Adam Khor Ayash Gorillay Re: # 6

hmm... looks like I got smoked...

Frontal bone does actually exist, I concede. Let`s just say that from a stylistic point of view, it sounds a bit lame given the use of terms such as ``non-regenerating neuronal elements``, ``orifices`` and ``metastasize ``. How about maxila, proc. frontalis. Pros: it`s actually nearer the bridge of the nose than the frontal bone (which seems to be the forehead and above). Cons: there`s a comma and a period in the name. How about os nasale, then?

Hard turns out to be a funny one too. In the examples you cite, it`s true that the word is employed as an adverb, but I find it hard to accept something like ``individualism is scarcely something that needs to be proven so hard``. One itches to add an ``ly`` to ``hard``, except that that doesn`t make any sense either.

Or maybe I`m just a crotchety old fool unwilling to admit that language should evolve so quickly.

cheers!

Adam Khor Ayash Gorillay Re: # 2

Sorry okhla99, it does seem to be a word. I need to get out more often, I guess.

My mistake.

I’m With Stupid ``But having felt empire in the aisle of a food market, I decided that I did not like it.``

What a great line!

Hope to read more from you.

Cheers,
Aman

Adam Khor Ayash Gorillay Dear Syed Shah,

I have some gripes:

1. ``Much of the flotsam and jetsam floating around the airways...``

>> flotsam and jetsam do exactly that - float... to use float here sounds a little redundant.

2. ``three inch thick`` should have been hyphenated all through

3. ``Now, let’s put things in perspective. Aaroh dressing up as metrosexual leather-daddies and looking decidedly out of place in a bar sipping blue lagoons and blowing smoke out of various orifices is bad enough, but at least anyone who has ever seen Haider Hashimi with his gynormously oversized all-weather, all-terrain shades welded into his frontal bone would have claimed advance notice.``

>> If you are intent on showing off possession of an eclectic compendium of facts, go all the way: you let yourself down with ``frontal bone``. Badly.

4. ``The broader point that absolutely begs to be made, if for no other purpose than to compensate half a billion precious non-regenerating neuronal elements, is that why in the name of all that is holy, is everyone these days tripping over themselves to conform to this stereotype of being hip? It’s a little bit akin to that mother of four you see in the store force-feeding herself to the daintiest pair of imported shoes in the shop. Always a big no-no. ``

>> Would it not be neater to use some punctuation in the first sentence:

``The broader point that absolutely begs to be made, if for no other purpose than to compensate half a billion precious non-regenerating neuronal elements, is this: why in the name of all that is holy, is everyone these days tripping over themselves to conform to this stereotype of being hip? ``

>> This paragraph was quite ironic... it derides people who follow the latest trends without reflection using language that is extremely self-conscious. It reminded me of Ramiz Raja`s commentary in the current Test series against South Africa. Note: I haven`t said Sidhu. That would have been mean and unfair.

5. ``Onto`` is not a word.

6. ``The most galling aspect to it all is that individualism is scarcely something that needs to be proven (leave alone quite so hard) in the first place.``

>> ``quite so forcefully``. Hard is an adjective. I think you need an adverb here. Unless you intend to earn your bread dubba-fying. Like so: http://dack.com/web/bullshit.html

7. ``In the ideal case, it’s one of those things meant to follow naturally from the music and any obvious talent on display, as opposed to a troupe of crassly-attired performers gallivanting across your plasma screen and trying doubly hard to atone for the musical sins of another.``

>> I didn`t quite get the relevance of the plasma screen here? Word play I didn`t catch, or sloppiness?

8. ``Perhaps this is the precise reason the written word will always continue to reign supreme over other forms of expression, being driven as it is purely by naked thought and sentiment.``

>> The use of ``naked`` here is redundant. I would suggest: ``Perhaps this is the precise reason the written word will always continue to reign supreme over other forms of expression, being driven as it is purely by thought and sentiment.``

9. ``The issue at hand is not so much of creative license and allowing performers to let their hair down once in a while, as it is the attempt to incarnate the make-belief as the truth.``

>> Not sure about the definite article preceding ``make-belief``...

10. ``to borrow a conventional idiom``

>> Shouldn`t it be ``to borrow from conventional wisdom``? Or maybe not - but neither ``conventional`` nor ``idiom`` sound right in that phrase.

11. ``They might be talented individuals, but little of that follows from their recent identity crises.``

>> I would question the use of ``follow`` here. I`m really not sure what you mean. Perhaps: ``They might be talented individuals, but little of that survives their recent identity crises.`` ??

12. ``Moral of the story: you can take something and apply it out of context.``

>> Inappropriate use of a comma to join two clauses.

13. ``Perhaps it’s time we finally exhumed good taste and understood what caused it to die.``

>> Perhaps it’s time we finally exhumed good taste to understand why it died.

Other than that, I rather liked this piece. Yes, I have dissected to the point of pettiness, but editing can be like that. I guess it`s my irritation with Ramiz Raja and a bunch of other articles coming out over here. To be honest, the only reason I even dared start the dissection was that I could hope to finish it in 20 minutes or so. With most articles on Chowk, it would take several hours at least.

Anyway, I`m sorry if you feel I`ve been overly critical. The thing is I got the feeling that you might actually care about expressing your thoughts in a way calculated to evoke certain ideas and streams of thought in the reader`s mind. So I thought I`d point out the relatively minor irritants that got in the way of your more ambitious intentions. Ambitious but highly laudable. I wish more writers on Chowk took the risks you take.

On the up side, you prompted me to look up ``disyllabic``. Though I`m still not sure what you meant in that sentence...

Keep writing!

Cheers,
Aman

Darakhat Bachao, Lahore Bachao Rafay Sb,

Thanks for the generally well-argued article.

There are a few weak points:

a) the comment about the laid-back Lahoris not worrying about wasting an extra 7 minutes in traffic. What kind of an illogical loose ball was that?!

b) not addressing the root causes, as mentioned in several comments - the huge increase in cars on the road (caused by the lack of adequate public transport, much as it has improved since the late nineties and by the massive car leasing business of the last three years) and too great a difference in terms of economic opportunities between Lahore and its ``hinterland``

c) eucalyptus trees are actually no longer unanimously recommended for reforestation projects as their roots tend to dig very deep and suck out so much water that the water table is seriously affected. The fact that the roots go deep is good for areas where the top soil has been badly eroded by the combination of deforestation and rain, but there is a price to pay. At least that has been the experience in the Khyber Agency where the Forestry Department has stopped planting new eucalyptus after observing the effects of their reforestation projects for several years. Whether or not the advertisement you mention is linked to the canal-widening project is only your conjecture.

So, pros:
saves time
saves fuel consumption as cars idle in traffic jams or run at lower than their peak efficiency speed. But how much?
perhaps reduces emissions as cars transit faster along the canal with fewer gear shifts. But this is on a per car basis. If the total number of cars increases, this effect is nullified. If the total number of cars increases again to the point of congestion, then net emissions increase significantly.

Also, what do we do when the congestion point is reached again? Buy up houses along the canal, bulldoze them and build more lanes?

Cons:
poses serious potential threats to ground stability - though I`m not sure how valid this point is, as long as the lining of the canal is maintained. I imagine that only civil engineers could answer that question.
will raise the water table - to what point? under which scenarios? at what point do water-logging and salinity set in? How much of the land on either side of the widened road would be affected?
will remove the sound barrier that residential colonies along the canal benefit from, and which they might have to find substitutes for in the future - for example, the ugly steel and concrete walls installed in peri-urban areas in Europe to protect residents from the noise of motorways and by-passes
will reduce the oxygen-generating capacity of Lahore significantly. How significantly? What will be the effect on public health in terms of lung diseases (and other maladies I don`t know about)? There should definitely be a public health professional on that committe of experts.
promotes the use of automobiles at a time when fuel prices are increasing
as a corollary, is a disincentive to the use of public transport, especially as the money being spent on this project could be used to fund (or add to the funds for) an urban rail or tram network
promotes leasing as consumers pledge away their future earnings for convenience and competitive advantage in the present, which may or may not translate to increased earnings in the future


At a time when so-called post-industrial urban centres are shifting to bicycles for commuting purposes, we are stuck about twenty years in the past, facilitating expensive, individual transport with all that it implies in environmental and cultural terms.

For some reading on the possible effects of the car on society:
``But this is not, or not really, an article about speed, or cameras, or even cars. It is about the rise of the antisocial bastards who believe they should be allowed to do what they want, whenever they want, regardless of the consequences. I believe that while there are many reasons for the growth of individualism in the UK, the extreme libertarianism now beginning to take hold here begins on the road. When you drive, society becomes an obstacle. Pedestrians, bicycles, traffic calming, speed limits, the law: all become a nuisance to be wished away. The more you drive, the more bloody-minded and individualistic you become. The car is slowly turning us, like the Americans and the Australians, into a nation that recognises only the freedom to act, and not the freedom from the consequences of other people`s actions. We drive on the left in Britain, but we are being driven to the right.
`` -- George Monbiot in The Guardian

Faith No More Dear Shandana,

Thank you.

Aman

Dev, Harry and I very well written. keep it up yaar.

The Instinct to Upgrade ``I was trying to find any sense of shame or even discomfort in his voice, when he talked about his father’s predicament. He seemed to be similarly looking at my face for any reaction that might suggest some kind of surprise. I cloaked mine, and he remained impervious to any twitch of the conscience.``

This was perfectly captured.

On Awakening this is about the big toe.
I did actually vote in the referendum. The soldiers manning the box at the local CSD found it hilarious that I instinctively went looking for a private place to mark the ballot. As jovial a bunch as the saargunt who thought couldn`t believe that someone would actually make an effort to answer the NCC `exam`.
October 12 1999 wasn`t it? It`s going to be six years now. Another generation has grown up in this time. I grew up in Zia`s.
You weren`t the only one sleeping Shandana.

The Soldier who Annexed 3 States for 3 Daughters Very very good writing.
Much impressed. Plus, you manage to stay honest even though it may be uncomfortable.
Great window into the country for me.

First Letter To Uncle Sam victimhood:
Yes these letters are great stuff as a whole. The only thing I can`t quite digest is the ``I am the greatest victim alive`` quality of it, something it shares in common with much of Urdu poetry.
Each person would have his own opinion regarding the place he accords to sorrow and self-pity in his life, but I find that wallowing too much gets in the way of productive activity (whatever that may be according to one`s interests, passions and capabilities).

Children of Dictatorship ``soft``??
compared to whom?
he was the hardest dictator we have had...

The Second Wave #2: I don`t know, but I met an Irani girl last summer whose description of their movies seemed closer to Indian blockbusters/formula movies (hence closer to Oscars) than the Cannes material I had thought they were from reviews in the Pakistani press. Maybe they too have a divide between what is popular and sells at home and what is more understated and hence appreciated more abroad.
#4: Yes, where can we see this stuff? And please don`t ask us to attend the karafilm festival - sometimes it just isn`t possible.

And this reminds me of two other groundswells: the popular music thing after Zia and the current boom in higher education.

Thanks for the piece. Much appreciated.

Five, four, three, two, one, clap! heheh... this makes for a good read.

I liked your writing style. Hope to see more from you.

Teaching and Research on India in Pakistan - A Conspicuous Absence o r qureshi, yes I sort of realised later that the author was probably focusing on the public system, but nevertheless, the work done at LUMS has added significantly to the body of scholarship on Indian history, so I figured it ought to be counted in that capacity, though not, of course, as something with a very wide immediate impact, or that was reflective of a big trend in Pakistani scholarship as a whole.
secondly, and this is less important, you`d be surprised at the provincial worldviews professed by some of the O and A levels crowd. If they have worldviews to start with. What I`m getting at is that even for those of us who only took the compulsory history courses to complete the breadth requirements, it was a big learning experience.

Teaching and Research on India in Pakistan - A Conspicuous Absence to the author:

I don`t know if you are aware of this but some young doctoral students and (at the time) recent phd`s from North American universities helped Dr. Imran Ali set up quite a significant history ``area`` (as it was never officialy christened a department). While Dr. Imran Ali had been teaching the South Asian History course for three years already, the new professors added courses such as:
1. Topics in South Asian History -- very detailed and extensive readings, covers the independence movement period (mid 19th to mid-20th century), emphasis on the marginalised movements (in Gujarat, the almost continuous rebellion in tribal areas, the origins of the communist-inspired movements after WWI), the effect of the canalisation and colonisation of previously rain-irrigated areas in (mainly Western) Punjab, Gandhi`s more philosophical writing in comparison with his political theory and political action
2. History of Colonial Expansion -- the process of colonisation, links with the Renaissance, indigenous reactions
3. Perspectives in Development Sociology -- very popular course among those serious about understanding the complex process of the emergence of current systems. the development paradigm, evolution in the fields of sociology, the post-colonial situation
4. Social Anthropology of South Asia
5. History of Decolonisation -- This course examines radical social change in the Third World since the end of World War II by drawing examples from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The course provides an insight into factors such as peasantry, labor, military, regime legitimacy, modes of popular mobilisation and resistance, Marxism, and global capitalism.
6. Socio-Politico Strategic Dynamics of South West Asia
7. Geopolitics of South Asia

Two new courses seem quite interesting, though as always much depends on actual readings and the instructor:

``Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory`` and ``Rural Society in Theory and History``

The reference is: http://www.lums.edu.pk/BSc_socialscience_courseoutline.htm. However, the list is not referenced by topics within the social sciences, so the interested reader would have to do some browsing.

cheers