- Naheed Shad’s poetry is going to be focusing on samajik issues, and I am pleased to hear that. It would be a breath of fresh air.
- Ravi Kumar has included “bhook” in his poem ( this would be a good format – roman English and Hindi/Urdu- to benefit all readers – we request the poets to write the roman english in their own words, as others may mess it up).
सारा आलम ही रोता हो, जब भूखा कोई सोता हो
- Taj Hashmi wrote on universality of righteousness
Khuda Woh to yeh nahiN poochhta, “Tu ne mujhey aaj yaad kiya hai ya nahiN”?
- Shah Alam Asar writes,
Ibne Adam hain sabhi, Farq jatate kion ho
(It’s a good take on Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum – the whole world is one family, what does it matter to prove the differences?)
- Saeed Qureshi concludes his poem
so taraqqi yafta qoumon ka a ayeen hai.
15 More poems on their way!
Some of us may have bias towards skirts, sarees, shalwar kameez, dhoti, Arab gear, pagdi, hat, topi, Hijab, pallu….does the bias contribute towards a well functioning society? Applying pluralism means – accepting each custom as unique, but not inferior or superior. You wear and feel good about your skirt, and I feel good about my Saree. Humility builds bridges and arrogance destroys the relationships.
If you like Gulab Jamun and I like Ras Gulla – would we listen to a dietician, nutritionist, doctor, scientist, food connoisseur or any one – if they say Gulab Jamun is better than Ras Gulla? You probably would say – Chal, hut, bhaag yahaan say!
LINGUISTIC PLURALISM
Back in Bangalore in the late 60’s – people have killed each other on the silliest of things – it is the size of the cut out pictures of Dr. Raj Kumar, Kannada film actor and M.G. Ramachandran, his counterpart in Tamil films. The fans were vying with each other to build the taller cut out for their idol – they went from 25 feet and all the way upto to 60 feet tall, rioting was common – all they had to learn was Raj Kumar means everything to the Kanndigas and MGR means everything to the Tamilians, so what?
Please note, I will not use the language pluralism with wife – spouse means either wife or husband and in no particular order, as neither is above the other. Does it bother you that your spouse wears a dark green suit (male or female)? Is that a source of conflict every time you go out? Why do we have to push the other to wear what we want, and wear what is not comfortable to them… let them wear and be happy. A happy companion is better than the grouchy one waiting to get even.
We were working on finding a word in Urdu for pluralism – many words were considered, but most of them agreed on the word “Bahimiyat” proposed by Dr. Amer Suleman, and now its his turn to explain Bahimiyat in a quartet or a full Nazm as an introduction in the program – like wise, the word Anekant vaad does not fully represent the breadth of the word Pluralism, and Anand has floated Anekta may ekta… we need another word to fully describe pluralism, and I ask Anand Punjabi to write a quartet as an introduction or we ask Nishi, Sushila jee, Fateh or Chini Saheb propose and write multiple words.
Thank you.
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916/ text
……. Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel,India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com.