It is getting difficult every minute!

Hanging criminals won’t help reduce rapes; education will!

It used to get slightly worse every year. Then it became every month. Then weeks. Then days. Now it is several times every hour.

Rape exists in India and Pakistan (as well as many other countries). The one in Delhi, the disgusting Gang-Rape, is much worse. But let’s not forget that it has happened — in some form or the other: think of Bhanwari Devi or Mukhtaarañ Mai.

There are cries for killing the rapists. I am not for killing anyone. Not even the state can do that … but that’s another debate. As far as I know, it only answers the (necessary) malevolence that takes place at such a time. But it does not alter the situation.

Adding more laws does nothing. A news report I saw said there were 25000 ‘reported’ rapes in India last year. Only one really appeared and was dealt with, in courts. In Pakistan the number is quite high, too. In both countries very few report the cases so the news we hear is a small percentage of the population that has suffered such a crime.

Men in our countries (and in many places round the world) take their ‘superiority‘ for granted, though they have maneuvered it into place. The Police, almost always men, come from the same background as the rest of the people. They joke and laugh and belittle the culprits. Lawyers, mainly men, take part in the same approach and question the culprit about the dress she wore, why she was alone, why she was out at that time.

Some men are there to threaten the victim while she is coming into the court. There are lots of men who are in the court to hear the proceedings and support the rapist. In many cases they ‘hoot’ the prisoner. There are others who are there to laugh out loud until the judge stops them. But it is always too late for the victim. The judges, mainly men, also believe in the same things that most men do. However just they may be - they ask the same questions, ‘subdue’ the victim, force her into repeating the crime scene over and over, and in some cases, are even more awful in their remarks.

In a case in Karachi that I attended, a nurse was raped by a doctor in a hospital. The judge saw her report and asked her if she has had sex before this rape. She said she had. The judge said that she was “habituated to sex and could hardly appeal for rape here”. Her brother was approached by the police and some others and took a large amount of money and never came into the court again. He has a lovely house now and lives well. The doctor has disappeared after getting a bail. The nurse was challaaned and was in prison for a long time until some NGO helped her out.

In many cases it sometimes seems that the killing the victim - as it happens sometimes - was worth much more. After the killing, at least the victim doesn’t have to care!

The question, in my opinion, is not about stronger laws, death sentences, castration laws being enforced, public hangings, and more. It is essentially about changing our attitudes at home. Punishment takes place once … but does not alter the criminalities that take place, anyway, afterwards.

Rape - we must tell school children several times as they grow up - is a penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.

We have to teach the boys that rape is a terrible crime. In schools we have to teach the children how awful this crime is. The problems it raises. The problems that persist for years, if not forever.

We have to teach the girls — and boys, too, now that homosexual rape is ‘recognised’ but hardly ever taken up as a case — how to respond in a society and how to get away from the space, if they can. If not, then what is the next thing to do. Report. Go to a support center. Go to a Doctor. Ask for a female doctor if you are a girl. Its not easy if you are a victim, but the public will support you if you do this. A few, at first, but almost all, at some point.

We must teach the journalists and the press that reporting rape cases does not include (unless the victims says so) the name or whereabouts of the victim. The pictures of mutilated bodies and images of the family crying are not what the majority of the public should be shown, either.

Dr. Khant

RIP Faizaan Peerzada

Every day I see your painting!

You were the warmest of all your warm brothers.

Your love of

Puppeteering, Lights, Plays, Classical Dances, and Music,

played a great part for

everyone in Pakistan

and abroad.

The Deaths of Children

The disasters go on.

Each day.

Newtown (Connecticut, USA) recently lost 20 of its wonderful children - aged just 6 & 7 - to a gunman. Take a look here and read about the children.

The school also lost its teachers and the Principal who were trying to stop the disaster. One of the teachers was Victoria Soto who helped the children but was killed herself.

On Instagram someone posted a picture of hers out of respect. One commentator, Sufiyan Ayyad (who writes under 'heyimacrab'), had this to say:

Is he much different from Adam Lanza, the killer at Newtown School? I doubt it. Should someone question him? I think they should!

*****

There's Bill Quigley

• Human Rights Lawyer

• Law Professor at Loyola University New Orleans

• Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights

He talks to President Obama about the children who have died:

Remember the 20 children who died in Newtown Connecticut.
Remember the 35 children who died in Gaza this month from Israeli bombardments.
Remember the 168 children who have been killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan since 2006.
Remember the 231 children killed in Afghanistan in the first 6 months of this year.
Remember the 400 other children in the US under the age of 15 who die from gunshot wounds each year.
Remember the 921 children killed by US air strikes against insurgents in Iraq.
Remember the 1,770 US children who die each year from child abuse and maltreatment.
Remember the 16,000 children who die each day around the world from hunger.


These tragedies must end.

******


but, then, there is also
Larry Pratt
Gun Owners of America's Executive Director

“They have blood on their hands"
A gunman whose name we do not need to memorialize took advantage of our gun control laws to slaughter some 20 children and seven adults in a Newton, Connecticut elementary school.
In addition to the gunman, blood is on the hands of members of Congress and the Connecticut legislators who voted to ban guns from all schools in Connecticut (and most other states).  They are the ones who made it illegal to defend oneself with a gun in a school when that is the only effective way of resisting a gunman.
What a lethal, false security are the Gun Free Zone laws.  All of our mass murders in the last 20 years have occurred in Gun Free Zones.  The two people murdered a couple of days earlier in the shopping center in Oregon were also in a Gun Free Zone.
Hopefully the Connecticut tragedy will be the tipping point after which a rising chorus of Americans will demand elimination of the Gun Free Zone laws that are in fact Criminal Safe Zones.
One measure of insanity is repeating the same failure time after time hoping that the next time the failure will turn out to be a success.  Gun Free Zones are a lethal insanity.
We must tell our elected officials that they are acting as the criminals’ friends as long as they continue to support legislation that only protects criminals, not decent people
Oh, and we must also insist that these criminal friendly elected officials not even try to blame gun owners and our “gun culture” for what a criminal did.  Had a few of us been available with guns at the Newton school, most of the victims might still be alive.

Should someone question Larry Pratt? Yes. In a mental hospital, preferably.

*****

The GOA has said that the National Rifle Association - a group that is extremely popular during elections by their supporting guns - always stays quiet in such moments and plays possum.

Should someone sensible in the NRA - and I am sure there are sensible people there - talk to its crowd? Yes! Yes! Yes!

*****

I know there are children all over the world, including in Pakistan, Palestine, Kabul, Iraq, even Israel, where they are bombed, tortured, turned into gunmen themselves, maimed, killed — and a lot of angry bursts on the Internet ask why some of us are crying about the Newtown children, only. This is not true! We cry over all of them. But this was a rather different tragedy. One gunman killed these babies ... not a government or its allies. We must as Bill Quigley said, put a stop to all this, about all the children, everywhere. We must bring laws and enforce them. But we need to make sure that this solitary gunman's acts are not repeated - there or here - or anywhere.

RIP Pandit Ravi Shankar

There are really no words to describe him!

Roshan Ara Begum

6th June [?] 1917 - 6th December1982

Belonging to a family totally devoted to music listening, I had heard Roshan Ara Begum's 78 RPM records (Anyone remember those? My daughter asked me if they were old CDs!) … but the first time I heard her in a concert was when I was 13. She sang a Des, Jaunpuri, and Jhinjoti Thumri that day that were absolutely out of this world. And I was floored. 

After the concert Farrukh Chacha (2 years older than his brother, playback singer Talat Mahmood) told me that he, with his older brother, Khusro, were listening to her at an early concert some years ago. Ustad Faiyaz Khan Sahab (Agra Gharana) said to them that it was great that she was a girl: Agar voh la∂kaa hoti to shayad koee mard üss kay aagay nah hota (= Had she been a boy, maybe no man would have surpassed her).

A student of Ustad Karim Khansahab (Kirana Gharana), she was an impeccable singer and had the ease that very few singers seem to have. No drastic expressions, no large hand gestures, just pure sur and malhaar, remarkable sargams … and her breezy taans! That was her.

I used to phone Pandit Bhimsen Joshi on his birthdays and one day he said to me that he liked Roshan Ara a lot and wished there'd be some of her students he could hear. I couldn't think of any … and still know of no one who learnt much from her.

When Munawwar Ali Khan (son of Ba∂ay Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab) came to Pakistan he went to Lahore, with me, to ask Roshan Ara Begum to come and be the guest of honour at his father's memorial concert that year. Sadly, her husband was in the Police and she could not go to India without permission - so she refused.

Many years later, while my ship was in Karachi, I attended her last concert with Khusro Chacha, the most serious listener of classical music in my family. When she sang a new raag she had composed, she said it was two raags built into one. Later, Khusro Chacha went up to her and said he was sure he heard a small amount of another raag in the composition. She smiled and said: App kamaal kay aadmi haéñ. Maéñ nay to sirf ayk baar ayk aur raag ka tük∂aa istemaal kiyaa (= You are remarkable! I only used that small piece from another raag just once).

Thirty years ago, today, I was in Bombay on my ship. I got a call from Talat Chacha who was in tears. "Roshan Ara has passed away. Come to the house." I left the ship and reached his house in Bandra. He opened the door, still in tears, telling me "The world of music is ending now …"

Roshan Ara also sang some film songs under Anil Biswas and Feroze Nizami as well, specially for well-known films such as Roopmati Baazbahadur and more. When asked to sing Ghazals, not her usual fare at all, she did a fabulous job that can be seen here, for example, using her classical training.

Several of her recordings were made by Radio Pakistan, PTV, and Pakistan National Council of the Arts, but my constant messages in order to get a whole list of stuff they had recorded has received no responses. Syed Nasir Jehan, the famous Noha and Soz reciter, was once in charge of Radio Pak's Archives. He told me he was 'informed' that many of the Radio Pakistan versions had been lost or recorded over 'because of a lack of new tapes'. How terrible!

Ardeshir Cowasjee

Born on April 13, 1926 to Rustom Faqir Cowasjee and Mucca Rustomjee

Ardeshir Cowasjee passed away on 24th November, 2012

Jamal Ashiqain's photo

with a remark Ardeshir made to a new journo

(added here by me)

just as the picture was being taken.

My first meeting with Ardeshir Cowasjee was when I was an officer in the Pakistan Merchant Navy. He was invited to our ship, along with many other people, for a dinner … and I was asked to receive him and bring him up the gangway. Everyone used to say that he was very difficult to get along with, and I was told by the Captain to be really careful.

He walked up the gangway and asked me, "Kitna see∂hee thaa neechay say oopar tak?"
I had no idea, so I said "Sir, maéñ abhi gin kar bataaooñ ga …"
And Ardeshir said, "Agar abhi tüm ko yeh naheeñ maaloom to, saala, tüm kaptaan kaesay banay ga!"

Years later, I went on board the 'Ohrmazd', AC's favourite ship, while it was being built by the Burntisland Shipyard. I had gone to see the Chief Engineer, Mr. Mehdi, who was a friend, and was told to go to the funnel where he was. Next to him was Ardeshir … with whistles that he wanted Mehdi sahab to 'blow' … so he could choose the right one. He finally settled on one and left while Mehdi sahab stood at the funnel to match it withe the ship's whistle being fitted. I had never thought that anyone would be so careful in choosing the exact note of the whistle. But this was Ardeshir.

M.V. Ohrmazd

He finally had the Burntisland Shipyard closed down, too. Here are some lines from the Internet.

The ship in question was the 'Ohrmazd', a fast cargo liner for the East & West Steamship Company of Karachi, Pakistan. This ship was effectively being paid for by the British Government, as part of its foreign aid to Pakistan. But its construction was plagued by wrangles over the specifications and contract terms between the shipyard and the shipowners. These led to serious delays in completing the ship. The delays in turn led to the incurring of punitive financial penalties by the shipyard, which it was simply unable to cope with.The ship was completed in November 1968, but the damage had been done. Burntisland Shipyard went into liquidation the following month.

Having visited him since 1984, when I settled back in Karachi, having left the Merchant Navy to look after my ailing mother (and see my newborn daughter grow up), I became very fond of him over the years.

His love of books was tremendous, as many of you know.

I have a copy of 'Jinnah', signed by Stanley Wolpert,

that Ardeshir gave me for putting his computer right just in time so that he could send a column to Dawn. I had quite a few arguments with him about this book (I had read the original one published in the UK a while ago) but his love of Quaid's views was far greater than mine.

We talked of politics and Karachi very often … but what I enjoyed most were his anecdotes of people he had met (and often disliked!) which were hilarious.

I guess if he hasn't told them to you, I won't either!

RIP

•••••

Read this piece by Sabeen Mahmud on AC & T2F

What a loss …

ARDESHIR COWASJEE

(April 13, 1926 - November 24, 2012)

•

A Boss!

A Mentor!

A Client!

A Friend!

•

RIP, Ardeshir.

You were one of the best people I knew!

Everyone at T2F will miss you, too.

You gave a lot of us a wonderful life

with all your words.

I bought your book last week

and was going to get you and Amina to sign it …

but I was far too late.

Nasir Bhai …

aap ki yaad to hamayshah hi aati haé.

Laykin har Muharram mayñ aur ziyadah!

Mushtaque Sahab (Jehan Ara's father) asked me to get someone

from Karachi for the Eedé Milaad function in Hong Kong.

It took a lot of convincing to get Nasir Bhai to travel by plane.

He hated long journeys and the transport.

Finally he agreed and came over

(and he really loved HK).

Here's a beautiful soz by him for this 1st day of Muharram.

It is in Purbi — a language that our elders spoke in UP.

He learnt it from his mother

who recited soz and nauhaas beautifully.

(The piece is by Zakhmi Lakhnavi)

It was recorded early one morning in JA's office.

I am so glad I have it with me and can share it with his lovers.

Dear Malala …

We need you to do more when you come back.

Lead all the girls into education.

Start a movement — there are many young and old people behind you. Tell them to come out and start similar movements wherever they are. Right now!

Teach them (again and again and again) that it is impossible for a society to grow up until its women are educated.

They are following you and love you. They can help you, and your wonderful friends, change this country. You didn't know where they were … and some didn't know you were doing amazing things. Now they all know! You can get them together. On Twitter, Facebook, Newspapers, Magazines, Videos. Everywhere!

had they been Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, whatever …

What could they have done to start such a movement? People would have laughed (or even said a teeny-weeny "Sorry" if one or more were shot) and moved on. Get their girls with you.

Come back soon!

Love.

Is the separation of Mosque and State possible?

Islam is not just a Mazhab (Religion), it's a Deen (aka Din) … and Deen is 'a way of life'.

This means Deen includes Mazhab! Of course it includes many other things, too: Education, Family, Values, Food & Drink, Governance, Politics, Justice and much more …

Deen has 3 different meanings. The first one is a loanword from Aramaic-Hebrew where it meant "judgement". The second one is an original Arabic word, which means "custom" and "usage". The third word is an entirely distinct Persian/Farsi word, meaning "religion" (which is why the Urdu language often says Islam=Religion … i.e. Religion in its broadest sense).

Some authorities also state that the Persian word existed prior to the Arabic word, even in pre-Islamic times, and was possibly how Arabs began to start using Deen, but in their own terms. This led to some difficulty for the Muslim exegetes. Qur'an's "Maliké Yawm-id-Deen" ( or مالکِ یومِ الدِّین, to write it in Arabic) was generally accepted to mean 'Recompense' or 'Reckoning' … but eventually everyone decided to make it 'Judgement' — and that is how we see it translated by Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, and others.

Theologically deen is defined, according to Gibb/Kramers Encyclopaedia of Islam, something that "guides rational beings, by their choosing it, to salvation here and hereafter, and which covers articles of belief and actions." Here it obviously means 'Religion' … but, as I said earlier, in its broadest sense.

This definition makes it essential to ensure that deen is not milla (=religious community), mazhab (=school of canon law) and shari'a (=system of divine law). It could, of course, mean any religion - but is generally held to mean Islam, specially in the light of Quran's S3V19 إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامُ which shows that the "only deen under Allah is Islam".

BTW, deen, in this verse, has almost always been translated as 'Religion' by nearly all well-known English translators. Urdu translators, however, often say جزا کا مالک (the Master of the Recompense).

Why do people differ so much in their translations of such verses? They do that also when it comes to Vahy (or Wahy). They treat it as major inspirations to Prophets, while the Qur'an speaks of Vahy's to Bees and to the Disciples of Isa (Jesus). In fact Allah Vahy's to Earth and a verse even shows the Shaitan (Satan) sends down Vahy to their disciples on Earth.
Take a look at the verses on the subjects I have mentioned, using a Qur'an Translation that has an Index. Or you could go to one of these sights to get a basic idea: This or this! 

So, now we know that if Islam is a Deen, it is impossible to separate the Mosque from the State. At least in an Islamic Republic. However, Pakistan was not always an Islamic Republic. 

In 1947, at the time of the Partition of India, it was known as the Dominion of Pakistan. The other part was called the Unit of India. Pakistan was a dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations under two monarchs: In 1947, King George VI relinquished the title of Emperor of India and became King of Pakistan. In 1952, at his death, Queen Elizabeth II became Queen of Pakistan. She had that title until 1956, when Pakistan became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with a Constitution. (The Constitution was suspended by Ayub Khan and the country became The Republic of Pakistan — but that came back when the Constitution came back).

Among the various things that have happened in Pakistan through its 'growth' (I can't think of a 'real' word that would describe its decline!) has been its moving away from Jinnah's ideology and starting something that has no evidence: the Ideology of Pakistan. (Allows you to take anyone to court by saying s/he is against Pakistan's Ideology, though.)

So … is there anything we can do now to stop this 'plunge'?

There are a few things that must be done and will have to come from one leader! It cannot be done, bit by bit, via several leaders, because each one feeds off the other. Which leader? Hmmmm … very hard to imagine, when we've got leaders who are
(i) pro-Taliban,
(ii) in league (underhandedly) with Taliban,
(iii) wanting the Taliban to go on with their ideas (even though they may not agree with them) because it helps get them votes,
(iv) are anti-PPP (although PPP cannot do any of this because part of it was done by their leader),
(v) are pro-Military (errrr … which side of the Military are we talking about?),
(vi) are pro-Zia (there are many who benefit from his madness).

So we seem to have no one left.

But we will have to get one, soon, if we want this change — unless you want Sharia. That, sadly, has lots of things within it that no recognisable (or even unrecognizable) sect of Muslims agree upon, leaving more room for fighting. Something we just cannot approve.

Anyway, imo, these are the things that must be done: 

• The Islamic Republic of Pakistan must become The Republic of Pakistan.

• Hudood Laws must be removed. Women cannot be treated as minorities.
  They are almost equal to men.
  This must be announced boldly.

• Anti-Ahmadi Laws must be removed.

• Courts cannot 'enforce' non-Muslims' evidence or a woman's evidence to be less than a Muslim Male's evidence.

• Religion must be made an 'Optional' item on your Passport.
  If you like, you can have it stamped. If you don't, you cannot have it stamped by force.

• Human Rights Laws must be made universal.
This does not stop you, in your personal level, from agreeing/disagreeing with the views of other people - and you can establish your own view - but you cannot act upon that feeling and try to move those people out of society. Laws must be equal for everyone in Pakistan.

• Religion must not become a compulsory subject in Schools and Colleges (If you want, you can attend it. Those who do not want, can refuse it.) — and should not always be an examined one. Those who want to be examined can ask for it and be examined and marks set … but those marks are not to be considered as entrance marks into programs that do not necessarily want their understanding to be essential.

• Religion should be considered a private matter.

Do you think we can do this? Or have we gone too far … ?

Wondering what YOU are doing?

I wait in the moonlight for your secret …

Thinking of our kissing as one, toes to toes,

In search of the magnificent

Red and Mystical thrill of love.

The dark night floats in on Hummingbird wings

And lands like my kisses on your mole.

Your skin glows like the Mango,

Blossoms deliciously

As the tulip

In the purest hope of spring.

My heart follows your Sitar voice

And leaps like a feline at the whisper of your name.

I am filled with hope that I may dry your tears of honey

While, in the quiet, I listen for your last purring of the day.

(Hahaha: 'Written' via the Pablo Neruda Poem Generator)

Inspirations

It's 49 years since you left me, Abi.
I have changed … but not too much!


Ansel Adams
Isaac Asimov
Ray Bradbury
Fredric Brown
Lenny Bruce
George Carlin
Ismat Chughtai
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Crumb
Charles Darwin
Richard Dawkins
Will Eisner
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Jules Feiffer
Mahatma Gandhi
Asadullah Ghalib
Joseph Heller
Aldous Huxley
Robert G. Ingersoll
Steve Jobs
Azhar Kidvai
Paul Krassner
Harvey Kurtzman
Timothy Leary
Josh Malihabadi
Saadat Hasan Manto
Scott McCloud
Marshall McLuhan
Duane Michals
Henry Miller
Vladimir Nabokov
Roger Price
Bertrand Russell
Carl Sagan
W. Eugene Smith
Alvin Toffler
Kurt Vonnegut
Walt Whitman
Mustafa Zaidi

•

UPDATE
I wore this design on my TeeShirt 5 days ago
and while I was going to Lahore
I was approached by a youngish ABCD chappie
who asked me which University in the USA I was in.

I said "Why?"

And he said "These must be your classmates
at the Fiftieth Anniversary, right?"

:-)

RIP Mrs Colaco

Thanks for all the wonderful things you did for us!

Mrs. Marie Colaco

(Ko-laa-so)

1920-2012

died in Canada yesterday.

Sadly, Marie Colaco School no longer exists.

But it was a really great school …

(and it was the first non-Church private English school in Karachi)

Dunno why I wrote this … but I had to!

Watching a documentary on Africa and its various countries two days ago on BBC I discovered a religion that has been there before Christianity and Islam … and still exists. There were hundreds of worshippers dancing and praying, while many Christians and Muslims stood on the roads to see them going past and no one decided to harm anyone.

… and I thought:

Years ago (when I was trying to study in Lahore) some friends and I saw a wall that said in large letters: "قادیانی کافر ہیں" (Qadianis are Kafirs).

Under it someone had written in small letters: "اور شیعہ کچھ کم نہیں" (and Shias are not much less either). 

While some of us giggled college-boy giggles, we all soon thought that this was hardly something to be written on the city walls. Three friends from that crowd went there at night — with an 'expensive' spray can (considering we were broke all the time) — and wiped it off in 'really-bad-black': The three friends were a Sunni, a Shia, an Ahmadi! (Thanks Drs. Kamal, Naqvi, Zayb — if you ever read this.)

•••••

With the Shia killings becoming more and more common, unbelievably common, many people have now started to address the matter. In print one does see someone write a small letter … and a few good and strong people write even their views in articles. It is true that almost all do say that this is not Islam, it is just a band of hooligans that have taken the religion away from us. Let me add, though, that this applies mainly to the English press.

Urdu has a much larger audience and they do not write as many things against this, sadly. They stick to  the news that it has happened and it's terrible. Most add close-up pictures of grieving families and relatives crying. Again, there are exceptions. But just exceptions, though!

Most TV shows continue to focus on how far up the paénchaas must be from the ankle for the prayers to be really heard, and how our lives are going to be according to the 15-second responses by wonderful Islamic 'astrologers and num-err-ologists' and show some pictures but try and not dwell too far upon these.

•••••

Apart from the above horrible tales of Shia massacres (imagine two/three bus-loads killed after the passengers ID cards were 'examined') we now also have added Hindu girls who suddenly realised — at anything near 14 years of age, usually — that the gods they prayed to were 'baseless'. They immediately decide to become Muslims and get ready to go to heaven by marrying a gentleman of faith (and the longest possible beard) in the area they live in. 

This has been going on for a long time, but, originally, was an occasional 'personal enmity' or 'land-grabbing' that led to it. 'Love thy neighbour' has now become 'Marry your enemy', it seems. And it must look like she asked for it. Thousands of fundos in trucks, vans, motorcycles, with a mulla leading the lot, marched into the mosque where one girl was recently converted. (I am waiting to see when a Hindu boy converts to Islam and decides to take a Muslim wife whether we will see similar joyful scenes.)

What people do to their enemies has never scared me after I discovered that Sahir Ludhianvi's father named him Sahir because he had a person he disliked who was called Sahir! He thought every time he beat Sahir he would at least have 'beaten' his 'enemy' too.

I realize, of course, that some Hindus, including the younger brother of a friend of mine from St. Pat's, also ran away after the 1965 war with India for being 'hounded' (Good word, this! Covers up a lot …) by our 'agencies' (Excuse me, but whose 'agents' are they? Certainly not mine!) checking to see if he and his family were Indian spies. While he was born in Karachi in 1948, Krishan's last 4 generations had lived in Karachi and had decided in 1947 to stay in Pakistan.

•••••

Then there our Christian friends. Strangely, in a country where it's laws do not really 'allow' the chance of blasphemy to take place (unlike the USA) — and a death sentence is sure if the person is guilty — we have a Christian boy caught for having written words against the Prophet on a wall. He was taken to the Police. They wanted to see the words, naturally. But the people who complained about the boy had washed the place clean so that the words would not be 'visible to other Muslims' (as the news report said). Chalo. He was in jail and some Western country took him away when the time was ripe.

Now there are even more and more blasphemy cases and the people are, generally, Christians (but you can add a Hindu here and there, too). The courts are small. It takes months - sometimes years - to try them all out. And our pious people want justice! So they kill the [wo]man at their next visit to the court. 

An 11-year-old Christian girl, with Down's Syndrome, has recently been found guilty of burning the pages of the Qur'an. We have her in 'jail' for the last few days and just three days ago, on Twitter, someone has just told us that the Police say she is 16 and has no Down's Syndrome!  Let's see where we go with that …

•••••

It's pointless to mention Jews here. Many were chased out after the 1967 war in the Suez area for 'possibly' being 'Israeli spies'. Three of them were people whose families I knew … and one was a senior officer in the Karachi Port Trust.

•••••

We can come to the Ahmadis, now. They deserve a really special treatment for they have been legally made religionless and, quite often, homeless. Look at our earthquake period and see how some of them were not given medicines or food because of their religion.

I realise that some religio-political parties always considered them non-Muslims. Our first Martial Law took place in Lahore because of a 'fight' between JI and Ahmadis (in which most accept that the Ahmadis were victims). But it was Mr. Bhutto who put the first 'official shot' into this when he was trying to get the Mullas behind him (mainly because he was being forced to leave). While the following video shows that he did this because of S. Arabia wanting him to put their religion as non-Muslim … but what were the S. Arabians going to do with Ahmadis who were coming from other countries where Passports have no Religion column. (Even ours didn't for a while, until President Musharraf went back on his own ideas and put it back in!) The Ahmadis would call themselves Muslims if asked and it would be their own lie/truth. Not a National Problem if you were from USA or hundreds of other countries!

Pakistanis recently killed several Ahmadis, individually and collectively (including in their mosques while they were offering prayers) … and Indonesia has become hotter than Pakistan (though we will take the lead, soon, I am sure). A couple of other Muslim places in the world are becoming heavily anti-Ahmadi. In an attack on the Ahmadis in Indonesia the man who got the longest sentence who tried to stop himself from being killed by beating someone who was attacking him. A much smaller sentence went to the people who actually killed a few Ahmadis. Amazing!!!

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Sometimes I wonder how Jinnah Sahab (a Shia himself) would have felt about this when he asked Muslims to be counted, just to show that Pakistan was going to be their land … and many Muslims who followed him  - which included Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadis, Bohris, Aga Khanis - put their hands up to be counted. He certainly did not tell them (or his own family members) that they would not be counted as Muslims fairly soon after the country was formed.

Heck Out at the Strand Book Store

NYC 2012 (3)

'Goodbye Time' was drawing near & I was to leave for Karachi.

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Just in case you haven't read the first two parts, go here:

NYC 2012 (1)

NYC 2012 (2)

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Let's start a week earlier: It was Sunday, 15th July. My daughter had asked some friends to come to Pillow Café for a brunch so that I could meet them. I've always loved the drinks there and, probably, drank too much.

There were some old friends that I had met on my last trip and some new ones. They were wonderful to talk to and we had some rather interesting conversations — but mainly about Law (and Comics). A few were from Hampshire while others came from the CUNY Law School. There was a beautifully pregnant Nell. Here they all are:

From the Right: Molly, Andrea, Lindsay, Lisa

From the Left: Ben, Julián, Thanu, Tharanga

Daughter and friends: Nell, Andrea, Molly

Adam

By the way, the word 'Pillows' also reminded me of what I got to sleep with in my bed in the spare room which used to be my daughter's room for studying.

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A few days later my daughter and I were supposed to go to Thanu's house for dinner but poor daughter had a backache so we asked Thanu to come over. A friend from their first college, Thanu is a regular part of their family. She's also a DJ, by the way. Thanu makes great tasting (but very spicy!!!) food and came over that night to cook for us. Her cooking was exotic (is the word OK?) …

exotic |igˈzätik|

adjective

originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country

That's an Indo-Pakistani me, eating with Pakistani daughter and her Mexican-American husband, lovely Italian food cooked by a Malaysian-SriLankan girl. Almost a UN dinner!

Despite spices that I always stay away from, I ate an awful lot. Thanks, T! 

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One day we decided to go to a movie.

Went to see The Dark Night Rises — a fun film.

Here's J & me in the lounge.

On the way to the movies we had a really good drink at Coco Rob's street stall. Ufff! Melons and Coconuts and Pineapples and Sugarcane … all were there and the drinks were really colossal stuff. 

You must have a drink if you ever see him on the road.

He's a great conversationalist, too.

Just look behind the drinking counter and you can see a bit of a little jewellery stall where Julián found a lovely piece for Nuzhat and sent it to her with me.

(Photo by Julián)

The 'fish' on the right was really gorgeous … but the drawing that our daughter made for J's card, just looking at the fish, was superb. I am glad she has maintained her talent despite her legal aims ;)

•••••

We had dinner at The Black Swan.

It was absolutely wonderful in that very British-styled restaurant.

Great food. Good cocktails. Wonderful waiters.

On my last day we also had breakfast at Ms. Dahlia's. The scrambled eggs were great, but the coffee wasn't good at all so I had to have another cup elsewhere.

•••••

The one breathtaking exhibit that I also forgot to mention in my last post was that of my seeing a show of Photographer Robert Doisneau (who worked for Life for a while). It was a small selection of his thousands of images. 

His delightful picture — The Kiss — got him into a law suit because two different girls 'sued him' for taking 'their picture'. Later, he brought two young actors whose picture it really was! The original pic, signed by Doisneau for the couple, was sold for a fabulous amount. I think about $200,000 was paid. It has been offered to be bought for $345,00 now, but hasn't been sold.

My favourite picture from him, however, was his fabulous shot, Pipi Pigeon, taken at a cinema toilet in Paris. The kids are great to watch, but Pipi takes the cake!

•••••

It was my last day, another Sunday. I was to leave that evening and went down to get the mail that had come yesterday. I was so-o-o-o thrilled. Three things had arrived.

A bag that Sabeen had ordered. (It's stupendous!) …

 

… and a Camera Strap for me (which keeps the lens cover away)

•••••

BUT – finally. finally, finally — the book that I have been dying to get!

No marks. Almost as good as new. Wowowowow!!!

I had bought three copies of The Rape of the A*P*E* when I first saw it in a shop in 1973 (when Nuzhat and I were at sea on the lovely "m.v. Bagh-e-Karachi"). I had one copy hardbound in Karachi (pity that beautiful small binding shop has closed down now). The other two were left in their soft-cover to give to people who could read and give it back. Nuzhat gave one to her eldest brother who says he can't remember where it was (and doesn't, in fact, remember having seen it) — so we lost that! One a 'friend' took (without my saying he can have it) and now 'states' that he has lost it, too — though I am sure he has it!

Since the days that Amazon started doing business on the net I kept looking for it and have occasionally found somebody willing to sell a copy, often poorly kept, for anything between $74 to $205. There has never been a reprint of it (the original was by Playboy Press). At one time I did find one copy of it for $24 through an Amazon dealer but it had no cover and, even though I really wanted it, I decided not to get that one.

This time, two days days after reaching NY, I looked for it again and found one at an e-shop that sells old books. They'd bought it off in a set from someone whose husband had died … I called them up and they said they had it and were going to send it to me by post for (wait a minute …) $6.21 only. I ordered it, without telling them that Amazon had two copies that day on their site for $110 and $94, and received it just before I left. 

•••••

New York was a lovely trip after all!

•••••

Bye NYC

(Union Square)

Goodbye Weeds … and everything else I enjoyed.

(Photo near Madison Park)

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And … Good Morning, Pakistan (or should that be Allah Hafiz?)