Comments from Sharyn Skeeter

Dear Nibir,

Thanks so much for sending these links. I've been reading end-of-semester student papers and exams, so I've just now had the chance to read your posts. I've enjoyed and learned from all of them.

The interview with Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui gave me an interesting perspective on literature and other factors in Pakistan and, to some degree, India. (I also learned a few new words--shayar, mushaira, etc.)

Your account of "Meeting Mother Teresa" is lovely. Your being in the presence of such a person must have been a blessing in itself.

After reading several of the posts on Multicultural America, I became interested in reading it. I looked for the book on amazon.com, however, I can't find it. Is it available? If so, where?

Again, thanks for sharing.

Best,

Sharyn (email dated 10 May, 2011)

 

Dr. Sharyn Skeeter is an assistant professor at the University of Bridgeport, U.S.A. Her poetry, articles, and fiction have appeared in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies (including E. Ethelbert Miller’s In Search of Color Everywhere). She has given readings at arts centers and universities in the United States. She was fiction, poetry, book review editor at Essence magazine and editor in chief at Black Elegance. She has taught journalism, media, and English at universities and colleges, including Emerson College, Gateway Community College, and Fairfield University. Currently, she is working on a novel and a collection of poetry.

 

Multicultural America: Conversations with Contemporary Authors

Critical Multiculturalism

Harbans Singh

Review of

Multicultural America: Conversations with Contemporary Authors
by Nibir K. Ghosh. Unistar. Pages 208. Rs 395

EVEN a casual student of American literature finds what Morris Dickstein terms as "the ever shifting margins of American society" in Multicultural America as something very close to the Indian experience. It is this aspect of the American literature that Nibir K. Ghosh has tried to explore in his illuminating conversations with contemporary authors in America.

Those included in the interviews are representatives of the different strands that go in the making of America. If there are authors like Ethelbert Miller who has no hesitation in identifying himself as a political writer and a literary activist, then there is also an author like Stanley Crouch who, though a provocative and iconoclastic social critic, believes that colour is never a problem. The latter finds considerable support from David Guterson who unhesitatingly declares that it is not necessary to be black to write about them.

These also provide insight to the reader in the making of the literature through conflict and creativity in a society that finds spirit of Dr Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Ginsberg fighting for space in its life. There is little doubt that the changes that have emerged in America since the 60s owe much to these three personalities. If the newly found equality tempted the blacks of the agrarian South to migrate to the industrial North in search of the rainbows, then August Wilson delved into that migration and the failing of the transplant.

The literature of this period has also confronted the emergence of new equations with the rise of Islam among the black communities. One is not surprised that there are voices that lament the fact that this conversion cast an unfortunate shadow on the relationship between the blacks and the Jews, who had combined to hasten the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.There are also voices that are understandably concerned at the fact that racism becomes vicious at times, and the fact that the dominant culture of America often finds it expedient to exploit and exclude a visible minority. Not surprisingly, Angelyn Mitchell, while lamenting the fact that race, apart from creating artificial boundaries that alienates the individual, brings out the fact that the same percentage of black children live in poverty today as in 1968! For those readers who are fascinated by the liberal aspect of America, the interview with Jonah Raskin is both revealing and educative. There is little doubt that the strand of conservatism in general and the belief that if USA is a melting pot, then it is only for the immigrants from Europe in particular who are fairly strong in its polity. But there is no dearth of intellectuals who did not share the American Dream and have stood against the misuse of power by the State authority. For such people, America belongs to the immigrants, the workers and the free thinkers who have refused to think like the herd. America owes much to these people for the non-conformist tradition that alone is the hallmark of free societies.

The men of letters interviewed by Ghosh have confronted the theme of alienation in their own way but refreshingly the undercurrent remains that of optimism which is best expressed by David Guterson who believes that "it is an illusion for any writer to think that he cannot have an impact on the world". He cites the example of Orwell whose 1984 has permanently senstised humanity to totalitarianism and has made it difficult for totalitarian regimes to overwhelm it.

The interviews also explore the process of creativity in each of the authors and their views on literary criticism and contemporary authors. Put together they give a fair view of the society and the literature of multicultural America.

 

Courtesy: The Sunday Tribune, Sunday, March 12, 2006

Multicultural America: Conversations with Contemporary Authors

Nibir K. Ghosh. Multicultural America: Conversations with Contemporary Authors. Chandigarh: Unistar, 2005. pp. 208+xxiii. Rs.395.

My voyage as a Fulbright scholar to the land which Columbus discovered was an enriching experience. During the course of my eight-month stay (2003-04) in the U.S., I was eager to explore and examine the various dimensions of  American society, polity and culture from the standpoint of an objective onlooker to see how my distance education of America stood in relation to what I could see in terms of visual as well as experiential reality. I was curious to learn what really makes the United States of America to be the undisputed first choice of immigrants not only from the developing third world countries but also from the affluent nations of Europe. I was overawed by America’s immensity in terms of geographical space, economic affluence, cultural diversity, and political goals. But, at the same time, I could not help reflecting on the glaring contradictions that challenge the very veracity of the avowed American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a teacher-scholar of American literature for nearly three decades, I had often wondered at the complexities inherent in American polity and society, related first and foremost to the ambivalence of the “American Dilemma” that reflected the pervasive presence of the color line. It is evident that race continues to occupy a prominent place in American politics. Being situated in both the superstructure and base of society, “color-prejudice” exists as a glaring reality, both personal and political. Also, as revealed in the recent events surrounding Katrina, race and class remain central to an understanding of the American experience and shape both personal and political reality for millions of Americans.

Besides the racial dilemma, there are several contentious issues where democratic ideals do not seem to be in unison with democratic practice. The revelations of Watergate would have naturally stunned the founding fathers of this nation to see such display of gross abuse of power by its First Citizen but they would have been especially proud of the judiciary they had created, a judiciary that could affirm beyond doubt that no one, absolutely no one, including the President of America, is above law. It seems amazing that a nation urged by the sense of such ethics and democratic ideals which could remove even a President from power has little explanation to account for the miscarriages of justice in events like the Scottsboro, Sacco-Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs trials, and, in recent times, the Rodney King episode. It does confound one to see in a land where the Statue of Liberty stands majestically safeguarding individual freedom, a poet like Amiri Baraka, could lose his Laureateship on account of a controversial poem “They Blew Up America” that came from him in the wake of the 9/11 bombing and destruction of the twin towers. The “Patriot Act” too is being seen by many intellectuals as a measure to curb individual freedom in the style of Orwell’s 1984.

In these animated conversations contemporary American authors -- Charles Johnson, August Wilson, David Guterson, Ethelbert Miller, Octavia Butler, Jonah Raskin, Stanley Crouch, Colleen McElroy, David Ray, Harryette Mullen, Joseph Jordan, Kathleen Alcala, and Angelyn Mitchell -- foreground in their frankness and energy, the powerful dynamic that relates society, polity, art and ideas to the making of the American mind. These figures - alert to the events and challenges surrounding them - often address the variable human factor in the inequities of power within the United States and its relationship to the rest of the world. Together, they provide an intimate and distinctive portrait of how living American writers view themselves in a world that both frightens and excites them immensely. Although the thrust of this volume is on the response of the contemporary American mind to the ambivalence of the "American Dilemma" in relation to race, immigration and ethnicity, my conversations with writers from diverse backgrounds reflect how changing American values affirm the continuing need for complex modes of multiculturalism in an increasingly global culture. Factors such as the controversial emergence of the United States as the only super power, the growing socio-economic challenges from the so-called Third World, and the growing recognition of interdependence of nations and peoples, are leading the creative minds in the U.S. to question some of the long-held assumptions about the world and the role the U.S. might play in it. In these extended interviews, these writers and intellectuals talk about their own work and their own development. But they also share their concerns about race and ethnicity, gender and politics, culture wars, technology and environment, as well as recent events such as 9/11 and the Iraq War.

--Nibir K. Ghosh, “Introduction.”

 

Nibir K. Ghosh with Professor Morris Dickstein at CUNY, New York

FOREWORD 

By  

Professor Morris Dickstein

Going back to the time of Frances Trollope, Dickens, and Tocqueville, our understanding of American life has always been enriched by the observations of sharp-eyed visitors from abroad. They may miss things that natives know in their bones, but as outsiders they show an uncanny sense of what most natives ignore or simply take for granted. Above all, they defamiliarize the cultural landscape, upending the conventional wisdom about what is central to it and what is marginal. To Dr. Nibir Ghosh, a distinguished Indian scholar of American literature, the ever-shifting margins of American society, especially the diverse groups that compose it, are central: like Ralph Ellison, he sees American culture as the braided strands of many cultures, not static and separate but dynamically interwoven in shifting patterns. During the course of an academic year spent in Seattle, often seen as one of America’s whitest, most homogeneous cities, Dr. Ghosh set out to explore these margins through conversations with writers….Dr. Ghosh’s ultimate subject is the diversity of American life and writing, not the stunted ideological diversity of identity politics but the prismatic diversity of a true multiculturalism. The writers he approaches…are complex and individual in their own identities. Unlike some of their contemporaries, none of them is strictly political.

Dr. Ghosh’s engaging colloquies with each of these varied figures bring to mind the work of journalist Studs Terkel, who has spent a lifetime talking to ordinary and extraordinary Americans, and the celebrated interviews with writers that have appeared in the Paris Review over the past half century. As an interviewer Dr. Ghosh is exceptionally well informed about his subjects yet never intrudes his own viewpoint. If these dialogues feel spontaneous, it is because he asks questions that set them at ease and encourage them to open up. They touch a nerve, letting loose a flow of genuine conversation, not canned replies or defensive maneuvers. Like any good interviewer he really listens, and hence the subjects listen more closely to him. And working with them afterwards, Dr. Ghosh undoubtedly edits their replies, grasping for what is essential and paring away the inevitable hesitations, imprecisions, and repetitions. The result is a book that is a continuous pleasure to read, peopled by array of writers who reveal things about their craft, their character, and their country from which no reader can fail to learn much of great interest.

           

--Professor Morris Dickstein is Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, U.S.A. and author of widely acclaimed Gates of Eden and Leopards in the Temple.

                             

          

Prof. Siddiqui with Nibir K. Ghosh at his residence in Agra

Give to the World the Best You Have:

Conversation with

Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui

Sunita Rani & Nibir K. Ghosh

When Chitranshi, the famed literary and cultural organization of Agra, decided to confer the prestigious "Chitranshi Firaq International Award" for the year 2009 on Dr. Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui in view of his exemplary contribution to Urdu shayari and international understanding, it was bound to be a welcome decision. The literary sphere in this historic city was excited at the idea of getting to see an international celebrity from an ‘enemy’ region, the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University, a widely acclaimed shayar and an eminent neuroscientist. The big event was marked for March 13, 2010 at Sursadan in Agra. At the behest of the organizers, Professor Pirzada Qasim graciously accepted the invitation to visit our home and join us for dinner on March 12, 2010. In a pre-dinner conversation, Professor Pirzada gave free vent to his heart and mind and shared with us his thoughts and ideas that have gone into the making of a scientist, an administrator and a shayar.

Interviewers: First of all we deem it a pleasure to welcome you profusely to our humble abode in the city of the Taj. We are honoured by your gracious presence here in Agra.

Pirzada: Thank you very much for welcoming me so warmly to Agra. I am delighted to be here this evening. Agra is a very unique city not only because there is Taj Mahal but because this part of the subcontinent has given the world one of the greatest poets of all times, Nazir Akbarabadi. He was a giant and still I do not see any Urdu poet in history who could take the place of Nazir Akbarabadi.

Interviewers: Why is Nazir so very important in your estimate?

Pirzada: The importance of Nazir Akbarabadi was that he brought the thoughts and interaction of the individual, of the common people, to poetry.

Interviewers: Something, I guess, great poets have always aspired for?

Pirzada: Yes. The contribution of Nazir Akbarabadi needs to be highlighted because you have in him a shayar who had the intrinsic ability to give expression to the voice of common people: their sorrow, their happiness, their day-to-day experiences. I am very much impressed by his poetry and I am very happy to be here in Agra to pay homage to this immortal poet.

Interviewers: Delhi, I believe, is your birthplace. How does it feel to come back home?

Pirzada: Well, I was born in Delhi, in the old town, way back in 1943. When I left Delhi for Pakistan in 1947, I was a little child. But there was always constant discussion in my house about Delhi and about our close association with the people we left behind. So Delhi remained fresh in my mind.

Interviewers: Did you get to visit Delhi prior to this trip?

Pirzada: Yes, I was in Delhi in February 1989 for a day or two. After so many years it was a very unique opportunity to visit the city of my birth. I participated in a Mushaira at Pragati Maidan where nearly twenty seven thousand people had gathered to enjoy the event. On the day after the Mushaira, I took out some time and I asked somebody to take me to the place where I was born, in Old Delhi. The location was an apartment that was a part of a big building with many houses. There were steps and there was a corridor that took you to the first floor house where I had lived. I just wanted to stand in the passage and have a look at the place and spend a few minutes gazing into the past.

Interviewers: It must have been a unique wish! What happened next?

Pirzada: When I was going up, a girl who was descending the stairs, stopped me and asked me if I was looking for someone. I told her I wasn’t looking for any one. I said, “I just came and I am going back.” Then she said, “Are you Pirzada Qasim”?

Interviewers: Oh, it must have been amazing to know that someone recognized you there!

Pirzada: Yes, it came as a pleasant surprise since I didn’t have any relatives there and I wasn’t expecting anyone to recognize me. I said, “Yes, but how did you know?” She said her whole family was there at Pragati Maidan the day before and they had seen and heard me in the Mushaira and seen me in the media too. Then she asked me if I could visit her house for a few minutes. I readily agreed. I followed her upstairs and the next moment I stood at the place where I was born, in the very same house. I met the family members and spent some time recalling the memories of my childhood days there. It was a wonderful moment.

Interviewers: It reads like a beautiful story. Don’t you think it was something providential?

Pirzada: Oh, yes. I was thinking what happened was sheer chance. Just a few minutes before and after would have deprived me of the opportunity of meeting this girl and I may have had to return without having a glimpse of the house of my birth. I will share with you another incident. During the 1989 Delhi visit, when I checked into the Kanishka Hotel in Delhi, I was greeted by the Manager who said, “Sir, a very happy birthday to you!” I was pleasantly surprised because I realized it was the 8^th of February, the date of my birth. It was so wonderful to be in Delhi on that date. It seemed like a rebirth for me, as if I was born again. I may have come back to India now after 21 years but I am in constant touch with friends from all over India, whether they be in Delhi, Lucknow, Aligarh or elsewhere.

Interviewers: How do you relate your visits to India in terms of your love for Urdu shayari?

Pirzada: It is unique indeed that some of the greatest poets of all times who lived and wrote here were contemporaries. They contributed in creating a rich reservoir of Urdu Literature. If you combine India and Pakistan, you have great poets like Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nazir Kazmi and others who have jointly enriched the realm of poetry and passed on a legacy for us poets to create memorable lyrics. I have had the good fortune of knowing many of these stalwarts on a very personal level and of being inspired by their works.

Interviewers: How do you reconcile yourself to your multifarious roles as administrator, neuroscientist and shayar?

Pirzada: I am basically a neuroscientist and I have been taught that there is no sentiment in science. I personally feel that there is no clash between science and poetry. Science may really be about precision and facts, but it does not inhibit creativity. It does make us aware of new dimensions that come to the fore with each new discovery. I rather feel that a harmonious blend of science and art gives a wideness to the horizon and we learn many new things about life and its realities.

Interviewers: What are your other interests in addition to writing poetry?

Pirzada: Besides poetry, I love painting. I love music. I love reading. My varied interests came from my household where the conversation often revolved around a variety of subjects: poetry, philosophy, music, even politics.

Interviewers: You have been an avid reader right from your childhood? What role do you think reading has in the shaping of one’s personality?

Pirzada: As a child I often received gifts of books rather than toys from my parents and other family members. I enjoyed reading short stories quite a bit. Books go a long way in shaping the person we become. Libraries contribute enormously in shaping intellectual awareness and promoting cultural consciousness. The priority of my parents was to provide their children with education and intellectualization to make them good human beings. It is unfortunate when we fail to show respect for books. I strongly believe that books are your best companion. I have maintained quite a rich library in my house. I have also tried to encourage my children to read books and have a close bond with their books. Books help a lot in building one’s personality.

Interviewers: You often mention your visit to the library set up by one Hakim Said. Could you kindly shed some light on that episode?

Pirzada: I was impressed to see the vast and varied collection in his library. Hakim sahib said “Pirzada, do you know who has helped make this collection of books so vast? The unworthy offsprings of renowned scholars and writers. When they pass away, their children first dump the books in a garage. Then seeing that the rooms filled with books have unnecessarily occupied the space, they dispose them off to junk dealers. And I have my men who go to these junk dealers to buy those books at nominal prices.”

Interviewers: This must have surprised you?

Pirzada: I became so depressed to learn this that I remained sick for two days.

Interviewers: Did this experience motivate you to enrich the Karachi University library?

Pirzada: Yes, quite significantly.

Interviewers: How do you respond to your responsibilities as the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University?

Pirzada: I have been one of the most active Vice Chancellors at Karachi University. We have been holding different seminars, workshops, national/international conferences, video conferences and lectures etc. I have insisted on a fairly high standard of student discipline through a minimum of 75 per cent attendance in classrooms. As of today, Karachi University is better in generating resources as compared to most of other universities in Pakistan. We have plans to create more resources in the near future.

Interviewers: What is your view of student unions in universities and colleges?

Pirzada: Since 1984 students unions have not been allowed in campuses in Pakistan.

Interviewers: Do you think it is the right approach?

Pirzada: No, I do not subscribe to this view. To close down a system because it does not work is not the right approach. What I am basically against is the deliberate interference of political and religious parties in the affairs of these unions. Each political or religious party in Pakistan – this may be true of India too – has its corresponding students’ wing. Since the level of tolerance between these parties is not very high, problems are bound to crop up. Unfortunately, some political parties try to involve students in their politics. As a result, students focus more on political activities instead of their studies. The need of the hour is to create student unions with the academic and cultural activities rather than political agendas as nerve centres.

Interviewers: How do you see Mushairas and Kavi Sammellans in relation to serious literature?

Pirzada: Mushairas and Kavi Sammellans promote the instant stuff. They thrive on popular taste and need not have a literary frame of reference. One who is very successful at these events may not necessarily be a great shayar. Participating frequently in Mushairas and Kavi Sammellans hardly leave any time for serious reflection. That is understandable, because if you open a shop, it is quite natural for you to keep products that sell instantly. Who would like to incur a loss in business?

Interviewers: You don’t seem to be too happy with the kind of neglect Education receives in Pakistan. Education is one of the most important areas but it receives the least importance. Only two percent of the nation’s GDP is spent on the education sector.

Pirzada: Education and healthcare are on the lowest rung of the priority ladder for the government of Pakistan.

Interviewers: You often state, “most of the teachers working at the moment are the one who never wanted to be a teacher. They started teaching just because they couldn’t find any other job for themselves.” 

Pirzada: I am deeply pained by such total lack of commitment in majority of teachers today. I distinctly recall how, way back in 1965, I had forsaken my job in a renowned pharmaceutical company to join the teaching profession although at that moment of time the salary I got as a teacher was nearly a third of what I was getting in the pharmaceutical company. Even today, after forty two years of teaching, I have never regretted the decision. Teaching is a very noble profession and every teacher must have commitment toward this profession.

Interviewers: How, as a Vice Chancellor, do you cope with a situation like this? How can you motivate and inspire teachers with total lack of commitment?

Pirzada: I think a teacher, like any one else in other professions, should be made accountable to his responsibilities. It is unfortunate that in the teaching profession the system of reward/punishment is virtually non existent. In my agenda for capacity building, the role of teachers comes high on the list of priorities. At the intake stage we must devise means of testing one’s interest and commitment to the profession. This must be followed by proper training and orientation.

Interviewers: Do you see a vast decline in the standard of education today in comparison to what you yourself experienced as a student/teacher? What is the main cause for such decline?

Pirzada: Yes, certainly. In the past the quality of our education was very high. I also studied in a government school. One reason can be that the children of our state heads also used to study in these public schools. Now, you can see the children of our leaders study abroad; in fact they live outside the country. That’s why the quality of education in our country has gone so down. I remember on my school bench, I was flanked on one side by the son of a big industrialist and on the other by a boy whose father ran a barber shop on Katrak Road. Parents of that period were very considerate. I wish to cite as an example the attitude of Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, who was then the governor of West Pakistan. The governor house driver had been told to drop the children at the Empress Market, well away from the school so that other students did not get a sense of inferiority.

Interviewers: Do you visualize any need for change in the academic structure and content in the light of globalization?

Pirzada: I strongly feel Pakistan has to come out of isolation in the fields of education and Science and Technology in particular due to the globalization process. Cooperation and coordination among nations in these fields is the need of the present era.

Interviewers: What are the coordinates of this partnership?

Pirzada: Since universities have to constantly contend with the problem of diminishing resources, private enterprises must come forward to share the social obligation of the nation to provide meaningful and quality education that is also productive at the same time.

Interviewers: Are you in favour of the idea of multiculturalism as it is shaping up in the present time?

Pirzada: Yes and no.

Interviewers: How?

Pirzada: I think the concept of universal culture is largely the result of sinister designs of advanced nations who have at their command the communication resources that remotely control the cultures of other nations. They have the satellites and we buy prime time from them to display our programmes. If we had the satellites, they would have bought the time from us and we could have projected our culture in an effective manner rather than allowing them to infiltrate and impose their culture on us, as is being done at the moment.

Interviewers: What is the way out?

Pirzada: I often talk to youngsters and point out the inherent need to recover the spirit of festivities grounded in our own cultural mores that are gradually disappearing from the scene. We have to rejuvenate in the youngsters the love for tradition tempered with the modern stance rather than allow them to be swayed by alien cultures. It is only when we have respect for something indigenous that we can properly assimilate what is positive in other cultures.

Interviewers: You consider that a sensitive poet must address three basic dilemmas of society: illiteracy, poverty and indifference. What do you think should be uppermost for a shayar?

Pirzada: I think indifference is the most dangerous one; we have stopped feeling for others. We are only concerned with ourselves. We feel that if someone is suffering, let him suffer; at least we are safe. It’s a very dangerous approach. It’s one of the main causes that bring about the collapse of a nation. We must think about this. We should stop thinking about ourselves only.

Interviewers: Your poems very often reflect a soul in agony and torment. Any comments?

Pirzada: I agree you may rarely see the romantic note in my poetry. I am quite often stirred and provoked by the indifference of people that I have been talking about. I am disturbed by their complacence to support the status quo. My poetry is an attempt to motivate people to come out of their shell of indifference. I am reminded of a shayar who said: “Haadse se bada saanya wo hai ki log ruke nahin haadsa dekh kar” (It is a greater tragedy to move away unconcerned from the tragic scene than to stop and witness it).

Interviewers: As an inspiring poet, what is your estimate of Urdu poetry today?
Pirzada: In the past, the various schools of thought usually discussed two aspects of poetry; the form of poetry and word-selection. They didn’t believe that good poetry should be contemporary in content. They believed that good poetry should be timeless. The other school of thought was of the opinion that if poetry does not reflect the era in which it is said, then what is its use. I personally believe that our issues and era should be reflected in the poetry.

Interviewers:  What is your stance on Urdu as a language of communication?

Pirzada: Urdu has an extremely significant role to play in the unity of Pakistan. It acts as a bridge that joins the people of all the areas of Pakistan. If you go to the remote areas of Sindh, Punjab, or other provinces, the only language that can enable you to communicate with the people of these areas is Urdu. So, Urdu is a mark of our unity. We must recognize the importance of our national language and we should give this language the respect that it deserves.

Interviewers: What has Karachi University, under your leadership, done to promote Urdu?

Pirzada: Karachi  University has always played an effective role in this regard. For example, we have allowed all the students who appear in any examination that they can answer the questions in Urdu. Even if they attempt the entire paper in English, where they feel they can give answer better in Urdu, they can use Urdu. We hold different events to promote the Urdu language among our students. The Urdu department of Karachi University is also playing a very active role in this regard.

Interviewers: How does it feel to be nominated for the prestigious "Chitranshi Firaq International Award"?

Pirzada: I must confess that of all the accolades and awards I have received in my life, the “Chitranshi Firaq International Award” occupies a very special place for me.

Interviewers: Why so?

Pirzada: Mainly because the award is associated with the name of a poet whose poetry exemplifies how great creativity can evolve from roots entrenched in one’s own soil. There are very few shayars whose shayari springs from the soil of Hindustan. Firaq was one such visionary who was not enamoured by Western ideas that considered India and other third world countries as a land of mystics and snake charmers. His was not an apologistic stance. He created great lyrics that celebrated the great culture and civilization of this land.

Interviewers: What message would you like to convey to the students and youth of India?

Pirzada: In this age of high professionalism where everyone is involved in the rat race for financial success, we need to ask ourselves whether we are to become robots or human beings in a civilized world. If you want human beings with attributes of versatility, you need to inculcate the love for literature, religion and culture to some extent in addition to your aspiration for highest professionalism. That is bound to make you a better asset to society.

I would also like to tell them what I tell the youth of Pakistan that we should try to give our best within the limited resources that we have. It’s a great feeling when you achieve something for which you didn’t have enough resources.

Interviewers: Your inspiring presence in Agra is bound to leave decisive imprints on the efforts of Chitranshi to promote literary, social and cultural values. Thank you very much for sharing your views and concerns with us so intimately and for making this such a delightful and memorable evening.

Pirzada: Thank you! I have enjoyed every moment.

v

Courtesy: Re-Markings (www.re-markings.com) Vol. 9 No.2 September 2010, pp.11-19

Copyright (C) Sunita Rani & Nibir K. Ghosh

Meeting Mother Teresa: A Rendezvous with Bliss

Meeting Mother Teresa: A Rendezvous with Bliss

Nibir K. Ghosh

“I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” -Mother Teresa

The mind receives a myriad impression. From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms: fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. An impression that remains etched in my memory with the sharpness of steel is that of my meeting with Mother Teresa many years ago. Photographic imitations help reconstruct and recreate memories of an untold moment of bliss. Two photographs which form the most valuable part of my personal possessions bear testimony to that memorable meeting. The ravages of time have left their imprint on the decaying, moisture-ridden photographic paper which features me and my friends with Mother Teresa. What time could not affect, however, was the memory and the significance of that momentary but blissful association.

It was the dawn of 11 March, 1978. We — my friends, Sunil Surve, Leonard, Paras and I — were to meet Mother Teresa at 5.30 am at Nirmal Hirday, Pratap Pura, Agra, courtesy my brother Subir. We kept awake the whole night in fear that we may oversleep and miss the appointed hour of our meeting. We reached Nirmal Hirday at 5.00 am and waited eagerly for Mother to complete her morning prayers. Surve had painted overnight, two life-like portraits of Mother and brought it for her. I carried a copy of the Sunday magazine which featured a story on the immortal deeds of Mother for the purpose of endorsing it with her autograph. We had also taken a tape-recorder to record our conversation with Mother.

Mother emerged out of her prayers at 5.30 am, draped in a coarse blue-bordered saree and a grey woolen sweater. How like an extremely effectual angel beating her luminous wings to assuage the suffering of mankind did this great international celebrity look in her attire of simplicity ! How does one describe the profile of such an angel! A frail woman with compassionate eyes filled with pain at the plight of the homeless and destitute and yet emanating hope and peace for everything which comes within their infinite range. The deepset creases on her face almost resembled a map of the world and told the story of suffering and pain she had seen all over in the human domain, and her small dainty little hands seemed to be embracing the entire suffering world in a spirit of indescribable humility.

Mother Teresa greeted us with a smile and blessed each of us in turn with kind words of inspiration. She spoke so softly that we had to strain our ears to hear her. Perhaps she meant to convey what she felt about the inefficacy of speech for one engaged in God’s noble work. I deliberately didn’t switch on the recorder for I knew it was superfluous. I told her we had come to receive her blessings and to present to her the two portraits that Surve had painted. She looked at the paintings and praised Surve’s skill as an artist. Her eyes glowed with sadness as she said very gently: “How I wish you may have utilised the amount of money you have spent in painting my portrait for buying food and milk for little hungry orphans.” Her words which came out from her innermost being made us a little uncomfortable. Perhaps it was her way of telling us without hurting our feelings that true service is the practical expression of devotion to God. She asked us about the professions we were in and told us how we could make our lives useful : “I do not want you to perform miracles with unkindness, rather I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness. Always remember that the language of caring is universal.”

Across the span of twenty seven years those gentle words continue to reverberate, bringing back to the mind, in a flash, the indelible impression of the closest touch we would ever have with living divinity.

Courtesy: New Indian Express, Thursday September 1 2005

Charles Johnson: Embracing the World: Comment from Richard E. Hart

“Dear Nibir:

Much congratulations on the near release in India of your book on Charles Johnson. You have produced the book in near record time. I checked out the cover and contents on www.re-markings.com. It looks to be very good. All Johnson scholars, friends, and enthusiasts are in your debt for having undertaken, and now completed, this fine project. Thank you so much. I really look forward to seeing the book, and hope that my modest contribution made it a tiny bit better.”  -- Dr. Richard E. Hart, Cyrus H. Holley Professor of Applied Ethics and Philosophy, Bloomfield College New Jersey, U.S.A.

Come September!

The fall of Osama on International Labor day brings to mind my musings on the gruesome event of 9/11 recorded in my Editorial in Re-Markings (www.re-markings.com):

“Come September!” The epithet easily helps one to joyfully recall from down the memory lane that lilting tune from Billy Vauhn and His Orchestra which set the hearts and feet of  the young and the old alike dancing with happiness and cheer. All that seems long ago. 11 September, 2001 changed all that. The catastrophe that reduced the mighty twin towers of the World Trade Centre to mere fragments of etherised memory in the twinkling of an eye showed the seamy side of inhuman ingenuity to which even the sky seems no limit. April is no longer ‘the cruellest month’. September has forged ahead with its dead weight of ‘broken images’ spilled the world over. In an age of globalization nothing can remain neutral. Even terrorism has turned global.

In a world already beleaguered with fanaticism and violence where the emphasis is on the adage: ‘good fences make good neighbours’ and where instant justifications are rendered in the name of either justice or counter-revolutionary retaliation, there must be those countless mortals who would like to rise and proclaim: ’Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / that wants it down’. Such mortals, however, prefer to remain inert and waiting like the ‘winged seeds’ in Shelley’s ode for the clarion call of the West Wind to awaken them from their slumber.

-- Nibir K. Ghosh,  “Editorial,” Re-Markings Vol. 2 No.2, September 2003