Across the River

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Ms. Tewari thank you for your article and your kindered spirit.

I feel poverty in india and pakistan is due to excessive breeding of poor people. Worst aspect is your govt. is subsidizing poor and poverty and their poor habits of breeding by providing subsidized food, kerosene, electricity.Unless india and pakistan both stop this breeding of poors both are doomed. Fortunately our govt. does not subsidize to that extent. I noted women in your article are having 5 or more children and these women are living in slums of Calcutta. You are kind spirit and Allah or Bhagwan bless you. Do you know in continent of hours are pimps of poverty. Many NGO wants poor people, its doctors dilema. No body cares about explosion of population. These poor expect free handout. Even in our country go along any major road in karachi you see crowds of professional beggers with litter. I wonder why we control animal population but not human overpopulation. A state must stop having children to these most poor people who bring children in world and put their children through cruel suffering. NGO work is usless. In our country in next 28 years we will be over 300 million almost same population as EU or USA. Its hard to get water in all cities in india Pak. But this maddness is going to kill both countries. Why people of NGO not force them to have no children before helping. We should have no more than one child per couple to survive continent. All other efforts and useless and phony. Its band aid solution. I have seen slums of India and pakistan and now I am not afraid of hell.

Inequality has been around since when ever, but we can and must make it less. The peoples and the Nations of the subcontinent are rich or if not rich, then, not poor. But they are trapped in social systems that values them as poor, deprives them the freedom of initative and opportunity.

Poor we are but as long as we can foster hope, even for one day, that is a day a battle has been won against the social and spiritual evil of poverty. Thank you for the courage to do what you did and do. You have uplifted so many us, who may someday, show the courage of conviction as you have.

u should read ``Khuda ki basti,`` by Shaukat Siddiqui, one of the very few urdu novels I`ve read. i think u`ll like it.

you may find an english translation of the novel called, ``God`s Own Land,`` though people have told me it doesn`t compare with reading it in Urdu/Hindi.

anyway, nice narrative.

Seema:

First a warm welcome and hope you continue to write here. You don’t know but you made my day...more on this shortly...:)

The quotes I have picked from your journal are simple but potent...

[...After a while it struck me that there was no basic difference between Muslims and Hindus...I had also harboured notions of Muslims being dirty, not keeping their houses clean like us. After working in PM Basti it became clear to me that Hindus and Muslims were essentially the same... Live and let live...There are good and bad people everywhere...]

Simple, elegant, potent, powerful!

Sad affection and attachment to Soni contributed to your present aloofness. Hope you come out of this soon.

Mr Ramaswamy...does he write poetry also? If he does, then he is the same person I am looking for for quite some time now...well (sheepish admission) since my last hard drive fried...no back-ups ...long story...to make it short...he wrote to me in response to something I had written...we struck a friendship and he sent me some of his poems...he must be wondering where I disappeared...if you have his address...please send it to temporal3@hotmail.com...will appreciate very much...

love,

temporal

Re: scout, #4

Many years ago, before I left Pakistan for America, I read ``Khuda Ki Basti`` and saw the play on PTV. What a brilliant novel, and the play did total justice to it. They left an indelible mark on me. Thank you for reminding me of those (my innocent) days scout.

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Seema,what a heart warming story.See I am 50 years old.My children are grwon up and married.I have good life but lately feel lost.I never did ,but now i miss my youth. I have a very understanding wife.My children love me.But i want to do something with my life.Lot more than just rasing kids and giving them good education and seeing them through to success.Which by the way I have done. I can not accept the life the way it is.But what should and what can I do?.Now suddenly i feel very poor.In my book poor is not the one who has no money and means.Poor is the one who has no vision and have no new ideas,Poor is the one who want to but does not do anything to help himself.Poor is the one who can but does not help others. I have few other definations of poor.I do not know which catagory of poverty I fall in,but i am very poor.And seema you started your life very rich,you eanrd a lot for nine months,but just like me you ended up broke and poor in the end.Just like people from PM Basti.

Re:Pervez

``But i want to do something with my life.Lot more than just rasing kids and giving them good education and seeing them through to success.Which by the way I have done. I can not accept the life the way it is.But what should and what can I do?.``

You, sir, are disillusioned. Read some of Jack Kerouac`s work. You`ll enjoy it. By the way, this type of reflection and questioning is excellent. The sooner one does it in life, the better. Getting married, raising kids, and earning money are all important, but there has to be a lot more than that - something that signifies what is unique about you as an individual.

Seema,

A very warm welcome to chowk. What a lovely article.Iam forever perplexed on the Hindu/ Muslim, Christian syndrome.

It`s like an expectant mother.... anyone or everyone goes around wishing for her .... hope its a boy this time.... hope its a girl this time, as if the poor lady can pick and choose what she wants !

Similarly it is not by our own choice that we have been born a muslim, hindu, sikh, christian or a jew.So what is the commotion all about? I think it is a disgrace on humanity .

One gentleman was visiting a town. he wanted to say his afternoon prayers .He asked someone if they could direct him to a mosque.

The person asked `` yeh batein are you shia or sunni ``. then asked are you borree, khoja or memon ?

The poor gentleman never made it to the mosque , because of all the If`s and But`s .

All religions are to be respected, understood, and learnt from.

Very nice to see you share your experience with us. Hope there were more of your kind around !

Do keep writing , its lovely to read the real stuff !

lots of love,

sa:)

Attn: Paging Dost-Mittar G:

Ms. Tewari,

You have done a wonderful job conveying the richness of your experiences at the basti, in a way that helps us realize the truly important things in life (even if only momentarily)... Indeed, could it be that stripped of all layers of material concerns, the economically deprived folks offer us an idea of what is we lack? Or maybe it is just our doing what is important, and feeling a sense of purposefulness deep down that draws us to such experiences? It`s probably both. ok.. i`m rambling now... But certainly, both ideas come through in your article.

I`d also like to commend you on several penetrating observations you make... Your portrayal of the basti folks is warm without being romantic. Given your intense feelings for those people, it would have been easy for you to be overly sentimental. You also avoided exhitibiting a beknighted attitude toward those folks.

Thank you for reminding us of the strength of the human spirit in people like Ramaswamy and Razia, even as you hit home with observations on the sarcastic, embittered and degrading Shahida & Co. Your honest narration helped the reader get a good idea of the situation-- both it`s triumphant and debasing aspects.

In ending, I`d like to wish you fulfillment in whatever it is you do. Although I might be wrong, I am assuming that your current job web-designing leaves you with a feeling that not doing what you are meant to. If I may offer some advice (born of similar experience I assure you), try and look for ways in which your current work

experiences may assist you when you return (as I`m sure you will) to help out in the trenches. I`m sure you you are already aware of the the benifits, if not necessity, of securing a measure of personal financial stability. Further, the experience in the US will probably also give you the confidence to take on the gods of restrictive custom back in India.

Warm regards,

Patrick Masih.

re. #10

I guess chowk`s messing up with the nicks again.

.... Or could RSaxena *really * have posted a reply not out to ridicule or simply tease someone???!!!

Well, if that was posted by you Saxena, may I say, even at the risk of sounding condesending, that you sound not just wiser but sweeter when not operating in, shall we say... Tease-ylh mode?

Hope to see more of this side of you!

rgds,

PM

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In my #13, please read insert the words ``but the necessary`` to read:

``Indeed, could it be that stripped of all [but the necessary]layers of material concerns, the economically deprived folks offer us an idea of what is we lack?

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