Piece of What?

rsaxena--

you evidently missed the point of the article ...``we`` have asma ...``their`` roy clamors for attention..blah blah blah. The fact is, Roy shot out in the public world after writing a wicked little book...simply b/c a woman is forthcoming with her beliefs (political or not) doesn`t mean she`s attention deprived. I`m sure this Asma chick is great too but you can`t be that blind to ignore Roy`s efforts. Read some of her work on msnbc following 9/11...by far I found her work to be the most level-headed during that period. Bias sux.

Shandana--

great opportunity to see Roy in action. Well written. :)

Sara

Arundhati Roy is a refreshing breeze of dissent --in the oppressive world of global conformity.

She is India`s real Kohinoor.

A good article Shandana!

I happened to catch Arundhati in Lahore and what really impressed me about her, and her writings, was the paradoxical metaphors she would use to describe, define and defame reality.

Pragmatically, I doubt if reality will be ever indulge her musings and though she has the gift of the ironic, in the end she will merely end up being as another sound in a room filled with
discoherent noises.

Still, I enjoy her articles because even a cynic, such as moi, needs a break from reality!

Ciao

I love the last bit:

``:And I echo her desire to tap them on the shoulder in the midst of their dance of violence and frustration and say ‘boys…you don’t know what you’re missing.’

Perfect. Shandana, I believe, I only heard AR speak once on the radio here on a local channel but as I indicated in the replies section of another article here on chowk, what she said made sense and made more sense because she never took credit for the simple ideas that have always been floating around before she arrived at the scene which is actually quite common for people to do in front of western audiences, when they do capture them. She seemed very down to earth, grounded and pressing in her arguments in a very delicate yet absorbing fashion. I would love to hear her live sometime and also would like to read more of her writings since I do not know anything about her except for the novel she wrote 4-5 years ago. I intend to read more of her writings as soon as I can gather some vacation time.

...shandana, great write-up as usual...

``The other high point of the event were the egg sandwiches.``

...and the roast chicken:)...

Thank you for an interesting write-up, considering that most of the Indian media are ``ignoring`` the Pakistan trip . . . matter of fact I wish somebody had asked Arundhati Roy her position on Chinese Dams (supine?) . . . never mind never mind . . . I guess we have similar functions here but the locations would be:-

a) Clubs and Centres, where the chiffons and khadis gather with their skorty in tow. (skorty is uniformed unshaven types with guns, who hang under the shade in the summer and loll in the sun during winter.

b) Dams and Panchayats and Yojnas, where the denim blends so well with the rags with their tv-tv in tow. (tv-tv as in guidya-gudiya or house-house or other games that pretty little girls play)

Also, other questions, which club still does not allow female members? Here, for example, the S`Bad Club also has a bar where women are not allowed. Still. Till a few years ago, less than a decade, we had one in Bombay, where natives were not allowed. But never mind, never mind, women in France were not allowed to sign cheques till 1972 either.

On egg sandwiches, just curious, boiled or omlette or fried or what, and the bread, what sort? My now untraceable guru, Capt. Shahabuddin Ahmad, once told me that egg sandwiches at the Prince of Wales Royal Seaman`s Society Club at Ballard Estate were the best he tasted anywhere.

+++

On another level, I wish somebody would cover the non-visible (as different from invisble) friendly gatherings in Kashmir and Siachen also, with as much joy.

PS...or did I mean to say the personal is the political??? It seems to be a point that Virginia Woolf made quite often in subtle and not so subtle ways :)

This was excellent.

(Though I don`t know about those egg sandwiches. By the time I got to the food, the sandwiches had all gone and I had to contend with the fishy fingers.)

...as someone pointed out, pak has an asma jehnagir who is far more credible than a. roy...from what i know, asma does, while all arundhati does is clamor for attention (``look at me, look at me, i`m so anti-establishment``)...

Dear Shandana,

Egg sandwiches??? Free range or slave labour variety?

Nice read. I thought of what you wrote at the end of your piece, `the point was simply to keep both sides talking` and couldn`t help nodding. If anything, talking - any talking - is essential.

Forgive me if you`ve mentioned this in your piece but were that any Q&A sessions?

Best wishes.

Umer M.

Shandana..

great piece, and what observations!

[, but the aunties in line ahead of me said ‘she’d be pretty if she didn’t have such short hair’]

---ah, those aunties! By the way, how did THEY look????!!!!

[Arundhati Roy herself was well worth the wait. Not because she’s the Goddess of small things (as someone in the audience referred to her) or a peace activist (she mentioned herself that she doesn’t like the term because it isn’t as if peace activism is an occupation), but simply because she came across as a good human being with her head screwed on the right way. After nearly two hours of analysis of the current situation, with many loaded statements about Kashmir and ‘you’ and ‘us’ references, it was refreshing to hear her confess she never quite knew what those meant, she never quite knew who in India she was speaking for. What she managed to do was change the paradigm of the discussion from the political to the personal, draw it from the realms of government to the notion of personal responsibility and power. ]

---This is one of the things I admire in Arundhati Roy, her awareness that the political IS the personal. And I would have done the same thing you did in your chardewari..except that everyone would castigate me..and my hair is just as short if not shorter than Ms. Roy`s :)

Thank you so much for the informative piece!!!

a.

Interesting write up