FACE

I wrote this poem quite recently. This, according to my point of view, shows my fascination with 'Nature'. 

 FACE

Blue burns and red burns

On both sides of the face

With the eyes of the nights and the days

Still confounding and mysterious for us as always.

It thunders and roars

Then cracks and cries torrents in drops

Offers color-swings and starry fields

Of the hidden yields to those who wish to see.

I’ll smooth it up, I know, one day

 When the two sides meet

And swing over the starry, airy, waves

Light and free.

Excerpt from M.Phil thesis: The poet discussed here is Maki Kureishi from Pakistan:

This excerpt is taken from my M.Phil thesis on four poets from Pakistan writing in English. The thesis is a critical evaluation of the selected poetry of the poets creating, in their own way, a new place in the post- colonial annals of English poetry.  

In Kureishi the “small lives” are sheltered as valuable parts of the wholeness of the self, though, ironically, this wholeness is that of a “Love short-circuited”. Keeping Kureishi’s poem “Kittens” in this context, the suggestion of use of violence to retain the unity of the self is the common motif in the two poets, however, the self in Kureishi is not a limited, personal, feminine self in this poem, but a wider socio-political self. The desire to retain the unity is a desire to retain the disintegrating cultural and socio-political unity even if one has to become violent. Her concern for Pakistani cultural schizophrenia is given overt form in her poems on Karachi and its disintegrating and deteriorating socio-political scene: ‘Fear’, ‘Snipers In Karachi’, ‘Elegy for Karachi’ & ‘Curfew Summer’ are the poems where the “Furies come unpromised”. Her grief for the unjust violence let loose in Karachi by the Unknown forces is expressed in the poem “Fear” in terms of Greek mythology.

Though, as established earlier, Maki’s is not a particularly feminist ⁽²²⁾ voice she does show a very strong sense of despising flesh, and resents its association with vulnerability, disease and death. Her poems with a disabled woman as persona reflect this hatred for flesh and a suicidal “ironic self rejection”.⁽²³⁾ In the poems ‘Arthritic hands’, ‘Cripple’, ‘Therapy for Brain Damage’ and ‘For a Victim of Cerebral Palsy’ she works as an impressionist by looking at her object from various angles as an expression of a social drama. The use of pronouns “She”, “I”, “You”, “We”, “Them”, etc. dramatize the varied attitudes she has adopted towards, and the angles of distance she has maintained from the object. She generalizes the particular and comes out at her best in the Modernist tradition in using the autobiographical element with an unmatched impersonality and objectivity. From another angle this grotesque persona evokes the concept of a woman’s body (or perhaps her femininity) as an incurable disease with no hope of purging ever

Notes:

22.  Ostriker, Alicia. p, 248.

23.  Putting kittens, dogs and a child in a parallel must be a reflection of a love for the pets, and not reducing the child to their level, as the phrase “shelter small lives” indicates.

24.  At least two of Maki Kureishi’s poems in an anthology Wordfall (O.U.P 1975)—‘Gracious Lady’ and ‘Marriage’ are knit around feminist themes, with an element of irony though. A woman’s concern for beauty, social decorum, details of domestic routine, the drab and loveless marital bondage etc. are the subject of these poems. These themes are symptomatic feminist concerns in the 20^th century women poets and are evaluated as trivialities by the androcentric and androgynous literary critics as explained in Alicia Ostriker’s critical essay “Body Language…”. Kureishi, however, manages to transcend to the stratum of an androgynous Modernist in her techniques of irony, juxtaposition, image and symbol. Out of a fear of creating “an erroneous impression” (“Introduction” The Far Thing. p, xvi.) Adrian Akbar Husain did not select some of Kureishi’s poems from her anthology Wordfall (OUP, 1975). One suspects a patriarchal disliking for the feminist idiom working behind this selection. The feminist idiom, I believe, has a natural place in the phases of development of a woman poet—as, perhaps, an early expression of her peculiar feminine fate.

25.  Adrian A. Husain calls this element “burlesque” in his introduction to The Far Thing relating it to Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’,  pp, x.

26.  Thomson, Philip. “Function and Purpose of the Grotesque”. The Grotesque: The Critical Idiom Series. Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1972, 1979. p, 59.

27.  Ibid. p, 21.

28.  Parthasarathy. A. R. (Ed.). Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets. New Delhi, OUP, 1976. p, 27.

29.  Ibid. p, 23.

30.  Ibid. p, 22.

31.  Ostriker, Alicia. p, 248.

Review of HR Policies

As a Headmistress at the Divisional Public School and member of the Academic Council, it was one of my responsibilties to propose improvements in the system which could lead to the academic uplifting of the institute. This is one of such pieces.  

Suggested Revision of a few HR Policies:

It has been observed that DPS (Divisional Public School & College)has some very fine HR policies to retain good teachers and other staff for the continuity of the betterment of the institute. They, paradoxically and unfortunately, are also a major reason for the stagnation of the standard of performance at the same time.

It is, therefore, high time that we review them and make necessary amendments for the timely uplift of the organization. I, being the head of a school and a member of the Academic council, feel it as my responsibility to propose a few points for consideration of the high ups.

I propose the following issues:

Permanent jobs & rationalizing the benefits:                                                 

According to the DPS hiring policies after selection new employees have to go through a probation period of two years during which they are continuously assessed and guided by their subject coordinators, heads of wings and even the principal, if there is such a need. After this period they undergo a final class observation and if they clear that they finally become a part of the permanent faculty. According to the rules and regulations of DPS this permanent faculty enjoys immense benefits.

Unless there is some serious breach of the code of conduct that can be proven through documents, nobody can take a serious action against the members of the faculty whether they are fulfilling their responsibilities properly or not. Completing the syllabus, copy-checking, paper-checking, preparation of results, parent-teacher meetings, and that is it. How effectively and efficiently these chores are done does not matter at all. Class management, lesson preparation, lesson planning, effective and latest teaching methods, all is thrown to air. Even annual confidential report is not considered for the regular annual increments, and every permanent staff member is given the same increment. This not only encourages slackness of the irresponsible teachers, it becomes an immensely discouraging factor for the hardworking and serious minded faculty members. We need to look into it immediately. The highly motivated and professionally creative staff should be given more increments than what is done in the routine practice. The benefits of the permanent faculty should be rationalized to promote a rise in the academic  and technological standards.

Proposed increase in Challenges and Incentives:

After becoming regular and permanent there is a general loss of motivation among the senior staff over a certain period of time. This is generally due to a lack of any challenging assignments. Senior teachers are definitely given the assignment of being subject coordinators, where they are supposed to revise syllabus every year, guide newly added staff members in their relevant subject, observe them in their classes, etc., but at the same time they are not given sufficient time from their own timetable to cope with all these responsibilities.  So they eventually lose interest in these areas, and why should they do it when it would not eventually have any effect on their increment? It should be made possible for the coordinators in terms of sufficient time to add to the standard of the school.

Besides, certain horizontal movement in the senior staff from one school to the other as the head of the relevant department may also add to a level of enthusiasm and a broader area of knowledge. This will  add to an incentive that after a certain number of horizontal experiences a senior staff would qualify for a vertical movement when the time comes or there is such a need.

Increments be linked with annual professional development programs attended:

As a more serious and objective step in mitigating academic stagnation, the number of regular and relevant professional development programs attended annually should be considered as a measurable criteria for awarding increments. At the same time, a more effective participation in special assignments, problem-shooting, co-curricular and discipline areas with constant willingness also can be added to the previous ones.

Compulsory fluency in spoken English:

Since DPS has been declared an English medium school for many years now, it should have become imperative that the selection criteria should have strictly adopted spoken English as a compulsory factor. But, unfortunately, this is not being taken seriously, and this is also affecting the standard of the school, and the dissatisfaction of students and parents at times. So this has to be taken care of seriously and as soon as possible.

The above given suggestions are being forwarded for discussion and final decision by

 the authorities.

Sincere regards,

Kaukab Roohi Rasool    

Dowry

I keep writing regularly on social issues in various English Dailies in Pakistan. This is a piece in response to the social issue of dowry in Pakistan. My purpose is to focus on women's rights where the laws of dowry and the laws of inheritance are at odds. This article was published in The Dawn in 2001.

Fatee

This is an article written to commemorate the unconditional love and untiring care of a sister, Fatima Jinnah, for her brother, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. This was published in the Journal of Gender and Social Issues in 2003.