Dear ShobhaaThanks so much for your support for Maziar.However - that petition was not ready to go public!It's to be sent next week to the Iranian authorities - signed by 100 leadinginternational journalists - and we haven't finished working on it.It's being carefully orchestrated by Newsweek, CPJ and Index. tell people who areinterested to go to the Facebook site for Maziar?http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92920517209&__a=1Thanks for your understanding.All bestJoJo GlanvilleEditorIndex on CensorshipFree Word Centre60 Farringdon RoadLondon EC1R 3GA+44 (0) 207 324 2531+44 (0) 771 302 0971jo@indexoncensorship.orgwww.indexoncensorship.org
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now you know where to go and what to do.
i have been writing non -stop all day, stopping briefly for a biryani break with my brother. This weather makes me seriously hungry.... but not for 'piping hot bhajiyas and garam chai'. That is such a cliche. Every starlet in town trots out the bhajiya-chai quote while responding to those dumb interviews about the 'monsoon magic'. There's nothing particularly 'magical' about the Mumbai monsoon. Unless you find slush magical.
19 comments:
Thanks a lot for the insight.I'l let as many people as I can about this atrocious thng happening in Iran.
isnt der?datz surprising cmin' 4m u.
I totally agree with you. Being a Mumbaite as the monsoons come I start dreading the muck and the floods!
Mam,
I love driving in the rain, when only you can see the rain and others getting drenched. It is a nice feeling. isnt it?
Biryanii..hmmmm
No problemo!
FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA, A GIFT FROM SOCAR WILDE
SONNETS TO THE MOON FROM A PRSION CELL
PART ONE
{ People other than Shiny Ahuja should read it too}
THOUGHTS FROM PRISON
“To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”- Wilde
“I have lain in prison for nearly two years. Out of my nature has come wild despair, an abandonment to grief that was piteous even to look at; terrible and impotent rage; bitterness and scorn; anguish that wept aloud; misery that could find no voice; sorrow that was dumb. I have passed through every possible mood of suffering. Better than Wordsworth himself I know what Wordsworth meant when he said—
Suffering is permanent, obscure, and dark,
And has the nature of infinity.
But while there were times when I rejoiced in the idea that my sufferings were to be endless, I could not bear them to be without meaning. Now I find hidden somewhere away in my nature something that tells me that nothing in the whole world is meaningless, and suffering least of all. That something hidden away in my nature, like a treasure in a field, is humility.
It is the last thing left in me, and the best: the ultimate discovery at which I have arrived, the starting-point for a fresh development. It has come to me right out of myself, so I know that it has come at the proper time. It could not have come before, nor later. Had any one told me of it, I would have rejected it. Had it been brought to me, I would have refused it. As I found it, I want to keep it. I must do so. It is the one thing that has in it the elements of life, of a new life, a Vita Nuova for me. Of all things it is the strangest; one cannot give it away and another may not give it to one. One cannot acquire it except by surrendering everything that one has. It is only when one has lost all things, that one knows that one possesses it.
FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA, A GIFT FROM SOCAR WILDE
SONNETS TO THE MOON FROM A PRSION CELL
PART ONE
{ People other than Shiny Ahuja should read it too}
THOUGHTS FROM PRISON
“To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”- Wilde
“I have lain in prison for nearly two years. Out of my nature has come wild despair, an abandonment to grief that was piteous even to look at; terrible and impotent rage; bitterness and scorn; anguish that wept aloud; misery that could find no voice; sorrow that was dumb. I have passed through every possible mood of suffering. Better than Wordsworth himself I know what Wordsworth meant when he said—
Suffering is permanent, obscure, and dark,
And has the nature of infinity.
But while there were times when I rejoiced in the idea that my sufferings were to be endless, I could not bear them to be without meaning. Now I find hidden somewhere away in my nature something that tells me that nothing in the whole world is meaningless, and suffering least of all. That something hidden away in my nature, like a treasure in a field, is humility.
It is the last thing left in me, and the best: the ultimate discovery at which I have arrived, the starting-point for a fresh development. It has come to me right out of myself, so I know that it has come at the proper time. It could not have come before, nor later. Had any one told me of it, I would have rejected it. Had it been brought to me, I would have refused it. As I found it, I want to keep it. I must do so. It is the one thing that has in it the elements of life, of a new life, a Vita Nuova for me. Of all things it is the strangest; one cannot give it away and another may not give it to one. One cannot acquire it except by surrendering everything that one has. It is only when one has lost all things, that one knows that one possesses it.
FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA, A GIFT FROM OSCAR WILDE (PART TWO, CONTINUED)
Now I have realized that it is in me, I see quite clearly what I ought to do; in fact, must do. And when I use such a phrase as that, I need not say that I am not alluding to any external sanction or command. I admit none. I am far more of an individualist than I ever was. Nothing seems to me of the smallest value except what one gets out of oneself. My nature is seeking a fresh mode of self-realisation. That is all I am concerned with. And the first thing that I have got to do is to free myself from any possible bitterness of feeling against the world. I would gladly and readily beg my bread from door to door. If I got nothing from the house of the rich, I would get something at the house of the poor. Those who have much are often greedy; those who have little always share. I would not a bit mind sleeping in the cool grass in summer, and when winter came on, sheltering myself by the warm close-thatched rick, or under the pent-house of a great barn, provided I had love in my heart. The external things of life seem to me now of no importance at all. You can see to what intensity of individualism I have arrived - or am arriving rather, for the journey is long, and ‘where I walk there are thorns’.
Of course, I know that to ask alms on the highway is not to be my lot, and that if ever I lie in the cool grass at night-time it will be to write sonnets to the moon. When I go out of prison, Robbie will be waiting for me on the other side of the big iron-studded gate, and he is the symbol, not merely of his own affection, but of the affection of many others besides. I believe I am to have enough to live on for about eighteen months at any rate, so that if I may not write beautiful books, I may at least read beautiful books; and what joy can be greater? After that, I hope to be able to recreate my creative faculty.
MORE FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA FROM OSCAR WILDE
PART THREE CONTINUED
But were things different; had I not a friend left in the world; were there not a single house open to me {even} in pity; had I to accept the wallet and ragged cloak of sheer penury: still as long as I am free from all resentment, hardness, and scorn, I would be able to face life with much more calm and confidence than I would were my body in purple and fine linen, and the soul within me sick with hate.
…. When you really want love you will find it waiting for you.
I need not say that my task does not end there. It would comparatively be easy if it did. There is much more before me. I have hills for steeper to climb, valleys much darker to pass through. And I have to get it all out of myself. Neither religion, morality, nor reason can help me at all.
Morality does not help me. I am a born antinomian. I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws. But while I see that there is nothing wrong in what one does, I see that there is something wrong in what one becomes. It is well to have learned that.
Religion does not help me. The faith that others give to what is unseen, I give to what one can touch, and look at. My gods dwell in temples made with hands; and within the circle of actual experience is my creed made perfect and complete: too complete, it may be, for like many or all of those who have placed their heaven in this earth, I have found in it not merely the beauty of heaven, but the horror of hell also. When I think about religion at all, I feel as if I would like to found an order for those who cannot believe -- “the Confraternity of the Faithless” one might call it, where on an altar, on which no taper burned, a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling, might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine. Everything to be true must become a religion. And agnosticism should have its ritual no less than faith. It has sown its martyrs; it should reap its saints, and praise God daily for having hidden Himself from man. But whether it be faith or agnosticism, it must be nothing external to me. Its symbols must be of my own creating. Only that is spiritual which makes its own form. If I may not find its secret within myself, I shall never find it: if I have not got it already, it will never come to me.
Sonnets to the Moon
FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA A GIFT FROM OSCAR WILDE
PART FOUR
(PEOPLE OTHER THAN SHINY AHUJA SHOULD READ IT TOO)
Reason does not help me. It tells me that the laws under which I am convicted are wrong and unjust laws, and the system under which I have suffered a wrong and unjust system. But, somehow, I have got to make both of these things just and right to me. And exactly as in Art one is only concerned with what a particular thing is at a particular moment to oneself, so it is also in the ethical evolution of one’s character. I have got to make everything that has happened to me good for me. The plank bed, the loath-some food, the hard ropes shredded into oakum till one’s finger-tips grow dull with pain, the menial offices with which each day begins and finishes, the harsh orders that routine seems to necessitate, the dreadful dress that makes sorrow grotesque to look at, the silence, the solitude, the shame - - each and all of these things I have to transform into a spiritual experience. There is not a single degradation of the body which I must not try and make into a spiritualising of the soul.
I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say quite simply, and without affectation, that the two great turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when Society sent me to prison. I will not say that prison is the best thing that could have happened to me; for that phrase would savour of too great bitterness towards myself. I would sooner say, or hear it said of me, that I was so typical a child of my age, that in my perversity, and for that perversity’s sake, I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good.
What is said, however, by myself or by others, matters little. The important things, the thing that lies before me, the thing that I have to do, if the brief remainder of my days is not to be maimed, marred, and incomplete, is to absorb into my nature all that has been done to me, to make it part of me, to accept it without complaint, fear, or reluctance. The supreme vice is shallowness. Whatever is realized is right.
When first, I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realizing what I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would be always haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else- the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver—would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power and their power of communicating joy.”
Sonnets to the Moon
FOR IRANIAN JOURNALIST AND SHINY AHUJA A GIFT FROM OSCAR WILDE
PART FOUR
(PEOPLE OTHER THAN SHINY AHUJA SHOULD READ IT TOO)
Reason does not help me. It tells me that the laws under which I am convicted are wrong and unjust laws, and the system under which I have suffered a wrong and unjust system. But, somehow, I have got to make both of these things just and right to me. And exactly as in Art one is only concerned with what a particular thing is at a particular moment to oneself, so it is also in the ethical evolution of one’s character. I have got to make everything that has happened to me good for me. The plank bed, the loath-some food, the hard ropes shredded into oakum till one’s finger-tips grow dull with pain, the menial offices with which each day begins and finishes, the harsh orders that routine seems to necessitate, the dreadful dress that makes sorrow grotesque to look at, the silence, the solitude, the shame - - each and all of these things I have to transform into a spiritual experience. There is not a single degradation of the body which I must not try and make into a spiritualising of the soul.
I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say quite simply, and without affectation, that the two great turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when Society sent me to prison. I will not say that prison is the best thing that could have happened to me; for that phrase would savour of too great bitterness towards myself. I would sooner say, or hear it said of me, that I was so typical a child of my age, that in my perversity, and for that perversity’s sake, I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good.
What is said, however, by myself or by others, matters little. The important things, the thing that lies before me, the thing that I have to do, if the brief remainder of my days is not to be maimed, marred, and incomplete, is to absorb into my nature all that has been done to me, to make it part of me, to accept it without complaint, fear, or reluctance. The supreme vice is shallowness. Whatever is realized is right.
When first, I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realizing what I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would be always haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else- the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver—would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power and their power of communicating joy.”
Nothing magical about the Mumbai monsoon?
In how many cities around the world can one afford to play water-polo on the street in front of one's home?
:D
sorry to say but shobhaa.....I think you mumbai citizens are not doing enough,.........even in bengaluru we had this problem....but hey....we start kicking asses (pardon me for the language)
I think you guys should start kicking asses too, instead of brow beating in the media (which I feel won't work after a point of time, the dimwits become immune to this after a while)
' bhajiya-chai ' Mouth-watering menu in these days of rim-jhim barsaat:)
I didn't know you are so stupid Ms Shobha De.
These journalists are most of the time on the payroll of Americans and British politicians who use them to bring down foreign governments in the name of democracy. They get funded from American intelligence to print negative stories about countries who stand up against western Bullshit.
The same American intelligence with the help of CNN, CNBC, Fox News and other channels started a propaganda that Saddam Hussain of Iraq can destroy the whole world in 45 minutes with chemical weapons. If you remember correctly they were neve found and American and British butchers ended up killing more civilians than Saddam Hussain. At that time the American propaganda machine used opposition leaders of saddam hussain to justify these attacks. And anyone with common wisdom knows that it was a propaganda war to steal billions of dollars worth of Iraqi oil. Then vice president Dick Cheney's company Haliburton got exclusive rights to pump the oil without any public tender.
It amazes me that a journalist like you fell to this silly trap of western world. The prime reason is that Iranian president has dared to stand up against American bullying tactics and wants to build nuclear weapon. If our own Gyani Sardar singhji stands up and tells white house that Iran and North Korea has every right to make nuclear weapon then you should not be surprised if they use BJP leaders to tell the whole world that Gyani Manmohan Singh is butchering and torturing his own people.
It's fair to say that Indian leadership lacks guts for a long time and is licking Americans whether they are wrong or right in world affairs. Indian may have gained financially in last 10-15 years but has lost it's independent voice to tell the world if certain country is killing civilians in the name of democracy.
I hope your readers read both sides of the equation before creating a negative image of country which is basically to satisfy American ego's.
Good luck
Sitting in Delhi makes me really envy mumbai monsoon.no matter if it delay people from office,Hours of traffic jam and what not but after all its monsoon which gives farmer his smile,which gives animals so much of respite,which gives children a smile.Love monsoon:)
Very true indeed!!!
For urban milieu like me rains are fine but monsoon is sooo geela…So sloshy and read so dirty/ smelly.
And I wonder too garam chai and bhajiya suddenly became hot fav of all in this world. It can be labeled as next style icon of “MTV”.
Cheers!!!
http://ektakhetan.blogspot.com
I guess Shobhaa is just supporting her fraternity which in itself is a virtue. If Iran is holding jouros as prisoners than it is wrong and against democracy of speech. If Iran wants to teach America a lesson it should use open politics. This is hidious.
As far as bhajiya chai is concerned, I think it's ones choice, but to write it off just coz every bollyworld starlet is quoting it is not becoming of Shobhha. Why be obsessed with all things bollywood. Who are you fighting with?
I hate rains too. Only coz of the muck it brings in India. In most developed countries when it rains you can see transparent/clera water logs, or clear clean drains. Our own sense of cleaniless is pathetic - rains or no rains.
There we go ONE MORE PETITION !!! How about attaching flowers to that ??? man, Who is reading these petitions, Iranian Mullah's??!!! Gimme a break, oh, 100 leading international journalists have signed, what a difference !!! They are going to release everyone after getting this PETITION signed by 100 LEADING International Journalists. oops, the Iranian Mullahs have even THROWN Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out of office because of 100 LEADING international journalists signed a PETITION!!! Oh yea, Iranian Mullahs are even waiting to know the next step from 100 journalists... YES, 100 LEADING International Journalists are trying to use this opportunity to get some mileage out for their bosses keeping them in the LEADING position!!! CPJ should be doing the RIGHT thing, hire an insider, strike a DEAL, get him out rather wasting 100 LEADING journalists 'valuable' TIME!!! They know THIS but still, they prefer a PETITION approach!!! Stop blaming it on America for everything, whom should we write a petition for this ???
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