Piece of What?

Interesting write up

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.

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.

...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``)...

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.)

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 :)

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

She is India`s real Kohinoor.

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

Interesting article, as usual.

All these ``peace`` yatras and jalsas are ok. But in the long run, they haven`t produced much, if anything. I suppose they are better than not having anything. I think people who don`t come in contact with Indians, on a regular basis, get quite excited by them. That is natural. Those of us who are surrounded by Indians ten hours a day, everyday, probably wouldn`t be too excited.

But a lot more needs to be done than just a prominent Pakistani going to India, saying two bad things about India and four bad things about Pakistan, and a prominent Indian coming to Pakistan and saying two bad things about Pakistan and four bad things about India. Both say a few bad things about the military, and a lot of bad things about religious parties. Of course they both address the, ``average`` Pakistani and Indian - assuming, ``average`` is someone who can get into Pearl Continental Hotel and read the Daily Times. This would be about 2% of Pakistan`s population. Interestingly it is people from this 2% who have been running Pakistan for ages, i.e. the fancy hotel visitors and English newpaper readers. Even those amongst the Army, those who have run Pakistan belong to this group. The maulvis, who do not belong to this group, have never had a chance run Pakistan (why does everyone keep jumping on their beards, all the time, for Pakistan`s problems then?).

Pakistanis (and Indians) need to stop blaming certain groups within their socieities for all the problems. We need to start blaming the group we belong to. There are people in Pakistan, who have now made a living through mere criticism. They criticise everything, and have become famous. I suppose this is all well and good, since someone needs to do this job. But I have more respect for someone who builds a cancer hospital, than someone who keeps lashing out at various govts. for not building one, but doesn`t take the initiative to build one himself/herself.

These speeches and peacefests have been going on for a while, now. They make everyone feel good. But, since they aren`t solving any problems, I think they need to be taken to the next level. What is needed is a joint Indo-Pak human rights commission at a large scale. Infact a joint South Asian Human Rights commission. The current head of Amnesty International is a Bangladeshi lady in her 40s, so it is possible for South Asians to hit it big in this field, also. This commission should consist of people who have a career record of telling it like it is. People like Arundhati Roy, Khushwant Singh, etc. Asma Jehangir (maybe, since I am unable to understand her agenda. She seems to just want to criticize every govt. for everything, without presenting any pratical solutions), Edhi etc.

This group should then stop worrying about political correctness, and stop trying to criticize both India and Pakistan equally on every issue. If India is wrong, its wrongs should be highlighted both in Pakistan and India, and in the rest of the world, without trying to equally blame Pakistan. And if Pakistan is wrong, its wrongs should be highlighted both in Pakistan and India, and in the rest of the world, without trying to equally blame India.

The organization should be above race, creed, religion, nationality etc. And it should try to appeal to the non luxury-hotel going/non English newspaper reading crowd. Since the PC/Daily Times crowd has done well enough in Pakistan and India, and isn`t as pushed about bringing change to the society, as the non PC going/Daily Times reading crowd.

Dost Mittar,

(Hoping we can continue our argument on this board with Shandana`s permission)

I understand that you believe that gender parity must be the result of both genders working together. And that might be a good situation. Is it ideal? I don`t know.

In the meantime, I can`t say I`m against women`s grassroots movements that dialogue and facilliate supports and strategies. If we use the example of the very successful Sakhi movement in NYC, it was founder, organised, is run by women in various professions from South Asia. Not only does it provide immediate emotional, psych, and physical support for women, but the organization is involved in policy change for South Asian immigrant/South Asian American women in need of assistance. They tend to coalition with other progressive orgs; I`m not sure if any Islamic, Hindu, Christian, or Sikh religious org has affiliated themselves with Sakhi.

My grandfather was very moved by the life of his wife and was conscious of the limitations that had been placed on her since she was a very small girl. It was my grandmother`s experience that awakened his own conscience. It was the fear he felt for his daughters in that time of siege that made these brutal gender equations very clear to him. Externally, it may seem that he made the decisions in that family; to allow my uncles to run, to leave Agra, to spare my mother and aunt suffering...but it was my grandmother`s and his daughters` psychic pull that educated him. And he was a devout Muslim.

Prem

Do you say ``hats off to you, lady`` to imply I`m off the deep end? :)

Seriously, this week in the lives of my family is something I`ve been musing about for several years.

Shandana,

Intelligent, sharp review.

Chowkies

Again, she is a writer and NOT a politician in office; I appreciated the idea that she seemed to be delivering the meanings/realities of the communities she has worked with. This seems to be the role of a good writer`s literature, as Kafka wrote, is to be an axe with which to smash the frozen sea of the heart. In this time of rationalizations and disconnect, our best writers-Nadime Gordimer, Susan Sontag, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Robert Pinsky-do exactly that. I`ll take their worlds over this world of bs any day.

It seems that there are some interactors who don`t like her critiques of Indian policy viz the Narmada Dam? I don`t know dudes, do you not like constructive criticism?

Shandana,

Nice take this...do I espy a cynicism creeping in about the young ones of Pakistan...the apprehension only tightened when I remembered your age...:)

By the way...when are you going to add to the Pakistan`s vital statistics with a young one of your own...:)

I was kind of tickled to think two of India`s more dynamic editors should play the opening act to the Goddess of small things...she got 2 hours...suggests that the organisers too were perhaps making a Bollywood hit...aiming at the right audience and then tinging the event with that elusive cerebra...lity...:)

Harish