For a few words of love

A few words of love can heal
who is to speak them?
who among us has the courage to love?

Saima,

I don`t know much about the aesthetics of modern poetry and symbolism... but this is beautiful - as far as the thought is concerned.

You are right… we must “fight” for peace! We must… the alternative is horrendous. time for us to stand up and be counted…

Thanks for a lovely poem.

``who among us has the courage to love?``

It is indeed very difficult to love here in the subcontinent.

If I love indians,i will be considered a traitor

If I praise the beauty of Kerala,i will be asked haven`t u seen kaghan,its more beautiful,

If I acknowledge indian advancement in software industry,i will be disliked,

If I mention Aryabhata as great mathematician i will be reminded that we have Khwarzmi,he is greater.

If I want to learn Sanskrit,I will be told to learn Arabic first

I love pakistan,but to prove my love to pakistan i should hate india.and if i cant hate india than i must be a lesser pakistani.

the price of love is too high.

who is willing to pay this price?

Wow Saima Shah, that was fantastic. `Chew suk swallow,` something about the words...they sound delicious. Unfortunately the poem has a sad topic as its base at the end of day. Once again brilliant!!!

Saima:

(Just an impromptu, un-revised reaction)


who among us has the courage to love?


Hey kiddo, you kidding?
love? ain’t that rare as sincerity?
love? ain’t that rare as ....well, courage?
courage? as in telling it like it is?
courage? as in courage of conviction?

oh, do we love!
love to babble, gibble-gabble
till the chickens come home...
me, mine, I and a period
with an all-encompassing finality.

(and of course
love, we love
distant shores
far away idols
bustees we left behind
memories of memories
ensconced
or rotting - li’l do we know)

courage?
surely we’re no cowards
so what if we sit here
and criticize freely
this person or that leader
governments
in power or in exile
any-thing-or-one
disagreein’ with our notions
of entrenched truths

don’t we have the courage
to go on killing sprees
against the foolhardy
who may have the courage
to disagree with our truths?
it’s all in courage
it’s all in courage
I keep hearin’ voices tell me
it’s all in courage

and despite
love and courage
a little bit of us
dies every day
every moment.

___________________________


[...On another note --- as if it is not enough --- shall we discuss among or amongst? Nah, it is nice to see you here after such a long absence:) And with such a sensitive effort. Easy flow: haunting imagery. Wonder how long will it take for those of the me-better persuasion to hijack this board?]

love,

temporal

Saima, that was really really haunting. And I guess it`s captured what I feel about the whole situation between our countries. I wish I could do something about the hate between our countries but I guess what I can do is limited.

so shamelessly cogging from Masd,

and i guess i could say

``who among us has the courage to love?``

it is indeed so difficult to love here in the subcontinent.

When I love (a) pakistani(s) I will be considered a traitor. ``yahan pachaas crore ladkiyan mein se koi nahin milee kya?``

If I praise the beauty of Kaghan, smug smiles will say it`s *``LITTLE`` * Kashmir, and we have the larger one (though barely)

When I say damn I admire the way the pakistanis have advanced so much after a huge amount of bad luck / hardship then blank stares will confront me.

If I say ``algorithm`` came from al-Khwarizmi, some stupid idiot will say it was in some Hindu scripture.

When I want to learn Urdu, people ask me whether I shouldn`t learn Malayalam first.

Knowing and loving Pakistan makes me appreciate my country more - in some strange ``balanced`` way. Why view Pakistan as an impediment to membership of some mythical pantheon of super-states?

Why indeed.

Aniruddha Karim Shankar - kream77@yahoo.com

Touching...sad...the image of the child makes one want to weep.

Assalmlaikum:

Saima,

good words! :)

The poem is for the little minds who have posted to imply that Pakistan is the black omen that stands a barrier to peace.



Temporal:

Is this what you were waiting for?

And to the guy who is sad Pakistanis don`t let him love India:

Please do :) Our concern was for you to figure out right and wrong, but if you want to dwell therein, you should not. HIhiwehkfrjirje! (It`s a blessing in Sanskrit)

Courage to Love:



You call the effort sensitive

You call it an effort?

You wonder why we are hate-mongers

You forsake all hurt?

You measure God in stars

Oh well, he/she doesn`t mind

You crush the flowers of the ground

Oh what deserving love from your kind

Try to unite the moon and morn:

Try to die

You didn`t understand self-determination then

Now, ``just`` is a far cry

Yes, peace is what a street-dweller wants

Ulcers and all

Sure, facts have sieved out the hour glass

Does Honor fall?

Courage to love: a beautiful essence of life:

frequently used in the monsoon rain

To be loved, to make loveable ones` self:

Untouched terrain

If only I could make this sensitive

I`d be less uncouth

But, I`m chained by generations

Truth is me, and I do ouch!

Wassalam,

Aisha Fayyazi Sarwari

Who among us has the courage to love?

Good question... I have a few more....

Who among us has the grace

to accept that other`s books or crutches may be as vital as the ones that they lean on?

Who among us has the strength

to discover that one may not need a book in order to be good?

Who among us has the sense

to understand that all that matters is earth, wind, water & love?

Who among us has the maturity

to understand that other`s desires matter as much to them as our do to us?

Who among us that spew hatred for Saffron realize

that had they been born Saffron they`d be spewing hatred for Green?

That the problem is not Saffron or Green. The problem is hate!

That was for the smart ones.

Now the following is for the morons (you know who you are)

Lets look at the following variables:

C = Chowkwallah

L = Love

H = Hatred

S = Saffron

G = Green

Assumption: Saffron & Green are both capable of some good, which is X:

S + G = X (Not a Zero Sum Game, get it?)

Scenario 1: Chowkwallahs are Hateful

C = H

--- C (S+G) = H

--- CS + CG = H (Saffron Chowkwallah + Green Chowkwallah = Hate)

Scenario 2: Chowkwallahs are Loving

C = L

--- C (S+G) = L

--- CS + CG = L (Saffron Chowkwallah + Green Chowkwallah = Love)

This only works based on the assumption that S + G is a non-zero positive integer. If you assume that S & G are polar opposites:

i.e. S = -(G)

--- S + G = 0

Then all of the above equations fall apart.

So in summary therefore:

1. Should anybody here want any results whatsoever, this CANNOT be a zero sum game. S + G must be a positive!

2. Should anybody here want a favorable outcome to this experiment called Chowk, Chowkwallahs cannot be Hateful!

QED GENIUSES!!!

Regards,

Latif Chappu.

P.S: er... should that be genii?

What BS is this?

latif chappu - this does not ness come from reading your post but the one thing all chowk-wallahs/ies/sters seem to have in common is way too much free time on their hands (ME included) - dont you think : )

aicha

Dear Saima:

I have a fairly poor aesthetic sense when it comes to modern poetry (temporal knows it very well; sorry temporal). Nontheless, I appreciate your concern for the child(ren), hate and love, death and survival, ulcers and healing, cry and care, and above all in our inability to understand the language of humanity.

Thanks!

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

To: Yaawah Latifay Hamdani

What is BS?

My post or Saima`s Article?

If it`s my post you are referring to then let me say this: If there is anything I can be accused of is a little deliberately weak humor and/or `too much time on my hands` (aicha included). There is no need to get snippy about it (to quote your favorite candidate). A classic giveaway of an insecure hatemonger is that he gets agitated when you ask him not to get agitated. So I will not make the mistake of asking you to simmer down. Blaze away by all means. Not that anybody here cares anymore!

And if it`s Saima`s article you are referring to then allow me to enlighten you. Saima IS CHOWK STAFF. She is almost single handedly credited of holding her nose as she reluctantly puts up your drivel on this web site every 3 minutes. In the interest of free speech and at the risk of sullying her precious fora she allows YOU a platform to impose your nonsense. I`d be very careful pissing her off.

Kindest Regards,

Latif Chappu.

Looks like you`re a very sensitive soul Saima.

It was a touching poem. But we all fall victim to hate at one point or another, no matter how hard we try not to (just look at the way YLH interacts with others and how people interact with him.)

Hate begets hate, and I`ve fallen victim to that as well (sharminda).

But people like you could pound some sense into our minds with this message.

Latif chappu #8,

Don`t mess with our minds please. It`s hard enough to understand some posts here. :))

well said Aisha Sarwari!

Oh and I forgot Omar Pheonix in my list of patriots....

Excellent work here Saima Shah!


Khushwant Singh in the Hindustan Times today:

``For the Prime Minister’s attention``

Khushwant Singh

There are days when I think we have no government in the country. Lawlessness reigns everywhere. There is chaos in the city with mobs on the rampage, stoning and burning buses. People miss flights and trains because they can’t make it on time. If sick, they die before they get to a hospital. Those who manage to reach one, get no relief because doctors are on strike.

For days on end, we got no letters. Postmen go on strike. No money orders for those who urgently need to pay school or college fees, buy food or clothes. In some parts of the Capital, there is no electricity. What is worse is that all the netas have no time to discuss our real problems. They are busy wrangling with each other on whether or not a temple should be built on the ruins of a destroyed mosque.

To cap it all, it’s the Prime Minister who set the ball of confusion rolling by saying that the ‘nation’s desire’ to build the Ram mandir is yet to be fulfilled.

Mr Prime Minister, years of leadership have put you in the habit of talking to people but rarely ever do you listen to what they have to say. I am a part of the nation; you did not bother to ask about the mandir-masjid business. I have no desire to see Shri Ram’s temple erected on the debris of a place of worship destroyed by people blinded by hate. I have no doubt that Shri Ram Chandra Ji would not approve of vandalism practised in his name.

The trouble is that whenever you lend your ear to narrow-minded bigots, you tend to make statements which you, as a intelligent person, must know as not being in the nation’s interest. Millions of us look up to you to keep the rising tide of intolerance under control. Your statement on the Ram mandir disappointed us. Don’t shake our faith in your leadership. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.``


Looks like things are pretty bad in India too...

Ras