Conversion Confusion

Good work! :)

Good work! :)

Dear Faiza,
Thankyou for your appreciation. Its good to hear from you. I miss you on Chowk; though I was lucky enough to read your post to the Bina Shah article; do keep the ink flowing.
Wish I could watch the Bushra Ansari play...................Used to watch her plays in the eighties............will try for this one...............
Take care and regards,
Saman.

Hello Saman Khan Sahiba
So even you have two nicks/names;) Interesting piece. Your writing style doesnt conform to the typical method. Perhaps thats what makes it unique and always a pleasure to read. There are many unanswered queries left to be answered, but isnt that what every writer seeks to accomplish...to leave it up to the readers to digest and then contemplate according to their own thinking abilities.
``You could be fair, dark or perhaps brown, but pray, what is this wheatish, she wondered? Are fair girls riceish, then? Or black ones bhilanwish? ``
Always enjoyed your subtle humor:).
There is a pakistani drama penned by Bushra Ansari that deals with a similar issue, cant recall the name. Anyways, take care and keep writing
Faiza Hussain

Dear readers,
Thank you all for your appreciation as well as objective criticism and the suggestions.
Much as I would have liked to reply to all of you individually, I am hard pressed for time right now and hence rounding it off as a collective reply.

I am in a state of shock! The Chowk staff has completely taken me by surprise!
This article was submitted almost a year ago as an afterthought to Ms. Farzana Versey`s article on a similar topic. The inferences would have been better understood had it been published then....................I dwelt on some points raised in her article but am unable to draw the connection as my memory fails me now. I seem to have even forgotten the title of her article! I have seen a couple of couples face the same predicament as presented in the article - one chose to cut itself from families on both the sides and remain issueless, the husband in the other case reverted to his religion after the nuptials compelling the wife to leave hers and accept his faith.

Both as a person and a writer I am quite broad minded................through Uzma I`ve only tried to voice the inner conflicts that might trouble those in real contact with the protagonists like Naila and DK. I do not think I`ve been biased...............only voiced the possibilities..........and Uzma needn`t necessarily be me!
Religion is a personal matter and I have admitted here on Chowk several times that I am not the conventional five times a day namaaz offerer..................but I do remember Him when I need Him and when I want to........................Indeed, DK could be a better believer than me...............or any one of us.........................its all a matter of conjecture................only He above knows what really dwells within our minds and hearts.

As for lacking in form and not conforming to the norms of a story or essay................this is neither......................consider it as an open ended article, if you will.......................I can neither justify it nor defend it for I have neither the justification nor the defense!
It was a momentary response to an article, some issues of which seemed familiar to me.

I am nevertheless pleased to know that my effort set you thinking and elicited such response from you all and would like to thank you again for it.
Regards,
Sameena/Saman Khan.

saman:

...a web of subterranean currents...and unresolved queries...life!

lve,

t

Hey Samina,
Wasn`t sure what you meant by ``...DK could even revert to his religion on the pretext that the conversion was just to facilitate the wedding. That way he could be true to at least one God and himself too``.
Growing up I always thought that all of us had the same God...The difference really existed in the ritualts etc. associated with the respective religion.

THere is A small part of DK in alot of us. DK might be alot more obvious than those superficially committed to a religion (whether inherited at birth or adopted later for whatever reason) yet not having a zilch of faith in their hearts. Then again how can anyone, but GOD know what exists in anyones heart...

I agree with Jamshed below (Interact# 1). I like the mixing of English and Urdu (or Hindi), and the style is very contemporary, even somewhat post-modern. I think this piece of writing sounds like it intended to make us think and question. On the other hand, I am sorry to say that I see it as a very preacherly, biased article. Are we to deduce that marrying someone of a different religion is horrible? That them converting for someone else (or not converting) is bad? I feel this article is politically incorrect, and whereas there should be free speech and being politically correct is crap (sometimes) I think the author (since this is not a story, per se, I will assume the narrator is the author) needs to be more open-minded in order to understand and accept others who are different. Only then would she be able to comprehend the situation of her sister-in-law- even though the concern comes out of love.

Technically, I do think the piece needs to have a distinct shape or form. Form is everything. What did this piece of writing intend to be? Why are there so many open-ended questions at the end?

There is no proper ending, and while I am all for unresolved endings, it should at least be formulated so as to hurl the reader into an intentional trajectory.

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I would like to suggest to Chowk Staff to start an urdu section of Chowk with an online text editor - I don`t know if this is technically or economically feasible but I think mother necessity is pregnant in her last term.

Good portrayal of the confusion that could exist explicitly in Hindu-Muslim marriages or underlay the overt resolutions. The constituent confusion of the relationship is well captured in an incohesive - and realistic - snapshot.

religion is a personal matter. I feel reverent when visiting Jama Masjid as when I am in St. Patrick`s cathedral and Birla mandir. I don` t see any sham or insulting of religion by DK. I do however see panties in a bunch of those who are self-perceived tHeykeydaars of faith.

Dear sameena!
This is your first essay / story that i read. I must say that you have a very catchy and contemporary style of writing prose. Very similar to major indian writers like Bapsi Sidhwa or Virkam Seth with a spicy mix of hindi and english. What I like is the flow in your lines and the way feelings are interconnected with simple sentences.

However, I fail to understand what your writing is? It is not a short story - there is no climax, It is not an essay - there is no clear proposition or arguments, It does nt look like its going to evolve into a novel... and there are too many questions at the end. Does it mean that it is supposed to put open questions in the minds of the reader? If that is what the intention is, then I must say that any valid questions get lost in the confusion in which the aritcle ends.

You do have a freshness in your style - and I think you can be very successful storywriter. But there is got to be suspense, climax, interaction between charecters and a storyline that moves. Otherwise, the reader loses interest after reading the first few passages and enjoying the language.

Best wishes,