Lahore is Bombay

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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry on OPRAH show

Jan. 24, 2001

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020124.jhtml?promocode=002

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_pb_20011130.jhtml

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_20020124_discussion.jhtml

A Fine Balance Discussion

Rohinton Mistry took an unflinching look inside India during The Emergency and brought a new cultural awareness to our lives. Read the highlights from our on-air discussion.

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry Announced November 30, 2001

The time is 1975; the place is India, in an unnamed city by the sea. The corrupt and brutal government has just declared a State of Emergency, and the country is on the edge of chaos. In these precarious circumstances, four strangers are forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

Interview with the Author

Rohinton Mistry

``I`ve been asked why I keep writing about India, and specifically Bombay even though I left 26 years ago. It remains my focus and makes it all worthwhile because of the people…their capacity for laughter, their capacity to endure.``

``Perhaps my main intention in writing this novel was to look at history from the bottom up, from the point of view of people like Ishvar and Om. The dispossessed. The hungry. The homeless. [I wanted to] see what it meant to them to live during this time of The Emergency.``

An Unflinching Look Inside Bombay

``I suppose anyone from the West landing in Bombay would first be hit by the crowds. The density of the population—14 million people in a small city and half of them living on the streets or in slums.

The next thing might perhaps be the great contract between wealth and poverty.

The problem of homelessness is worse now than in 1975, because the population has almost doubled. There must be twice as many people living on pavements, in slums and in rudimentary dwellings. People keep coming every day from villages because there is no prospect, they feel.

The street is controlled by the local gang leader who might extract some kind of token payment from a beggar or a pavement dweller. People lay claims to corners and pieces of the pavements just as they would to a sturdier dwelling.

Traffic in the streets of Bombay is chaotic at best. Riding a bicycle is a dangerous occupation. However, there are hundreds of them on the streets competing with the cars and buses and lorries because it is the poor man`s mode of transport.

The train stations in Bombay are crowded…One needs to be physically fit to do the daily commute by train. People travel hanging out of trains, sitting on top of trains, and there are casualties every day.``

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

Announced November 30, 2001

About The Author

Born in Bombay in 1952, Rohinton Mistry immigrated to Canada in 1975 and was employed in a Toronto bank. He began writing stories in 1983 while attending the University of Toronto. He won two Hart House literary prizes and Canadian Fiction Magazine`s annual Contributor`s Prize in 1985. In 1987 he published a collection of 11 short stories, Swimming Lessons, and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag (1987), which describes the daily lives of the inhabitants of a Bombay apartment complex.

Rohinton Mistry`s first novel, Such a Long Journey, creates a vivid picture of Indian family life and culture as well as tells a story rich in subject matter, characterization and symbolism. It is set in 1971 Bombay, when India went to war over what was later to become Bangladesh. Mistry skillfully parallels public events involving Indira Gandhi with the misfortunes of the novel`s principal characters. When Such a Long Journey was published in 1991, it won the Governor General`s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was short listed for the prestigious Booker Prize, and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese. Such a Long Journey was made into a movie in 2000, starring Om Puri and Roshan Seth.

A Fine Balance won the L.A. Times Book Award for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writer`s Prize, Canada`s prestigious Giller Prize and was a 1996 Booker Prize Finalist.

Mistry lives with his wife in Toronto. His new novel Family Matters, will be released by Knopf in 2002.

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pakistanis should have lahore as lahore as this opinion peace from dawn of today shows.

The tangled crisis of identity

By M.B. Naqvi

THE new military regime is being showered with unsolicited advice on how to cope with the various challenges facing the country. In most such cases the assumption is that the Pakistan military is somehow better able to lead the country in rising to the challenges it faces. Most such advisers, however, have some axe to grind. But a clearer realization of the hard talks facing the nation is anyway necessary.

The fact of the matter is that no single problem of a crucial nature has been solved in all these 52 years and a crisis of confidence assail most Pakistanis. This country is not a traditional civilizational entity like China, India or Iran; it has never been so. The people of those countries have no difficulty in being simple Chinese, Indian or Irani; they have no identity problem as such. On the other hand, Pakistanis have had much difficulty in deciding whether they were Muslim first and Pakistani afterwards, or Pakistani first with a nationalism that can be shared with Hindus, Parsees, Christians and

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To Ali1, Reply #60

Please keep your money and your prejudiced mind to

yourself. We will be better off without donations

from some one who cannot refrain from scoring brwonie points even in the wake of a humnaitarian tragedy.

Fortunately, most donors have a mind and a heart different from yours!

Satyavadi

TO THE PERSON WHO POSTED APPEAL FOR ORISSA ``VICTIMS``

Hindus of Orissa (Orissans?) have probably committed the worst atrocities on the hapless christian minority, equaling if not surpassing the Hindu butchers of UP, Bombay etc.

I would gladly donate if you can guarantee that my money won`t benefit these butchers in any way.

ali

By the same token, Karachi is Bombay, Islamabad is Bombay and so on. During my recent visit to Pakistan I was also ``blessed`` to stay in a Islamabad hotel with all the amanitas including the dish antenna.

My wife watched Indian MTV, however, it nearly drove me crazy. What a waste of time. Needless to say, I didn`t learn anything useful. Short segment of clips--some as short as a msec--blinked on the screen without any logical sequence as if they are trying to program your brains.

Personally, I think that this sort of programming is very dangerous. There have been several studies, which show that TV has a hypnotic effect on a viewer and especially on children. It is detrimental to a child`s development-- especially for his/her linguistic development.

And I`m not just thinking about the Pakistani kids.

Re: UR Reply #: 57

I apologize for the remark. But that does`nt alter my perception of your statements.

You`re right. We should not be discussing the siachen issue here, but I have to say this ..

1) I fail to understand why the CIA should favour India on the Siachen Issue by wrongly marking its maps. In fact it is the Indians who should look at CIA maps with suspicion.

2) The ``Northward extension`` clause is not MY definition.

3) Re-read your mails during our exchange. See the condescending manner in which you inform us louts on what`s REALLY happenning in Saichen (all without actually giving much hard facts and figures - apart from the valuable information of the cost of one pakistani chappati ;-) ).

4) You miss the central fact. We are arch-enemies. No quarter will be given, and none asked for.

Being in IT, you should keep your logic circuits in good shape (if you want to prosper). I stated ``For a bengali or a south Indian a pakistani punjabi is indistinguishable from an indian punjabi.``

Then you state:`` I am a born and bred Pakistani Punjabi. I have met Indian Punjabis. We have a lot in common, but over the years seem to have developed some separate traits, as well. A bengali or south indian may consider me identical to an Indian Punjabi, but that would only indicate his/her lack of knowledge about Punjabis. This is a subjective topic, but I think there are many subtle and a few prominent differences between Indian and Pakistani Punjabis. Some of these differences have been mentioned in other replies on this thread.``

I fail to see what you find wrong with my statement or where you are trying to correct it ???

As for the differences mentioned by VK, the best he could do was ``pakistani punjabis are more muslim``. He seemed more intent on proving that HE himself could tell the difference. But having spent a good part of his life in the north, he does not qualify as a `typical` south indian. Anyway I let it go.

And coming to that: Can YOU tell us what are the best 3 of those ``few prominent differences`` between punjabis on both sides ?

anaryan #29: You stated, ``UR, UR a strange fellow.`` How about keeping personal comments about me to yourself. You do not know me personally, so you cannot judge me as a person, and just discussing the replies, and not the repliers.

You also stated, ``You claimed to be an expert on siachen. Yet when I showed you the CIA map clearly showing 90% of the area falling to India as per the ``Northward extension`` clause, you say you don`t believe in CIA maps.`` The CIA is not an international regulating body. It is an American Intelligence agency. Hence, its maps, statements and documents do not hold any validity in international affairs. That is what I was trying to explain to you. The CIA at one time thought that Fidel Castro and Gaddafi should be assasinated. Does that mean that their assasination plan is an international law? The CIA also thinks India should not explode nuclear weapons. Does that mean it is illegal for India to explode nuclear weapons?

For the sake of argument, even if we take the CIA map you presented as the law, it still does not clearly show, ``90% of the territory falling under India.`` Infact it defines the territory as unmarked. Kindly take a look at the map again. The ``Northward extension`` clause will only show Siachen to be in India if we follow your definition of the Northward extension clause. So nothing in Siachen is, ``clear.`` What is clear to Pakistan and India are two different things. That is why there is a conflict.

You stated, ``you know better than the Indian commanders.`` This is incorrect. I never claimed to know more than the Indian commanders. Infact I am sure the senior Indian commanders know a lot more than me about military strategy, etc. (as do the senior Pakistani commanders). What I did state is that, for obvious reasons, the Indian military commanders will present only the Indian point of view (similarly the Pakistani commanders will only present the Pakistani point of view). So you cannot justify India`s claim to Siachen by just quoting Indian commanders.

My whole point on Siachen was that their are conflicting points of view on Pakistan`s and India`s sides. So what was the point of occupying the place by India and starting a conflict, that is wasting so much money. The only reason it was done was because India felt it could gain some kind of a military advantage. Anyways, all of this has nothing to do with Lahore and Bombay. I am only discussing it because you brought it up on this thread. So for future interactions, how about sticking to the topic on this thread. I will be more than happy to discuss Siachen on a separate thread.

The comments you made that are relevant to this thread are as follows, ``You claim to have spent time and effort studying Indian culture and yet say that ``I think the Pakistani culture is greatly influenced by the Islamic religion, which the Indian culture is not.`` I can see how this statement could have been misunderstood. I did not mean that there is no influence of Islam in the Indian culture. I had earlier stated, ``There are a lot of differences (and similarities), believe me.`` I had also stated, ``I think you are correct in saying that the Pakistani culture is an off-shoot of the Indian culture (which itself is a combination of many cultures brought in by the different people that moved to India and/or ruled over India).`` For hundreds of years India was ruled by Muslims. So the, ``different cultures brought in by different people`` does include the Muslims that ruled India. This should indicate to you that I did not mean that the Indian culture is completely uninfluenced by Islam. What I did mean was that after partition, the influence of Islam in Pakistan, and hence in the culture Pakistan inherited from India, has increased. The influence of Islam has not increased at nearly the same extent in India. Perhaps its influence has even decreased in the Indian culture. I think some of the other replies on this thread have supported this argument, as well.

You stated, ``. For a bengali or a south Indian a pakistani punjabi is indistinguishable from an indian punjabi.`` I am a born and bred Pakistani Punjabi. I have met Indian Punjabis. We have a lot in common, but over the years seem to have developed some separate traits, as well. A bengali or south indian may consider me identical to an Indian Punjabi, but that would only indicate his/her lack of knowledge about Punjabis. This is a subjective topic, but I think there are many subtle and a few prominent differences between Indian and Pakistani Punjabis. Some of these differences have been mentioned in other replies on this thread.

Finally, you stated, ``I regret to tell you that your years of study and effort on Indian Culture are as nought.`` I hope you are incorrect on this, but you maybe correct. Since I have never been to India, my knowledge of the Indian culture is based on books, conversations with Pakistanis who lived in India, and conversations with my Indian friends. I hope this has given me an accurate description of the Indian culture. But I could be wrong, and my knowledge could be, ``as nought.`` But at least, I have made a genuine effort and attempt in understanding the Indian culture.



Because of this I think the two cultures are similar, but not identical. that the Indian culture has greatly been influenced If you really think that, then I regret to tell you that your years of study and effort on Indian Culture are as nought.

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I think present culture is really an accumulation of all the cultures that preceded it, to varying degrees. Tiger Woods describes himself physically as a Coblinasian (Caucasion/black/indian(american/asian. Similarly I think people from the sub-continent would culturally be an amalgamation of their primary place of birth with a smattering of the ethnic/linguistic/religious groups that one grows up with, along with his education.

I grew up in Cosmopolitan Bangalore and speak Telugu at home. But my family is very strong in Kannada (the local language). I also picked up a smattering of Tamil/Malayalam as well as Hindi. I grew up amongst Hindus, Christians and Muslims so am familiar with the practices of each of these faiths. My education was in English through Anglo-Indian techers so it isn`t surprising that I picked up a lot of my values from that world. And now that I`m in the U.S., I guess I`ve imbibed a little of the local culture (though non-Americans would dispute the existence of the latter :-)).

I consider myself lucky to have been exposed to so many varied cultures.

Re: Studebaker #: 50

``Your arguments about opting legally is correct``

Well then, why all the hue and cry about how Pakistan made an `illegal manouever` by invading Kashmir? Just because Hyderabad was surrounded by Indian territory does not - and I`m sure any international law journal would testify to this - justify an Indian military occupation of land that was supposed to be Pakistan. It`s even more ironic when Indians refuse to talk about it.

A bit hypocritical then?

And besides, all the talk of striking when the iron is hot, I have only one word: Bangladesh.

This is not the right forum but bear with me.

Please forward it to as many folks you know.

An Appeal for the Orissa Cyclone Victims



Dear friends,

There has been widespread devastation in Orissa as a result

of the worst cylone ever to hit the region. Villages and towns

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cities have been submerged under waters from flooded rivers.

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have been severed. The death toll is expected to be huge.

The badly affected regions include Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Puri,

Paradip, Balasore, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Khurda.

We are awaiting news from our near and dear ones in those regions.

We pray that they are ok.

Relief work has started but is slow due to the inhospitable

conditions. The state is in urgent need of funds for dealing

with this unprecedented devastation. We request you to please

contribute to the relief fund by mailing a check to the

address given below. Contributions in any other form will also

be greatly appreciated.

Please make the check out to:

The Chief Minister`s Relief Fund, Government of Orissa, India.

Please mail the check to:

Bombay Oriya Women`s Association,

11, Suniti,

General J Bhosle Road,

Mumbai 400 021

India.

We greatly appreciate your humanitarian gesture.

Other addresses

Please send your * * * TAX DEDUCTIBLE * * * contributions to:

(please make the check to ``IDRF``; in the memo line, say ``Orissa Cyclone

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India Development & Relief Fund

C/O Mukund Kher

1704 Clearwater Avenue, #1

Bloomington, IL 61704

More info at: http://www.idrf.org

* * * PLEASE HELP THE VICTIMS OF THE ORISSA CYCLONE * * *

The Embassy of India in Washington DC gave this address.

Prime Minister Relief Fund

Prime Minister`s Office

South Block, New Delhi 110011

India

I have seen many references to culture, particularly ``Pakistani culture`` and ``Indian culture.`` Can somebody define these terms for me? I would argue that, in real terms, their is not such thing as a unitary Pakistani or Indian culture. Any comments?

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

anarayan:

``As Indians, you (a tamilian) and your punjabi friend have a lot in common. Yet there are substantial differences too. Lets say that difference is worth 100 points. On that scale the differences between punjabis on both sides of the border would be less than 5 points.``

My issue is with this approach. I have trouble with this whole ``points`` deal. Let me counter with a more personal example. I feel a far greater cultural affinity in some respects with urban Punjabis from Delhi where I grew up (who listen to Daler Mehndi and Sonu Nigam and drink lassi), than I do with small town Mariamman worshipping Tamilians (who pierce their bodies with spears during certain festivals) from places not 50 miles from where I was born. Yet, I can share the experience of listening to Tamil folk or film songs with this latter ``type`` where the former would be lost in that world. I would be hard pressed to pin down my cultural identity (by assigning points) as being closer to one or the other of these groups. Happily, I don`t lose sleep over it, seeing no need at all to resolve this supposed ``conflict``. I`m quite thrilled with the opportunity to have it all, yet define my own space within this spectrum. I suspect most people in India and Pakistan do inhabit such cultural grey zones of their own and are comfortable with idea of defining their own sense of community and belonging. Indeed, if the original cross-border article were written on the basis of your ``higher points for geographical affinity`` approach, the topic should have been ``Lahore is Amritsar`` and not ``Lahore is Bombay``!

The heat in this debate seems to arise from a confusion of cultural affinities with national or regional identity. I feel thoroughly comfortable with my simultaneous (and composite) identities as a Tamilian, South Indian and an Indian. I find it not the least bit confusing that others on this forum feel comfortable with their separate Pakistani, Punjabi or Muslim identities while being able to watch and appreciate Zee TV or find other things in common with Indians, Punjabis or otherwise. I see little value in challenging that (as in ``we Indians and Pakistanis are the same`` -- the extremist Indian) or in overemphasizing it (as in ``we are not Indians at all, we are really an offshoot of the West Asian Islamic fraternity`` -- the extremist Pakistani).

I`m not saying you, anarayan, are an extremist :-) I just think you are taking a rather simplistic viewpoint. I can understand how it irks Pakistanis to be told that they are really Indians if only they could get it into their thick skulls! If you are, say, a Keralite and grew up in Delhi, I bet you wanted to punch the insensitive lout who called you a ``Madrassi``!