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Friday, August 24, 2007

An Acceptance Speech

My blog has received an award and, obviously, I am greatly pleased to accept it.

If there were to be a real awards-function and I were to make an acceptance speech, I suppose it would have gone somewhat like this:

"Well...er...ahem...First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty...Then, I would like to thank my parents and teachers, who helped me learn to read and write the English language...

I would like to thank the so-called leaders of the Hindu and Muslim communities of pre-partition India, who, for the sake of building their personal fiefdoms, helped drive a wedge between the people of these two communities that ultimately led to partition of the country into two inpependent states i.e. India and Pakistan...I would, obviously, also have to thank the gullible people who followed these leaders and hated each other not only as much as their leaders wanted them to, but far beyond that...If they had not killed each other in such large numbers at the time of partition, it would have been so difficult to maintain the bitterness between the two countries for so many years that followed...I would like to thank the politicians on both sides, who realised that they could deflect peoples' attention away from their own failings, by attributing a lot of what was wrong with their respective countries, to 'the foreign hand'...Of course, they were also very ably assisted in their endeavours by the respective intelligence agencies that helped them foment trouble in each others' countries...In fact, such agencies are doing this, very effectively, even today, I believe, be it in Kashmir or in Balochistan...Again, I have to say "Thanks!" to the people on either side who, dutifully, continue to hate those on the other side of the border...I absolutely must thank those who enabled me to visit the Pakistani part of Punjab as a member of a Sikh Jathha, in April 2006, and see for myself how similar the Punjabis there are to my own self and other Punjabis from the Indian part of Punjab...If all these people had not done all that they have done in the past 70-80 years, I might never have started writing a blog at all!

A big "Thank you!" to Blogger.Com for providing me with a blogging-platform...They have not been able to solve the problems I have been having with the recently introduced 'Auto Save' feature and blank rows get inserted automatically between paragraphs, in addition to the one such row that I insert between any two paragraphs...This happens every time I return to work on a half-finished draft blog-post that I had saved (or rather 'Auto Save' had saved for me) the previous time I had signed in...but, anyway...

Last, but not the least, I would like to thank the jury for having found my blog to be worthy of the honour!"

3 comments:

Sidhusaaheb said...

the more i live in this sileceous chrysopolis i call home (for want of a better word) the more i realise how much in common not only punjabis across the grating divide, but pakistanis and indians in general have in common.

one of the (few) positives to have come out of my time here is the realisation that my cultural heritage is indian – not “muslim” (as if there is a universal muslim culture) and certainly not “arab”. and pakistan hasn’t been around long enough to have developed a cultural tradition of its own (at least i hope not!)
minos | Homepage | 08.24.07 – 10:05 am | #

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I agree completely with you.

However, the greatest misfortune of the sub-continent has perhaps been that its people seem to have been far more receptive to messages of hatred than those of peace, love and brotherhood. ‘Divide and Rule’, as a policy, has flourished rather than having died a natural death, as it should have, with the end of foreign rule.

Hopefully, all this will change for the better, over the coming years.
Sidhusaaheb | Homepage | 08.24.07 – 4:03 pm | #

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suna hai umeed pe dunya qaim hai
minos | Homepage | 08.24.07 – 8:59 pm | #

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Ji, sahi farmaaya!
Sidhusaaheb | Homepage | 08.24.07 – 9:25 pm | #

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Sidhu ji

What a lovely post – No matter what the ‘minority’ view is (and recent polls suggest that!) there are more commonalities and a stronge urge for friendship and getting over the past.

I am an optimist – it would take more time and a replacement of leadership in both the countries who can take a detached and independent view of Indo-Pak relations.

I end with a quote from Ali Sardar Jafri:

Tum aao gulshan-e-Lahore se chaman bardosh,
Hum aayen subh-e-Banaras ki roshnee le kar
Himalay ki havaaon ki taazgee le kar
Aur iske baad yeh poochein ki kaun dushman hai?

You come from the garden of Lahore laden with flowers,
We will come bearing the light of a Benares morning
With fresh breezes from Himalayan heights
And then, together we can ask, who is the enemy?

(Translated from the Urdu by Khushwant Singh)
Raza Rumi | Homepage | 08.26.07 – 7:22 am | #

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I have been reading and re-reading this comment!

You are absolutely right about the kind of role that the leaders on both sides are required to play, for there to be peace and friendship.

I sincerely hope that favourable public opinion will build up some time in the not so distant future.

Thank you so much for sharing the beautiful piece by Ali Sardar Jafri!
Sidhusaaheb | Homepage | 08.26.07 – 10:55 pm | #

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Raza Rumi | Homepage | 08.27.07 – 4:59 am | #

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its funny how we (the new generation) sees no difference between each other (the people of both the countries), yet we are unable to walk an extra mile in order to overcome the distance and do anything about it. thanks to our so called “leaders”. anyway i guess we can hope for the best. btw thanks for commenting on my blog… it was very much appreciated!
malaika rizwi | Homepage | 08.27.07 – 12:23 pm | #

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Ahem ahem. By the way when are you posting the pictures from Goa?
Mridula | Homepage | 08.27.07 – 3:42 pm | #

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@Malaika: I suppose what we can do is to help build up positive public opinion, as far as we can.

As I wrote in my comment on your blog, you write well. Please keep up the good work!

@Mridula: I’ll try to write more on the subject and post pictures alongside.
Sidhusaaheb | Homepage | 08.28.07 – 12:30 am | #

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Baki dian galla chaddo, I loved the speech…
MP | Homepage | 08.30.07 – 6:27 pm | #

Sidhusaaheb said...

Sidhusaaheb, I saw your comment on Raza Rumi’s blog ie., wanting to see the original punjabi text to Bulleh Shah. This text can be found on http://www.apnaorg.com. Something tells me that you might be aware of this site already but if not, then this is my favorite punjabi site & Bulleh Shah is available here both in Gurmukhi & Shahmukhi (heck I am not even punjabi and I love it so that shows the power of sufi poets). Ref your blog, I do hope we see a day in our lifetime that we are able to visit our neighbouring countries and renew the bonds hardcoded in our DNA
Naveed Siraj | Homepage | 08.31.07 – 6:23 pm | #

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My blog might not be as fun as your
but it is more informative

So please go and get the truth on what really going on in the Middle East

at http://lastdaywatchers.blogspot.com
Leon | Homepage | 08.31.07 – 11:18 pm | #

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aaaaaawww…dont worry inshallah you will get a chance to say all this loud ..infront of an audience…but this is not even bad…
hira khan | Homepage | 09.01.07 – 4:56 pm | #

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Wow, what a long acceptance speech, hope the auto save issue gets sorted out!
cyberkitty | Homepage | 09.02.07 – 6:11 am | #

Sidhusaaheb said...

Congrats…but tussi apne blog readers noon thanks nai kaho ge?
Btw check my comments on Asma’s latest post :P
Fariha Akhtar | Homepage | 09.02.07 – 8:53 pm | #

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@MP: Mehrbaani!

@Naveed: Thank you so much! Yes, I do know about the website. In fact, some of my blogposts were translated into Punjabi by APNA and published in their quarterly magazine called ‘Sanjh’, which is brought out from Lahore in Shahmukhi and from Ludhiana in Gurmukhi.

The Sufi philosophy is superb. In fact, a number of Baba Farid’s verses have been included in the Guru Granthh Saahib also.

I do hope that the day when you and I will be able to visit any part of each other’s country, unhindered, will dawn very soon.

@Leon: I’ll check out your blog ASAP.

@Hira: Thanks for the good wishes! Er…Do you think the speech should be bad, in order to be presented in front of an audience?

@Cyberkitty: Hehe…I do tend to go on and on, at times.

Auto-save has been a boon as well as a bane.

@Fariha: Bilkul janaab, tuhaada tey hor saare readers da bohat-bohat shukriya!
Sidhusaaheb | Homepage | 09.02.07 – 10:02 pm | #

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Dear Sidhu jii

mainoo towadi post kafi pasand aai.

Tusi kafi soojday ho iss malay which. Main pury tara towaday naal agree tay nahi karda per far vi kawan ga key tusi lagay rawo. shaid tuwadi kushishan naal in dona deshan di nafratain kaam ho jawan.

Best of luck from my side
Shari | Homepage | 09.07.07 – 1:48 pm | #

 
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