My Great Quadricep Adventure

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faisaluno #41 I agree that the world today is fragmented too much in rivalries and sometimes hatreds between people of different communities. However, I see this as a carryover from our primitive past that will gradually disappear as we move towards a more integrated world. This is by no means what a glimpse of the future, where a common culture and community is emerging at a global scale. I think there are a number of factors that gives one hope for the future, including the increasingly pluralistic societies, increasing commonalities between cultures and sources of information, decreasing signficance of location as a barrier to communication, decreasing importance of land as a source of economic well-being, increasing prosperity and thus of the life-and-death struggle for material things, increasing importance of rationality and knowledge in obtaining mental and material fulfillment, and so on. It will no doubt take time, but time will I think gradually rid people of the need to humiliate one another, this being simply one of the symptoms of the carryover from our primitive past. I guess it wont happen overnight on chowk though. :-)

faisaluno #41 Please ignore my other response to your post #41 (I hit the post button too quickly, and it has some confusing sentences which I have now fixed).
I agree that the world today is fragmented too much in rivalries and sometimes hatreds between people of different communities. However, I see this as a carryover from our primitive past that will gradually disappear as we move towards a more integrated world.
I think there are a number of factors that gives one hope for the future, including the increasingly pluralistic societies, increasing commonalities between cultures and sources of information, decreasing signficance of location as a barrier to communication, decreasing importance of land as a source of economic well-being, increasing prosperity and thus the decreasing importance of the life-and-death struggle for material things, increasing importance of rationality and knowledge in obtaining mental and material fulfillment, and so on.
It will no doubt take time, but time will I think gradually rid people of the need to humiliate one another, this being simply one of the symptoms of the carryover from our primitive past. I guess it wont happen overnight on chowk though since some of the posters have this need to belittle the ``other`` community, thus starting a ``race to the bottom`` in terms of the quality of the discussion. Fortunately, this is more than compensated by the number of positive posters we also have, thus making chowk an interesting medium for interaction.

Ras #39 Glad you enjoyed the article. With respect to the conclusions, I agree that it is not easy to maintain love and appreciation for everything at all times. I do think that this broader perspective (i.e. appreciation for the gift of life and consciousness) makes it possible to handle the ups and downs, the victories and defeats, of life in a more mature and positive manner.
At least, that is the epiphany I had while emerging into consciousness from coma (which is essentially what one is is under complete anesthesia). :-)

tahmed32 sahib:

agree with your sentiments. not much is going to be achieved if we incessantly criticize the other side without pausing to examine our own complicity. sadly we (at local and global level) are passing through a phase where each side believes that change can only be bought about by humiliating the other side. how much better would things be if we took care of business at our end.

AzadMunna #38 I shall keep your excellent medical advice in mind. As for the physical therapists, I am told it takes an year of physical therapy before things are back to normal (Damn). So, I hope you are right in your prediction regarding the P.T. In that case, it seems all I need is to take some more of that stuff that got me going with the ladies (as mentioned in the article), and things should be A-OK. :-)

Beautiful writing Tauheed Ahmed Sahib.
After what we at CHOWK thought we knew about you as tahmed32,
it is nice to see a certain familiarity in the name.

I am sorry for the initial Happy New Year intrusion and that it took me this long to actaully get to your writing.

I agree with your conclusion completely, but in the current loving hands of our surroundings and fingerprinting at the INS.........

Ras

faisaluno #35 I should add that I dont believe in ``mu tor jawab`` to anyone because they happen to be hindus or muslims or anything. I dont mind pointing out some (ahem!) deficiencies in what someone WROTE on chowk. Personally, I think people would have much more to talk about on chowk if they would discuss something other than India-Pakistan politics (where the India-Pakistan fighters are doing nothing more than toeing their respective governments propoganda lines). India-Pakistan politics have been basically driven by the self-serving interests of the individuals in power anyway over the past 50 years, and the poor people of both coutnries have paid the price in terms of diversion of resources and energies from productive purposes to military weapons. I look forward to seeing the day when we start appreciating each other as neighbors with a common stake in peace and progress, and stop this stupid confrontation.

faisaluno, rsaxena, urstruly, subroto, bina: Glad you people enjoyed the article, and thanks for the kind thoughts.
subroto: On re-titling this article as ``tendon is the night``, and on refraining from the south asian habit of scratching my ...uh... crutch. Excellent advice. Will keep it in mind next time I have the urge to scrutch.

On urstruly`s question: they stitched the torn tendon back using titanium stitches (Titanium is inert, so it should not interfere with the rest of the body, and also pretty strong material). Then they stitched the skin back over this artwork using regular stitches. The skin stitches came out in 10 days, the tendon stitches I shall take with me to the grave (to put it morbidly).

another one bites the dust? hope your injury does prevent you from giving a mu tur jawab to horrible hindus. enjoyed reading the article. hope you have a speedy recovery.

...hope you get well soon...surgery is indeed painful, traumatic, and psychedilic all at the same time...been there...

Get well soon TAhmed sahib your article on time, love and tendoness much appreciated. Great Scott you could have also called it ``Tendon is the Night``. As one who tore his ankle ligament some years back I guess I could say I feel your pain but will refrain. Also please refrain from that habit common to most subcontinental men of scratching your crutch (oops wrong vowel..)
Wish you a happy new year and a speedy recovery.
-
Subroto

tahmad

I hope you are feeling better now.

How do they reattach the tendons - with glue? or with stitches? I am not kidding, just want to know.

Nice piece - really made me smile.

semipreciousme #16 You say it doesnt sound too bad! I think I have made my point: an operation is an operation and not a picnic. I could have dwelled on the non-picnic aspects: that the knee and thigh hurt like hell the first week between painkillers - the first painkiller I received caused nausea so bad I decided the pain was the lesser of the two evils and stopped the pill, then quickly changed my mind, then changed it back, until they changed my pain medicine. I couldnt sleep for more than an hour or two at a time the first few days. I have to wear this clumsy brace all the time, even in bed. Cant bend my knee for a full 5 weeks after the operation. Simple tasks become an intellectual and physical challenge: like taking a shower standing on one foot, or even getting in and out of the shower stand, or climbing stairs. I could go on...whining.
But...the point of my article is exactly that...that instead of whining over things, we should keep in mind the great gift of life and take life`s ups and downs in a stride. People whine about having to take their shoes off for airport checks, for example, when they should consider themselves lucky they have shoes to wear, and feet to put those shoes on, and airplanes to get from here to there without using their feet anyway.
Thanks for writing. It is always good to read your short but meaningful posts. :-)

Ghalibzaman #18 Thanks for the good wishes. Taking inspiration from Ghalib`s verse that you provided, you will be glad to learn that I unshackled myself today by going to a movie theater (Lord of the Rings). We planned out the strategy: go early, take the seat on the right side so leg can be in aisle, take last row so no one bumps into leg, take small stool along on which to rest leg. It worked like a charm. The movie was good too.