Lessons in faith
There is quite a lot in a name if you don’t know where it comes from and who answers to it. So it was when I met Inni Kaur for the first time a month ago, when Harinder Singh brought her to my house. She was born in Kuwait to Sikh parents and named Inni Dhingra. Her schooling and higher education were in New Zealand and Australia. Then she went to the United States of America, married a fellow Sikh, and is now settled in Fairfield, Connecticut. She runs a public relations firm. Kaur has been single-minded in spreading the message of Guru Nanak, delivering lectures and participating in seminars on comparative religion. She came to India for the first time when she was in her 60s, to launch a book on Guru Nanak. She met a kindred spirit in Harinder Singh, who has undertaken to market her book, Journey with the Gurus, illustrated by Pardeep Singh. It will make a good gurpurab gift for children. Some of the text is beautifully printed in the Gurmukhi script. I assumed that it had been produced in India or America. I was in for another surprise. It had been produced in China.
Haunted voice
The name of Feza Aazmi is new to me. He is an Urdu poet based in Karachi. He sent me two of his books — Khaak Mein Sooraten (Kissa Aurat Ka) and its translation, To Dust Consigned: The Veil, the Stake, the Verdict: Elegy on the Plight of Women, done by Hasina Sajun. I found both the original and its translation highly readable and hope both books will be available in Indian bookstores. I reproduce one of the poems in translated form to whet your appetite:
“In the stillness of an autumn night
drenched in droplets of falling dew
Distraught by the battle of life
miserable
By the hurt painful
Of human race anguished
By the woes
Of mankind petrified
In the solitude of my
court-yard
As I sit holding the cup
brimful
Of human misery
Images bloodcurdling
and gory
Scenes of heartrending
brutality
Stalk my vision
Tales of unrelenting agony
Pictures ghastly
Of civilizations past
Flash through my dejected
mind.
Unnatural laws
Breaking wind in public is regarded as bad manners the world over. Some countries have declared it a penal offence. I quote an extract from Afrik-News of Malawi, published in the February issue of the Private Eye:
‘“The release of intestinal gas may be natural, but there has to be some control,” Justice Minister George Chaponda told the Malawian Parliament in Lilongwe. “We are determined to mould responsible and disciplined citizens who do not foul the air, and to severely punish idle and disorderly persons who behave in the wrong way. Under the Local Courts Bill, farting in public will become a punishable offence, as will the writing or uttering of naughty words, the publication of false news, the telling of fortunes, insulting the modesty of a woman, general naughtiness, and refusing to bury dead family members. Local Courts will be set up specially to deal with these crimes, but civil matters will continue to be handled by the Magistrates Courts.’
‘Opposition to the new Bill has been led by John Tembo, a veteran of the Malawi Congress Party. “How can this government criminalise the release of intestinal gases?’ he enquired. “Everyone does that, even if it’s in public. There is nothing wrong with the present court system, and establishing these local kangaroo courts is not good for democracy. We do not agree with this bill.’
‘Another MP added that “I had better hand myself over to the police or something, because I just this very second fouled the air while I was laughing at this proposal. Why should fouling the air take priority over corruption amongst legislators, or the regulation of Chinese investments? I cannot understand this obsession with farting.’
‘However, there was widespread support for the Bill, including from one MP who observed that “sometimes, breaking wind in public or during a meeting can be a disturbance of the peace and the accompanying sound and odour can be most unpleasant.”’