in my Merchant Navy days) I passed  a shop that had a huge glass front from which you could see inside. From the window I could see several deities. I saw Ganesh had fallen down and was lying with his head on the carpet. So I went right in and told the shop owner to put that right.

He laughed and said to me that he had put him in that pose. Although this is not verbatim, but his message (partly in Urdu/English) was roughly this:

"I have bought this shop 3 years ago and put Ganesh as the giver of money and grace the right side up. In 3 years I just manage to make enough to keep the shop but no fortune comes my way. So I put him upside down. If he realizes that he owes me success and sends me shoppers, I will put him upright again. Until then he stays with his head down on the carpet."

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Many of you will remember the song that talks of all the gods/Gods, sung by Lata and many others (Mohammad Rafi, for example). 

Lata Mangeshkar

Lata sang with many Muslims - Talat Mahmood and Mohammad Rafi to name just two, Now, sadly, she finally turned into a BJP supporter a bit before her death! A friend who knew her said that to me in a message after she visited her from Pakistan. Another person in India, a strong Hindu, said that she and her sister (Asha Bhosle) had become strong BJP supporters.

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There may be many here who are not necessarily interested in the belief systems of the Hindus, but very upset about Modi's Hindutva taking over India's masses. Muslims, mainly, but Christians also face the threats. Others will follow soon, it seems.

Shashi sahab is a strong opponent of Hindutva and I suggest that you buy this book and read more about about how Hindutva became what it is now. Most important: Read about V D Savarkar and M S Gowalkar … and how they brought this idea into the fold. Worth reading, too, is Deeendayal Upadhyaya who disagreed on some points withe previous two, but eventually believed in Hindutva.

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In Why I Am A Hindu the 2nd Chapter (Pages 131 to 245) is Political Hinduism - and offers, apart from details of the above people, the trouble that Muslims face as Hindutva moves forward. Babri Mosque and many other pieces, including lynchings, murders, and humiliation are described here … and they will increase for other minorities, too. 

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Here is a wonderful young girl singing the same song today.

Sniti Mishra

A look at Abrahamic Religions — 4

Part One is here.

Part Two is here.

Part Three is here

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A friend of mine from Lahore was here and staying at our place. She asked me about Gog and Magog (Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj, in Arabic) … and what the Abrahamic Religions had to say of them. So that's where I will be heading this time, but here's a small preamble that is important.

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If we are to consider the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions Abrahamic, there must be something that is similar among them. Abraham, of course, stands as the Father of all three religions and so do many of the texts in the books that are often similar and, at other times, differing in their details but common.

Jews don't accept the Catholic or the Protestant versions of the Old Testament Bible (yes they are different, too), except for the first 5 books which the Jews consider the Jewish Bible: the Torah. They obviously do not accept the New Testament at all.

The Christians accept the Old Testament (OT) - except for the number of books that the Catholic Version has, as opposed to the Protestant Version. But both sectors accept the New Testament (NT) - a collection of the Jesus's Ahaadiths and a few Epistles and other stuff that were put together 70 years onwards after Christ's Death (and Resurrection). But they do not accept the Muslim book, the Qur'an, as a religious work at all.

Most Muslims accept all the books given above. The Qur'an is their book and the others are mentioned in the Qur'an. Although there is a difference in how one interprets the aayaahs: There is a Saheefaé Ibrahim mentioned in Qur'an and becomes another book (apart from the one mentioned below) that is no longer available.

Almost all Muslims believe that there are 4 Books mentioned: Torah, Züboor, Injeel, and the Qur'an. Some members of a Muslim sect, however, also believe that Qur'an was not mentioned at all, because ''we are reading it and accept it as the word of Allah. The fourth book is really Saheefaé Ibrahim''. The Khalafiyya Shias (now extinct)- who believe in the importance of Fives - correctly believe there are 5 books mentioned in the Qur'an.

In addition to the total absence of Zuboor, a book sent to Hazrat Dawood (the OT's Psalms of David allegedly contain some of it), there is the Qur'anic saying that Jews and Christians have altered their works in many places. Often the Qur'an corrects it. Here is a basic example:

Exodus [20.11]
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Qur'an [50:39]

And verily, We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six periods, and no weariness touched Us.

A major difference lies in the Muslim and Christian understanding of Injeel (the word in English is Evangelism, which means Good Tidings). The Christians believe that Jesus gave them the Good Tidings of the world coming to an end when we would all be with God. Muslims believe that this was a book sent down to Jesus and the Good Tidings were about the coming of the final prophet.

The Christians do not accept that a book came down to Jesus, at all. In fact my teacher, a priest at my school, said Jesus IS God so there was no reason for a book to be sent by Himself to Himself. The Qur'an says there was such a book. A major dispute, here!

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Let us now get back to Gog/Ya'jooj and Magog/Ma'jooj

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Let's start with the Qur'anic beliefs, since they apply to the majority of my readers and to, specially, my friend.

Chapter 18 Surah Kahf:

94 They said: "O Dhül-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (people) do great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and them?"
95 He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): help me therefore with strength (and labor): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them:
96 "Bring me blocks of iron." At length when he had filled up the space between the two steep mountain sides he said "Blow (with your bellows)." Then when he had made it (red) as fire he said: "Bring me that I may pour over it molten lead."
97 Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.

Chapter 21 Surah Anbiyaa:

96 Until the Gog and Magog (people) are let through (their barrier) and they swiftly swarm from every hill.
97 Then will the True Promise draw nigh (of fulfillment): then behold! The eyes of the unbelievers will fixedly stare in horror: "Ah! woe to us! we were indeed heedless of this; nay we truly did wrong!"

Who is Dhül-qarnain? The translation of the term is 'the one with two horns' and is accepted by many Muslims as Alexander the Great because he wore a Skull Cap that had 2 horns on it. However, there is another school that believes that it is Cyrus the Great and you can see a Video about it here.

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The Jewish and Christian stories differ strongly from the Cyrus story and have Alexander as the King.  According to Muslims these books have been changed over time. The stories in both (Jewish and Christian) books are heavily contradictory within themselves.

1. Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Bible as individuals, peoples, or lands. Yes. All three are mentioned and they change after a few chapters.

2. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land.

3. In Genesis 10 Magog is a man, but no Gog is mentioned.

4. Centuries later Jewish tradition changed Ezekiel's Gog from Magog into Gog and Magog. This is the form in which they appear in the Book of Revelation, although there they are peoples rather than individuals.

5. A legend was attached to Gog and Magog by the time of the Roman period, that the Gates of Alexander were erected by Alexander the Great to repel the tribe. Romanized Jewish historian Josephus knew them as the nation descended from Magog the Japhetite, as in Genesis, and explained them to be the Scythians.

6. In the hands of Early Christian writers they became apocalyptic hordes, and throughout the Medieval period variously identified as the Huns, Khazars, Mongols, Turanians or other nomads, or even the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

7. The legend of Gog and Magog and the gates was also interpolated into the Alexander romances. In one version, "Goth and Magoth" are kings of the Unclean Nations, driven beyond a mountain pass by Alexander, and blocked from returning by his new wall.

8. Gog and Magog are said to engage in human cannibalism in the romances and derived literature.

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I presume these tales and legends, as well as the beliefs from which they come, should answer my friend … and any others who are interested in religious geography, history, and legends that spring around them later.

A look at Abrahamic Religions — 3

Part One is here.

Part Two is here.

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There are several blasphemous, ridiculous, and violent stories in the Old Testament, something that no god could have Written, while several people think it was Sent Down, Dictated, or He Inspired people to write. Here are a few for those who do not have/read the Bible. It is also aimed at many Christians who read it and gloss over these stories, try to forget about them, or say they now follow what's in the New Testament only.

In case of Roman Catholics, they believe that the Pope has a link with his God (Jesus) and has conversations* with Him. Some of these conversations make the Popes change their beliefs accordingly: Galileo is one case in point.

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I'll just stick to a few them

but if you really want to know more

you can read Robert Ingersoll and others.

Oh, but was an Atheist?
Hmmm.
Ok!

Listen to Bishop John Spong, then.

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At the beginning in Genesis we have several examples.

The most important ones after the Creation Stories, where YHWY does not know that the Sun is also a Star — (OT Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.) — are the Creation of Adam and Eve, who ate a fruit (now translated as Apple) at the Snake saying so, and were banished from Heaven. The most true part in this is the Man blamed the Woman, never agreeing to take the blame on himself :)

Those tales about Satan coming as a Snake is a bit odd since I can't believe if Eve spoke Cobranese (or whatever) or the Snake spoke Aramaic or some other language. How did they communicate?

What is most peculiar is that God said they can eat any fruit from every tree, except this particular one. (OT Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.)

Satan said He is lying.
They won't die.

They took the risk. And ate it. And lived.

Does that prove that Satan was right? I wouldn't argue.

Another peculiarity has me completely befuddled. God did say there was ONE tree. Not TWO. Just one tree. But look at this part that follows the above in Genesis:

3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Errrr … "one of us"? Haéñ. I thought there was just One God.

Even in the First Commandment to Moses he said "Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" (Does that mean we can have others in line after Him.)

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Of course Adam and Eve had children. Abel and Cain were their sons. (There are stories that they had a sister called Aqleema. Fahmida Riaz has written a wonderful poem about her. Google it.)

At some point Cain got upset and killed Abel. (Does that mean we are all children of the murderer? I hope not.) 

Anyway, let's see what Genesis 4 says.

4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod.

4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch …

So there were other women in Nod? Hmmm. Who were her parents? If they were not Adam and Eve's children, that doesn't make those two the only first human couple at all. Unless God (although He hasn't said this in the Old Testament) made more people and put them in different parts.

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Leaving other stories aside,

let us turn to Genesis 6.

6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Sons of Gods?
Looking at Daughters of Men?

Isn't that a part of what we (now) call 'mythologies'?

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See what this is followed by:

6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Well, not really, but anyway - we can skip that.)

6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Even more like those mythologies!

6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

…

Amen!

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*

(We mustn't forget that

President Idi Amin also spoke to Allah

and

President Bush the Younger also spoke to Jesus)

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A Place of Learning

Well, yes. I know that's difficult right now. Too many pressures. Not enough alternatives available. And the Governments in the Majority World don't really want their children educated: Why would an educated person vote for the ones that are now in Power.

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Learning is something we all do. Every day. From the time we are born to the time we die … though schools do lessen the habit and sometimes completely take it out. The Forces, of course, ask you to leave that habit outside when you join them and make you do whatever the Command says you must. Remember: Enemies become friends and change back into enemies as the Governments feel.

Education may, at one point, have meant the same. In some Universities it still does — though it seems to be changing about who you can invite as guest lecturers. Anyway, that was before Governments altered Histories and ever-changing goals, with no allowances to discuss alternatives or different views. Soon Corporations got on and even started adding books with heavy corporate ideas into the books. What? Well, look at the Math book with 'a little help' from McDonald's.

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At my schools (I started mine at 7 years and changed into 4 of them … but for goodish reasons), I was regarded as an average student. I passed my Senior Cambridge in 1956 in the Second Division with one A, five Bs, and an F in one subject.

Most teachers (though I must admit that Messers D'Souza, Nazareth, and Chohan, didn't agree with them) thought I was not a good student at all … while I thought I was being forced to learn subjects that were of no interest to me. I adored Maths, Physics, Literature, Urdu (as a First Language. No, not the Second Language that was really crazy). If the subject was of my interest, I really could do well. If not, it was nearly a Zero …

Part of my loves of these subjects came from my father, Azhar Kidvai, who was a Medical Doctor and an Urdu poet … and even sang reasonably well (something I couldn't do, how hard I may have tried). The love of Maths came from his engineering father, Safdar Ali Kidvai, who changed my near-zeros in that area to an ardent love in the 4 months that he was here for his operation.

My memory was good: I could go to a Mushaérah and come back remembering most of it and recite my favourite shayrs to my mother. But I could not use my memory to learn and regurgitate things that I had no interest in. And that has become the most important thing these days in schools.

My tastes were varied. I loved Music: Western Classical, Eastern Classical, Jazz, and great Pop. I adored films, from the Silent ones to the latest - if they were really good. I worshipped Comics and felt that some of them were like pieces of Art. But I guess they were not — until Joe Sacco appeared!!! I adored books. Read a lot of them. You'll be able to see most of these in a Library that wants to use the books, music, films and more for the public. It should happen in a year, I hope.

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In 1957-58 I went to two colleges. Thrown out by the first one in Lahore for reasons that they knew, I joined another one in Karachi … and walked out of an exam, running away (despite being an only child and much loved) to join the Merchant Navy. (More on the walk-out and going ships in another blogpost.) 

Once I became a Junior Officer on the ships, I started to teach Cadets who came from colleges, some even with a degree in Maths. They knew very little … and, invariably told me they'd forgotten most stuff after exams (which had happened less than 6 months before they joined us). I had to teach them Maths and a lot more. Most of them were joining the Merchant Navy to see the world but couldn't pick out countries in a world map. 

I felt that these students, too, had been taught 'wrongly' (like I was) … but how could one say this with any assurance? So I started to try and understand Education and Teaching.

Having read several books from the greats: Russell, Dewey, Piaget, Freire, Kohl, Kohn, Postman, and many many more (see the lists of some of these at the end of this post) … I soon also met the BBC B Computer in January 1982. Wow! Later I also added an Apple IIe. Both went away after I got a Macintosh in 1984.

BBC B Micro

Apple IIe Microcomputer

Apple's Macintosh 

All of these taught me how much Education could be supported by these technologies. So I started a computer company (the first Educational Computing company in Pakistan: Solutions Unlimited, now run as a consultancy by my wife, Nuzhat Kidvai). The computer companies went further ahead. First I opened Enabling Technologies - a multi-medea company (which was later run, independently, by my once-partner Jehan Ara, now heading P@SHA and Nest I/O). Finally, BITS - a venture that began as a collaboration with BSS in Lahore and me in Karachi. Later on the Lahore BITS stopped, because they wanted to continue to serve their Education base.

(Sabeen Mahmud was part of this from the time she was almost 15 years old until a few years later she became my full-time Partner at BITS. I was with her when she formed T2F … and BITS became a net-based consultancy. The day she was assassinated, after a session at T2F where I was also present, our car was only 10 seconds away from her when her mother phoned and said they'd been shot.)

For those who believe having no real Education is terrible,

believe me, it's not!
As long as you get into something you really love.

Listen!!!

Having no academic experience, I was called to seminars to speak about Education and my sickness of it having turned into what it now was. I spoke at IBA (Karachi) several times, spoke at several schools, taught at Karachi's Teacher's Resource Centre, went to Apple Conferences, taught teachers from Kuwait at the Melbourne University, attended schools to see what Windows did in Education (almost nothing!) versus Apple that did a lot of what students and I loved. But, of course, Windows machines were cheaper and forced Teachers to teach nothing of Education, except Computer Science, initially. Visited MIT and worked in a Conference that was run by Nicholas Negroponte. 

I met and worked with Seymour Papert and spent a lot of time with Roger Schank (whom I have had come over to Pakistan many times). At Hakim Saeed Sahab's insistence — he changed the requirement of being a PhD to head a Department and said 'PhD or equivalent' — I headed the first New Media Department in Pakistan at Hamdard U and taught there for three years. The course that I taught, because I insisted that it be vetted, was accepted by a Canadian University as being a good course.

I am a Consultant to Beaconhouse School Systems for who knows how long. I have helped them open up TNS (The New School) and taught teachers there. I also worked with them to start the Beaconhouse National University — which is an NGO and gives them no money, unlike what many people think. The School of Learning has had me for many talking sessions and Cedar College has me on their Board of Advisers.

So it works.

Drop Out if you must.

But do Drop In and love what you do.

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My talks at all of these, whether teaching teachers or students, had always included several things that I thought were essential - unlike the people who put their money into building schools (and, often, secretly accepting my views). Here are some of the things I talked about from 1989 to 2009 in my presentations, lectures, workshops …

* Grades are Degrading *

* Let's get back to the One-Classroom Schools *

* Life isn't about 45 minutes for each item —

so why do we have 45 minute periods? *

* Power tends to corrupt,

PowerPoint corrupts them completely. *

* A country's Geography decides its History:

Why two subjects? *

* There should be no Competition. *

* Let children learn by doing. *

* The Story-Based Curriculum is the best bet. *

* Children are different.

Schools want them to be the same. *

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I must admit that many feel changing schools to useful places - to teach children how to learn forever and improve their lives - is too difficult to do. This is true because they are pressured by book-selling companies and some amazingly funny educators*, hardware companies that want boxes to be put out, parents who think they know education because they went to a school or college, teachers who think that because they have done this for years they truly understand today's kids (and write stupid reports that always seem to say 'could have done better'), and the ones that only do this for finances: The is why Dr Eqbal Ahmad called such schools "The McDonald's educational equivalent" at a conference in Karachi. (Do visit eacpe.org and learn more about the world.)

We need Parents/Teachers trained about Education/Learning and to understand that they are training children for a future that they know very little about. A child who enters a school today will not have many of the jobs that we work with now when s/he comes out of School or College. In their lives they may even have to change jobs several times and relearn things or understand several new ideas. Many children will drop out of Education to do things that parents couldn't have even thought of. Non-formally educated kids can now go into many major companies if they can do stuff that schools never teach.

Don't forget this: At the end of their school career the child scores an A (actually too many A's, now), having spent days at school and then paying more than the school fees to Tutors. The Schools take out glorious ads saying this is what we did to the students. Baaah … How about placing pictures of the failed kids who were with you for years and this is what you did to them!

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The trend that I love most is Microschools. Read this and get to know more about them. It is absolutely essential if you are a parent. Or even a student. While the UK started this, take a look at Brooklyn, NY, where many such schools are happening. Go here.

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Recently, thanks to a friend, Jawad Ali, I came across Portfolio-School.  It's a school in New York run by Babur Habib (from Karachi) and Doug Schachtel … and it made my day. I hope to go there and see the school and enjoy myself thoroughly. This would be a great gift to me just after my 78th birthday. You must visit their website. Go there now.

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In November we have a great conference in Karachi. It's at the Beach Luxury Hotel, 3rd/4th November. SOT's Conference this time is called The World of the Future - Reimagined. Loads of people are coming in from worldwide as well as Pakistan (and India, too, if they get their Visas). They'll look at how the world is shaping up in all directions, discuss numerous subjects, and the impact that they'll have in the future of Education, as well.

And Babur Habib will be there, too.

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Some SOT Conference details are here for you. The following five, broadly-overlapping dimensions will be explored:
* A Symbiotic Future (focal points: artificial intelligence in governance, fourth industrial revolution, effects of technology on concepts of gender, human sexuality & reproduction)

* A Balanced Future (focal points: sustainable economic development, environment and climate change, gender, minorities, the end of poverty and the future of humanity)

* An Expressive Future (focal points: art as a universal language, the role of visual and performing arts in effecting change, global vs. local languages, freedom of expression)

* An Inclusive Future (focal points: unity through diversity, inclusion of the economically disadvantaged, learning differences, gender bias in education, sports and other pursuits, non-binary gender issues, barriers for change)

* An Unknown Future (focal points: safe learning spaces, personal security and data security, navigating a world increasingly under surveillance, new directions in science)


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Enjoy!

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Go to Amazon and look for these people.

There'll be tons of books by them that you'll love.

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Finally, a couple of interesting notes for you.

* Book Publish Companies

&

An Educator

Just a couple of small thoughts. Roger Schank and I were discussing (after the first SOT Conference) the possible future of today's schools. Both were against what the schools taught. We thought they should end soon if we can get around the pressures. The Head of a major publishing company in Pakistan was with us and said this is a ridiculous idea. What would her company do? As if we had put up schools to ensure that her company succeeds over what children needed.

She also added that children would get to talk to each other in schools (not that they don't in their mohallās!) … and I though that if they ever did that in the class, the teacher would ask them to shut up, since it "is not a playing field. Break is the time …"

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The same night we had a dinner at the host's house where I asked a really senior, fully qualified, educator (who was about to head a University shortly) if he ever needed Pythagora's Theorem in his everyday life — since he thought Roger's idea was stupid. He said "yes; I always do."

This was (not verbatim but almost accurately) his answer: Whenever I come to a triangular patch in a field where I could go straight and then turn right to get to my destination, I think of the Pythagora's Theorem and work out that it would be easier to cross the patch at an angle because it would be shorter. (Hmmm!)

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Āj Mohsin Ehsan bohat yād āé …

Mohsin Ehsan
a very dear friend who is no longer with us.

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A Dream Fulfilled: Mustafa Zaidi Event at T2F

Mustafa Zaidi Ki Yād Mayñ

Born 1930 Murdered 1970

It was really such a great event. All my dreams came true. For years after MZ's murder (although the courts asked us to consider it a suicide … and, sadly, many people believed it) I have been wanting to do something for his memory. Something that would put the record straight … instead of the idiotically crazy pictures that the press painted for us (and I feel that Jang, a newspaper that actually surpassed the sales of all other dailies in Pakistan, did). Something that would indicate what he was as a poet! He was one of our greatest poets that lived for just 40 years before death engulfed him and left us poorer in poetry.

But it wasn't just that …

It left us all poorer in the love of a man who always told the truth; poorer for a generation that had not even heard of him (thanks to the lack of availability of his books); the bans on his appearing on radio and tv broadcasts; the erasures of his lovely works from those libraries; and the actual poorness of that man's last few years when he didn't even have enough money to phone his family often.

After a ridiculous 303 movement — the removal of maybe many crooks but one that included a lot of decent people who were shunted out by President Yahya Khan (on advice from many who had personal grudges against them). The News says that "Yahya Khan’s military regime had summarily dismissed 303 civil servants and government functionaries, but did not prosecute them." That's not true, really. Blocks were put on MZ by having his passport confiscated and a ban was placed on his travels so that he could not see his family, a family that loved him and he loved so much. 

MZ mentioned this in a poem ("Pahla Pat'thar"). We all loved the poem … but the press refused to print it.

He then went to the two people who were known here as the speakers of freedom … but they, too, thought that it was wrong, so he wrote another poem ("Banaamé Idāraé Lail-o-Nahar"). Always worth listening to on his only audio CD: "The One and Only Mustafa Zaidi" — a collection that I have. It is now available at T2F (or by post in Pakistan if you pay the mailing charges).

Both became poems that the crowd celebrated and repeated to each other. But they were never published. You can read it now in the (almost!) full selection of his külliyāt.

The book is now available everywhere.

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Why did I say almost? There were two lines that were omitted in this collection … I have them and can read them out to you if we meet ;)

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It was soon after his death that I kept telling Nuzhat (my wife) that it was something we needed to do. The press was unfair. The politics was unfair. The people who read all this were being prejudiced because they neither knew the man … and even if they did, they thought the press must be right about him.

To the world he became the lover of Shahnaz Gul (a one year encounter in 40 years of his life!) …something that his wife, Vera, has to talk about, if she wants to.

How many people who read these posts can look into their own lives and not admit their 'other loves' after marriage. Many, I am sure.  Men and Women. But that's the theme of Hypocrisy. Blame others, not yourselves. One that now seems to pervade everyone … even more by the recently converted religiosity people. The first poem above says that, too, for MZ knew where we were heading.

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Years later, when I was heading Enabling Technologies, we decided to do a CD-ROM (Do you remember what those were?). I decided to do one for MZ, first. Sabeen Mahmud loved his poems after I recited them for her and really loved the idea I had for the beginning of the CD-ROM and we decided that it would bring him back to life.

But … with MZ's books missing from the market, and no voices that I could gather other than what I had with me, added to the fact that many parents and others had removed his books from their libraries in case children would know about this mis(represented) man, plus the banning of Mustafa Zaidi's work from Radio and TV, would make for very few people interested in him. So we chose to do 'Faiz - Aaj Kay Naam' as a CD-ROM. There was lots available for Faiz, anyway. And we loved him, too. The Faiz CD-ROM had 16+ hours of amazing works. We hoped we'd do MZ the next time. As events passed we realised that a few kids, who had access to computers, knew nothing of MZ and their parents rarely understood or used computers. Pity.

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Finally, back to our event …

The guests at T2F were superb:

Ismat Zaidi, MZ's daughter, who read out and talked about MZ in ways that we never would have known;

Saba Zaidi, Irtiza Ji's daughter (and MZ's niece), who talked of him;

Nusrat Zaidi, a 93-year old cousin who was a close friend of MZ, despite the age difference, talked about his humanity and love;

Nargis Saleem, the daughter of Dr Omar - a very close friend of MZ - who read MZ's letters to her father;

Khalid Ahmad who read out a few poems of MZ;

Our wonderful poet, Iftikhar Arif, who spoke for long and had so many wonderful things to say about MZ and our own lives in general (a person who is always worth listening to);

… and the moderator, Asif Aslam Farrukhi, who handled the occasion brilliantly. I am glad that he is on T2F's list as an advisor.

If you missed the programme (it was broadcast LIVE and will be on YouTube, too), here it is for you again.

Mustafa Zaidi Ki Yād Mayñ

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One of the T-Shirts that I was wearing (now available at T2F and can be mailed out to anywhere in Pakistan, if you are willing to add the mailing price on it) had this shayr on it.

I knew there'd be an objection and a person in the audience did raise it. He said the shayr was wrong. There was no kahēñ but it was koē. I pointed out that MZ had written koē, but a young college boy went up to him and said that the word, Kahkashāñ, was meant for Milky Way and not Galaxies. We all knew that was the galaxy we could see with the naked eye (and still can, if the annoying lights that hide all the stars in the city don't block out the sky at night). In fact we never had a word for galaxies in Urdu (now we do: we say گیلکسی ) … so MZ agreed and changed it to koē. He wrote that to the publisher when the work was going to be printed in his book and the publisher added kahēñ to the book … but forgot to correct it in the preface that was written. So now we have both available, with the correct one in the poem and the original in the preface. Take your pick. I'll stay with new one.

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We have had many people writing to us about the live broadcast. Some who missed it are waiting for it to go on YouTube.

Naseer Turabi (whom Saba and I contacted and got no response from him) was a very close friend of MZ. Now he says we wish he had been contacted. We did, NT! Several times. And would have loved you to be there. Don't worry we'll do another one next year on him and you'll be there, we hope.

We sadly missed Tina Sani who was supposed to come and sing a piece or two of MZ's poems … but she was extremely busy on that day and forgot. You'll be on the next programme, too, Tina!

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