Guest Post by The Pakistani Spectator
As I write this, I’m very conscious of the fact that I’m speaking from one cultural perspective, as a US-born citizen, who has spent most of his life in California, speaking to an audience in Pakistan, with somewhat different cultural perspectives. I do not pretend that there is any reason why my perspective should be of special interest, or superior to any other – it is just one of many.
I also surely do not pretend to have answers to the difficult political questions you currently face in Pakistan, which you of course understand far better than I can hope to, though I hope you might find some of my general thoughts useful as you search for your own answers. If I state something that was already all too obvious, I hope you will pardon the waste of your time.
If I state something that makes good sense to you, from your perspective, but that was not so obvious, I will be very pleased. If I state something that strikes you as simply bizarre, I have likely revealed an area where my assumptions and your assumptions differ, perhaps greatly. When they differ like this, either set of assumptions, or both, may grow through insights that the other can give, and I look forward to learning from your comments to these articles, where you believe I have revealed one of my own cultural ‘blind spots’.
Shakeb Jalali is a famous Urdu poet. His real name was Syed Hassan Rizvi. He was born in a small town called Jalali near Aligarh, India on October 1, 1934. He passed his matriculation exam from Badayun (UP) and then moved along with his sisters to Rawalpindi. His life as a poet began in 1947. It is said that he gave a new grace to Urdu ghazals. Following is a collection of some of his work.
