Dearest friends and
Dervishes Pervaiz, Dr. Khalid, Zehra, Askari, Farzana,
and Rafiq:
Please forgive me for
being so incredibly and indeed insensitively tardy in sending
this humble note. Please allow me first-hand to express my
deepest condolences to Zehra on her mother's sad death. It is
a passing of generation that she would forever lament while
celebrating the good that her mother represented.
Secondly, I must relate
my heartfelt gratitude to all of you Dervishes for your
unfathomable kindness, graciousness, generosity, and
fellowship for affording me an opportunity of spending some
time with you. Five days after my return from Toronto, I had
to go to Chicago where I was invited to participate in a panel
discussion on human rights in Pakistan organised by the
Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent in North
America (APPNA). I had to prepare my remarks as well as tie
up few things at home as we are in the middle of restoring our
96 year old house in Vancouver.
Dr. Khalid has published
a beautiful note on his diary about the time we spent
together. Frankly, I am short of idiom which would clearly
reflect my gratitude to him and to all of you. Although, I
was in Toronto to chair proceedings for the opening of a
Sindhi Resource Centre, the highlight of of trip there was
meeting with all of you. It felt like we have known one other
for years. The honesty and openness with which we talked to
one another is something that comes after years of
fellowship. So what would be the probable reasons for such
familiarity? After all, we all carry a very different
cultural, pedagogic or sociological (ethnic, familial)
baggage. Common amongst us perhaps is our keen and acute
awareness of our existential realities.the ones that both
tickle and torment our cognition. Unlike Dr. Khalid who is an
accomplished physician of human mind, I am merely a spectator,
a voyeur of sorts, in my respectful opinion the camaraderie
and warmth with which you accepted and honoured me
demonstrates our mutual need to belong to one another.
Humanism is a difficult
choice. It is like having a hot spicy dinner without
dessert. For god may well be construed as a comfort food,
some sort of crème brulee or laddoo or burfee, that humans
tend to devour because it is so easy to eat, it helps us
overcome some harsher tastes that may accompany our main meals
(irespective of damage it may be doing by adding hundreds of
unnecessary calories in our system). When humans choose some
sort of god or saviour, they may end up giving up personal
responsibility for absorbing all that is real, all that is
truth. All three semitic religions provide some sort of
bridge that their respective believers may walk towards
eternal salvation, a loophole of sorts to avoid personal
responsibility to the fellow human beings. We the humanists
do not have such luxury. We must live and abide by the
highest form of individual accountability, ethical and moral
codes. We eat our dinner without crème brulee! We are
exposed to the elements, the harsher tastes, the true
realities. Friendship, fellowship, camaraderie, goodwill, are
all disparate ways into which we express our commitment to all
things good, to all things ethical.
It is in the foregoing
context I view our friendship and your inspiring kindness and
generosity towards a simple and humble human like myself. I
love you all and look forward to seeing you real soon.
Farzana jee: Please convey my
gratitude to Shahid jee and Mr. Masood Shaikh for their
incredible generosity and kindness. I was honoured to see
them.
Askari jee: Many thanks for
great music.
With lots of love and
respect,
zahid
