She didn't come to stay

She didn't come to stay




A late Iowa evening.  Weekend. Time to hang out with friends till the talk later in the day.  Memorial Union at Iowa State is an old building--a Victorian edifice with round, stone columns; its façade punctuated with tall arched windows; a pair of wood half-spiral staircase at the entrance that squeaked under the climbing steps; and mosaic floor with zodiac, buffed under the shoes of hundreds of thousands of students that had passed through there.
Most of the African-American students at Iowa State came from Chicago.  Jamila was one of them.  She was also there for the talk.  We walked together. Then I saw a familiar face, walking towards us, in the hallway.  "Are you Maya Angelou?"  I asked her with excitement. She answered in affirmation, and looked at the two of us with curiosity.  I mumbled something to the effect that I had read 'Why the Caged Bird Sings' and thought very highly of her.  There was some small talk and then she moved on.
The reading session with Maya Angelou that evening was enlightening.  Her heartfelt conversation that day, and her books made it possible for me to foray in the world of identities, the sense of belonging, and the standards of beauty.  This is what great literature is about.  It can take you out of yourself and make you look back at everything through the eyes of a keen, detached observer.
Maya Angelou is gone.  She didn't come to stay.  No one does.

[Photo courtesy of http://www.udel.edu]

The Right to Kill

Living in Iowa I learned bulls in heat can break the strongest fence.   
If only Elliot Rodger were a bull and we could arrange a cow for him!


[Photo courtesy of http://i.telegraph.co.uk]

Why Bushra Ansari is an idiot, and why artists coming from our region need sensitivity training

Why Bushra Ansari is an idiot, and why artists coming from our region need sensitivity training

At the HDF fundraiser held on May 18, Bushra Ansari, the star of the evening, may have amused the audience, but she also put off a large number of people because of the way she picked on one of her team members while introducing the two accompanying musicians: Robin John on keyboard and Ashneel Singh on tabla.

Ashneel Singh is a fine tabla player.  He is an American of Fijian descent.  But all this detail was lost on Ms. Ansari.  For her, Ashneel Singh, with his distinctly Sikh/Hindu name, was an Indian. And that was enough for her to ridicule him.  The quip was off-color—had something to do with Indian musicians not knowing the Pakistani songs—but a small segment of the audience, as uncouthed as Ms. Ansari, found it funny, and the laughter was loud—visibly embarrassing Ashneel Singh. What an idiot Bushra Ansari is!  How dimwit an artist should be to make the audience laugh at the expense of their own team-member, a musician who with his work is trying to make them shine!

Back in South Asia newly minted and constantly evolving Indian and Pakistani nationalisms clash.  In Pakistan, nationalism has already been hijacked by the religious elements and the triumphant--albeit sick--ideology pushes for a Muslim-Pakistan, Hindu-India understanding of the South Asian geography—gullible citizens take the venomous feed numbly.

As Pakistan gradually becomes more 'Muslim', many in India react and push for a 'Hindu' identity of India.  The recent Indian election results tell us which way things are headed.  The phenomenon fits the definition of self-fulfilling prophecy like a glove.

Whatever nonsense is going on in South Asia, it must not be allowed to poison us here in North America. Artists coming from that region must be trained to leave behind their biases and cheap jokes.  Promoters need to provide sensitivity training to the artists they bring out of the subcontinent.  South Asian audience deserves performers who conform to higher moral standards.

Retired Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Ex-Attorney General Munir A. Malik at OPEN SV Forum 2014

Retired Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Ex-Attorney General Munir A. Malik at OPEN Forum 2014

Session moderated by Riaz A. Karamali

Burqavaganza Performance Video Highlights

Founders Day Program 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area

What keeps many Bay Area Pakistanis busy over Christmas?  They attend the annual ‘Founders Day’ program celebrating the birthday of the Pakistani savior, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.  This year’s gathering at the Chandni Restaurant in Newark, California was a well-organized event featuring a movie ‘The Other Side of Pakistan’ produced by Asghar Aboobaker and associates, a slide show on Jinnah, few short speeches (by Syed Nusrat, Javed Ellahie, Asghar Aboobaker, and Dr. Waheed Siddiqui), a comedy act by Bay Area comedian Faraz, and a long-well-into-the-night-running music program (Asad Waince sang karaoke).

Sponsors of Founders Day 2013 included:

The Chandni Restaurant (http://gochandni.com)

The Pakistan Association of San Francisco Bay Area (http://pasfbayarea.org)

The Pakistani American Culture Center (http://www.pacc-ca.org/)

Tri City Travel (http://tricitytravel.com)

Ms. Raana Faiz (Hamrahi Radio)

Mr. Javed Ellahie (Ellahie & Farooqi Law Firm-- http://www.ellfarlaw.com/)

Mr. Tashie Zaheer (Urdu Academy-- http://urduacademy.org/)

Mr. Khalid Rana (KNR Services-- http://www.knrservices.com)

Mr. Shan Saigal (Referral Realty-- http://www.siliconvalleyhomeprice.com/)

Mr. & Mrs. Ahsan and Tajwer Sajjad

Mr. Khalid Khokhar (KK Builders-- http://www.kkbuilder.com)

Mr. Kamran Mahmood (New York Life)

Mrs. Mehreen Mahmood (AAA Insurance)

Mr. Shahid Salimi (Indus Foods)

'Five Broken Cameras' screened at the Santa Clara University Library

‘Five Broken Cameras’ is somewhat of an unintentional film.  The footage taken over years by Emad Burnat, a resident of Bil’in village in the West Bank, is put together with footage taken by Guy Davidi, the Israeli director of the movie, and others to make a film on the Palestinian life under the Israeli occupation.   The documentary is not about ‘Five Broken Cameras’ per se; it is rather about five cameras that got broken after taking some awesome footage.

The story of Emad’s five cameras-- each one of it got busted in an act of violence--is interwoven with many other stories: that of his own children growing up under siege, of Israel’s land grab, of the building of barrier walls around Palestinian villages, of the Jewish settlers moving in the newly constructed homes, and of relentless protests by the Palestinians.

Besides being educational about the plight of the Palestinians, ‘Five Broken Cameras’ proves two things.  One, that in this new age credible history is only whatever can be shown to the world through a video footage, and, Two, that Israeli snipers are really sharp-shooters —they can aim at a hand-held camera and shoot exactly that object, sparing the person holding the camera.

A screening of ‘Five Broken Cameras’, at the Santa Clara University Library on November 12, organized under the auspices of the ‘Culture and Conflict Forum’ and sponsored by the Muslim Student Association (Santa Clara University) was attended by around 35 people.

A Q&A session with Ziad Abbas, Manager for Cross-Cultural programs at the Middle East Children's Alliance in Berkeley and Bethlehem, Palestine, took place after the screening.