khuda ki basti men khuda ke bandon pe kya guzri
khuda par yaqin hai lekin khuda ki basti par nahin:
'god gave us our country; we toil and we plod.
We can't trust our land, but we trust in our God'
GOD'S OWN LAND'. The title of a book by Shaukat Siddiqi, purchased more than two years ago, i've only gotten round to reading it recently.
its a beautiful autumn morning in johannesburg today, the sun shines brightly, birds chirping in the trees, while i sit in my suburban garden, enjoying the pleasures, of a weekend break, its hard not to think of the images this story conjurrs up, the parrells to south africa's own turbulent history is unmistakable, i can't help but think how we become so inurred of pain and struggle, that we rarely see it anymore,
how big a part do we play in the exploitation of our fellow citizen's , cause we choose to ignore the seedier side of life, secure in our ivory towers.
as i become ingrossed in the lives of raja and nausha, i realise this is a world wide malaise, rohinton mistry, acknowledges much the same, vikram seth too, any number of contemporary writers, have much the same to discuss, i imagine that it is really "blind faith" that carries us through, "we trust in our God"
joseph conrad, 'heart of darkness' THE CONQUEST OF THE EARTH, WHICH MOSTLY MEANS THE TAKING IT AWAY FROM THOSE WHO HAVE A DIFFERENT COMPLEXION OR SLIGHTLY FLATTER NOSES THAN OURSELVES, IS NOT A PRETTY THING WHEN YOU LOOK INTO IT TOO MUCH. WHAT REDEEMS IT IS THE IDEA ONLY. AN IDEA AT THE BACK OF IT; NOT A SENTIMENTAL PRETENCE BUT AN IDEA; AND AN UNSELFISH BELIEF IN THE IDEA-SOMETHING YOU CAN SET UP, AND BOW DOWN BEFORE, AND OFFER A SACRIFICE TO....
the fundamental idea that lies behind culture and empire, that people's needed to be ruled through force, gave rise to nationalist uprisings the world over,
today "having rid ourselves of 19th and 20th century westen empires",do we use a new weapon of control, blind faith in "God" if people are convinced in the inevitability of what they experience, the rich can get richer, and the poor are convinced that there lot in life is meant to be.
has cutlture become the theatre where various political and ideological causes engage on another?
im interested to know?
having said all that, i am lulled into a sense of well being, by this beautiful autumn day, and the sense of security, in knowing that like a lucky few, i am able to have the time to enjoy a beautiful day.
last nite, was spent, in that amazing cultural ritual of the indian wedding, why oh why, to we have to put on the pasty smile, and pretense of enjoyment of an age old ritual, personally i would be happy if these damned couple's would elope, saving the "happy guest" the torture of smiling through unedible food and generally bad company,
the saving grace, there never really is one, is possibly the lone interesting guest,... (in this case italian mafia type brother of (the "shaik" himself, shabier that is, our corrupt arms dealer, personally i think it's all a political ploy.) that one might have a civilised convrsation with. mostly, it's horny married guys, trying to score the attention, of available single women, or not. or the old grandmother trying to score a bride for the pimply faced, weasel of a grandson, but shock, horror, much to her elderly chagrin, she realises you have passed the sell by date,...lol, thank "GOD" For small mercies, heheeeee.
having said that, i would probably be attending another such fun filled evening in the not to distant future.
help please, any ideas on hot to get thru it?
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About Me
- africanfragments
- johannesburg, gauteng, South Africa
- passionate bout all things literary. dislike, stupidity and insincerity.
7 comments:
checin to see that anonymous works,
for you dear friend, cause u've been nice enough to try to post a comment:)
:)
i am so sorry just dotn knoww hats wrogn with blogger , refuses to recognise my password and wont let me post!
thanx !
rubyq
The weddings, such a waste of time. All the best laid plans of horny men, put to waste. I have never scored at a wedding, so I gave up a long long time ago ;-) When I was a hormonal teenager, weddings were a prime hunting ground, but alas only to ogle at girls in the same age group, although they were a lot mature and wouldnt give me the time of day. So for the most part, other than the sly side glances, weddings were maddingly frustrating.
In recent years, I go to weddings when I absolutely have to. Meet with the relevant people, mutter meaningless things which I think I am supposed to say, and get out of there, usually without even bothering to sample the food. If I am stuck there, I amuse myself by looking at hormonal teenagers, acting out the mating rituals in their awkward manner, strutting around, peddling their stuff. I see teenager girls giving me the look (why the hell didnt it work back then?) and for a fleeting second or so, it feels good.
And then, there is the segregated wedding, which in principle, I am totally against. I really dont see the point ;-)
There you have it, the Xoff wedding experience. The survival guide is next, look for it on my blog.
khuda kee basti
i can recall the tv play of the name, and as these plays go, it was full of misery of people, caught in the grind of life and other people going out of their way to make their lives miserable.
There was this guy who used to chant.. peer sayeen aanda tay mithay chawal khanda, and if I remember correctly, they would jump ahead by eleven years every few episodes.
I dont really know much about economics, but the transactions in society are based on needs and wants. I feel the needs should be taken care of by the state, whereas the wants are individual responsibilities. The state should take from the people to give back the needs, health, education, infrastructure. Unfortunately, for most of the world, the system doesnt work. The people dont give, or the state doesnt give back, and most people end up on the losing side. In that sense, the welfare/social state is a lot better than the capitalistic society, but then again, the burden on the social society gets beyond their means.
Whats the solution? I dont see one, the population explosion is not going to let anything work. So things will have to come to a point where we have to rethink the basics. I dont know when it will happen.
Correction, the part about jumping forward was from another show, and I think so was the peer sayeen part. sorry!!
hey thanks for the input, yaar
yep, lots of sufferring in this book, and yes, i think it all boils down to basics, most often than not the infrastructure, to put money, into places that need it are never in place, i think that, the failure, despite the fact that people dont give,is that we have allowed corruption and lawlessness, to infect the systems we do have in place.
moreover all incumbent governments, use the ploy of "promsing to fulfill the needs"thus they get elected, and before u know it, they are helping themselves, to most of the pie.
and then the population explosion, for some reason, is it too much time on the hands?, no excess to television? therefore nothing to occupy the tedium of life? children are born by the second.
thats me being facetious, realistically though, i think the failing, is total lack of education, and not just knowledge of reading and writing, rather basic life skills, to drum it into the heads of the populace that every baby born is another mouth to feed. also to empower people to create opportunities of self-employment, that will allow them to rise above abject poverty, "too optimistic"?
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