http://desicritics.org/ Superior South Asian bloggers on Culture, Media, Politics, Sport, Business, and Technology. en Copyright 2006 by the authors Sun, 5 Nov 2006 10:10:34 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss BC custom software http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-28143 I hope I did not drive away DC's best writer. Good luck Mayank. I will visit your blogs, you will not get rid of me so easily! 28143@desicritics.org Sun, 5 Nov 2006 10:10:34 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27997 Adios Mayank.. DC will never be a fun place without you. BC will make u recieve far less critical comments than what u get here now, lifes easy there.. coz they dont have much at stake on whatever u opine on. Bye best of luck... and do come back.. we need to see some action here bro.. please do come back 27997@desicritics.org Sat, 4 Nov 2006 03:16:07 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27985 ^^ Perhaps the only good thing about this forum is about to leave. anyways, good luck and continue writing the way you do. 27985@desicritics.org Sat, 4 Nov 2006 00:15:13 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27982 Hello readers, This was my last post to be published on Desicritics. I am privileged to have been associated with this blogsite. I thank the owners and editors here for giving me an opportunity to reach out to a wider number of people. However, I have no intention to break away from you. You will continue to find my new articles in Blogcritics.org and in my five blogs: Ruined By Reading, The Delhi Walla, Hindu Muslim India, Pakistan Paindabad, and Defeating War and Peace. All the blogs are in blogspot.com. Thanks, Mayank Austen Soofi 27982@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 23:40:13 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27922 I accept Anamika wager of 4 happy and successful Indians. I raise you Pakistani Hindus and Pakistani women in parliament, Hindu businessmen in Karachi and kindly request you counter-bet 170 million Dalits. We can play this game all day. 27922@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 21:03:01 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27903 Pakistani delusions never end...glad to know they are not limited to politics. Sorry that they extend to all of reality 27903@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 16:40:41 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27735 Great, let's invite all 9 people. You know me Mayank, I am all for dialogue! Anamika, I knew you would come back to me. I love you too. :) 27735@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 05:50:14 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27732 Now this is what I say tit-for-tat. Hey Usman, over to you now. 27732@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 04:47:51 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27725 In the interest of fairness we can interview the following Indians: 1) Lt. Gen Zamiruddin Shah, Deputy Chief of the Indian Army 2) K.R. Narayanan, former president of the Republic of India, 3) Any serving or former soldier of the Naga regiment, which for the record won various honours in Op Vijay 4) For communists we need not look far. Didn't Brinda Karat go to Pakistan recently? 27725@desicritics.org Fri, 3 Nov 2006 03:38:15 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27681 In the interest of educating ourselves and learning the point of views of others. It's not fair to India that only Pakistanis are being studied. Let's also invite an untouchable from south india, Kashmiri from the valley, Muslim from Gujrat , communist from assam and a christian from nagaland. 27681@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 18:00:41 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27664 mayank: perhaps you can invite mr. lall to share a post with us? or he can read "are you a desicritc" and join us? 27664@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 14:58:58 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27627 Usman, sensible words indeed. 27627@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 12:30:29 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27600 He is leaving Pakistan for reasons a Muslim may leave Pakistan.. Better life, law and order, education, career, economic prospects. Are there not 3 million Indians in the mideast? 20 million worldwide? The Hudood laws put in by General Zia are an outrage. Any discrimination against brother Tehman is sad and unfortunate but it is clear his family is posted in high positions of government and corporations. How can you possibly draw only negative conclusions from this interview? Finally read mayank's next post. Also, please provide the source of 20% minorities in West Pakistan in post-August 1947. The partition was a terrible event which distrupted the lives of many. I have grandparents whose businesses were burned by mobs and barely escaped to Pakistan. I don't blame EVERY SINGLE Indian for their misfortune. Terrible things happened on BOTH sides of the border. It is a lingering scar that the two nations need to heal. 27600@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 07:02:53 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27593 I have been e-mailed by Mr. Tehman Lall. He observes that due to my non-inclusion of few questions, that were asked by me, the article gives an incomplete picture. He feels that there is more to Pakistan, good and bad, than suggested by this published piece. 27593@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 04:15:09 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27588 Tehman says life is fine because he has nearly the same constitutional rights as a Muslim but his testimony won't carry the same weight. He plans to settle abroad because his relative economic security gives him protection from overt marginalization and crime but not much hope for change. Seems that all "preconceived" notions are confirmed rather than denied by the interview. The 20% minorities figure, bulk of which was Sikh and Hindu, although included Jews, Parsees and Christians, is for WEST Pakistan. It is sourced from British administrative records of the time regarding district demographics. Some of the population was expelled (although the term is never used) when post-partition, Pakistan's administration sent around buses and trucks to forcibly collect minorities from remote parts of Baluchistan and NWFP. Yet even these forced migrations do not fully account for the diminishing of the minority numbers to their current levels. I assume the resident Pakistani has no logical answer, without accepting genocide/ethnic cleansing, and thus prefers to resort to insults. Am simply seeking an answer for this. Would love to get the view from the other side of the border which can trot out the world's crimes against Muslims to justify everything from terrorism to genocide but manages to ignore its own crimes against non-Muslims as irrelevant or nonexistent. 27588@desicritics.org Thu, 2 Nov 2006 03:34:49 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27563 I am Pakistani and reading this interview fills me with sadness. This tehman guy is good and patriotic. It is sad he does not want to live in his country. As austen soofi points out it will be pakistan's loss. 27563@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 23:26:06 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27559 A man ika, are you disappointed that the christian brother did not confirm your preconceived prejudices? you really need to stop obsessing about Pakistan like a crazed stalker! Also there were 15% minorities in West & EAST Pakistan. Majority of the 15% were in Bangladesh. Sadly, partition caused many to flee from both sides. Now you are comparing 15% of both wings in 1947 to West Pakistan in 2006! You are not all that bright are you? ================================= Mayank, My sister has a hindu friend in Karachi (med school) if you need to interview. She has not been eaten alive by the Pakistanis! 27559@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 20:44:56 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27531 Good job Mayank to keep the interview as a straight Q n A format. The inconsistencies are more obvious this way without you being held responsible for any biases. My favourite was the bit on "almost the same constitutional rights as Muslims" which somehow still don't mean second class citizen to the interviewee. Am curious about one thing. At the time of partition, Pakistan had a minority population of 20 percent. That is down to negligible levels now. Did you ask any questions in the larger political sense about that? Also same as Madhu above - did you get a chance to interview a Sikh or Hindu Pakistani? Looking forward to the rest of the series... 27531@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 14:39:11 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27473 Can we also get an interview with pakistani hindu and sikh. 27473@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 13:09:40 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27470 I'm a Pakistani. There is truth in this interview but the interviewer had something agaisnt Pakistan. He keep repeating that what a bad country we are and how badly we treat our christians. 27470@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 12:11:38 EST http://desicritics.org/2006/11/01/070046.php#comment-27450 It is a very good piece and shows Pakistan in an unbiased manner. Thanks for the interview. 27450@desicritics.org Wed, 1 Nov 2006 07:34:10 EST