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''' !GIRLS -*WILL BE*- BOYS! '''
*MIRZA ASADULLAH KHAN GHALIB* : one of the all time greatest poets
of every time, delighting the world. with mastery and understand on
the intricacies of Silence
*IN TIMES OF SADNESS, the disheartened just appeal to Thee.
The autumn's rose and lamp at dawn is for the whole world to see*.
With
every respect and honour for Associate Professor Mehr Afshan Farooqi/
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at
the University of Virginia.
[This Professor is my version of the translation].
*TOTALLY
HUMBLED* -by all the great honours and respect and
kindness,...... *that students from the entire planet have sent my
way*.I hope to thank every single one of you.
*Proud
Pakistan* has never been so graciously proud of its brave and heroic
daughters and sons, -for the whole world is, as they set about looking
at very complex and advance technologies, for !WOW!
Over
a long period of time, and in withered silence, I have been studying
nuts and bolts and plumbing of Holograms: Trying to figure how to design
SamSUN. All that for !WOW! -the World Students Society : *Computers-Internet-Wireless*
And then, over all these years, I just kept posing one question to these technology geniuses : Rabo, Haleem, Saima, Hussain: Show me an *open-source IDE*. The best they could do was to keep naming Editors.
This got me to get working my own.
So, just very soon, I will email invitations to the following original thinkers and Technologists Amin Malik/US, Technologist Imran Basit, Dr. Imran Bukhari Technologist and Engineer Ahmar Bari Khan/Apple, Dr. Masood Reza, Engineer and master critic Shahid Shakoor
Technologist and Engineers Merium/Rabo/Haleema/Saima/Mus
Sarah/ Shahzaib Khan/ US, Dr. Auon/Canada. Technologist and Engineer/ Wasim Khan/Canada, and Faisal Khwaja/CEO/Axon.
DRESSING UP a daughter to pose as a son may benefit the family temporarily, but what effect does it have on the child herself?
For sure, in her masterly fiction work, that writer Nadia Hashmi paints a convincing portrait is surely, commendable.
Although
her American roots are reflected sometimes when the characters- refer
to groups of boys as ''guys'' or their mothers as ''moms''
Nevertheless, given that the text is supposed to be a translation of their actual speech, this is not too jarring.
The
novel explores some interesting concepts of gender -what does it
really mean to be a boy or a girl? Is it purely physical or also state
of mind?
In traditional societies where
gender roles are narrowly defined, is a confident, outgoing girl in
danger of being considered manly, or is she likely to aspire to
manhood?
These are difficult questions to answer, and perhaps the novel's main weakness is that it does not explore them.
In fact, the main characters seem to transition fairly seamlessly into and out of defined gender roles;
It would have been interesting had the timeframe
also been extended to more than just six months, to truly depict the
transition from girlhood to boyhood, and back to young adulthood as a
girl.
The limited time scale barely allows an
exploration of the first transition, and leaves the second one largely
to the imagination of the reader.
What is clear is that the baccha posh characters in the book come to savour their new identities with few regrets.
The
pleasure of combing through, long, lustrous manes, wearing pretty
clothes and jewellery, and confiding in sisters are nothing compared to
the pleasures of being mobile, unafraid, unrestricted and an obvious
support to their families.
Boyhood is so
obviously the preferred option that years of cultural conditioning as a
girl appears to simply fall away with the donning of trousers and the
haircuts. But is it really so simple?
the characters could have been a little more multidimensional. Similarly, Rahima's fate is inadequately unexplored, which is unsatisfying.
Although
she is the main character in an another novel by the same author, here
she is largely abandoned to a dark future with little insight into how
she copes with the tragedy that confronts her.
This is not a very long novel and aimed at young adults -probably another reason why the characters are not very complex.
Nevertheless,
it is well-written, engaging and highlights a cultural practice that is
little known internationally, but may have parallels in another
cultures.
Certainly, preference for sons is not
a central and South Asian phenomenon only, and manifests in a number of
ways across societies.
The novel gives some insight into how a small section of Afghan society adopts to the constant pressure to have a boy child.
It
would be to know if the practice extends into parts of Pakistan, or the
Developing World -perhaps some intrepid scholars or !WOW! can
investigate that.
For this 'operational research writing' perhaps, Poet Abdul Qadir Bedil sums up best:
Speech, even if it's entirely full of content and meaning, would still admit of addition or subtraction:
*Silence is a text from which no selection is possible*.
*With most respectful dedication: To All The Great Students Of The World*
With
respectful dedication to the Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers
of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and
Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:
''' Up & Away : !WOW! '''
Good Night and God Bless
SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless
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