Two months on - a personal note

Tomorrow will be two months since I've revived this blog, turning it from a personal summer journal in Dhaka into an impersonal all-rants accepted blog about Dhaka. It has been two eventful, invigorating, virtual months.

Initially, I expected very few people to read the blog, even less to take it seriously. In May alone, I had over a thousand hits to these pages. So I know at least people are reading it. And to those of you who have taken the trouble to leave comments behind, I thank you for taking me seriously enough to do so. It was truly my privilege to have a conversation with you. Special thanks must go to Mr. ABC who took the news on these pages SO seriously that he decided to issue threats (alas, I was not alone in receiving this most unwelcome attention!).

Eventful it certainly has been, especially this last month: from bomb blasts in three stations to the arrest of a journalist. I just wrote about them because I could do nothing else. That my words could have any real world repercussions was not something I believed. I still don't believe it, but the drama surrounding the arrest and the subsequent threats suitably tempered my disbelief.

Invigorating it certainly has been. Through this blog, I have met keen, incisive and perceptive individuals I rarely expected to meet outside a university campus. Some have increased my knowledge of matters, others have given me different perspectives to approach issues from, yet others have impressed me to no end with their tolerant attitudes, their kindness and helpfulness, and not a few have challenged me to clarify and even re-define my opinions. You know who you are. And if you knew me personally, you'd know that these are the qualities I value in people in real life. So thank you.

Lastly, some random things I ought to make clarify about the inherent biases at work when I write my pieces. It's a social science thing.....:

1) I'm a Bangladeshi nationalist and Muslim, both by birth and choice. My opinions are inevitably coloured by these identities.

2) I'm a firm believer in people's right to hold any sort of opinions, even those contrary to my nationalism and religion. That is why I condemned the threats against Rushdie, even though I beieved that the Satanic Verses theory was stupid and his fiction since Midnight's Children was putrid. That is why I condemned the attack against our very own Dr. Humayun Azad, whose religious faith obviously differs from mine but whose writings on feminism I have cherished dearly. Paradoxically, it makes me unable to issue the blanket condemnation now in fashion to Islamist political forces that practice a degree of pluralism (there are none in Bangladesh).

3) I'm a firm believer in non-violence and on the fence about violence sanctioned by law. That is why I don't like the state of our present student politics, the present state of our "religious" discourse (or what goes on in its name in the Muslim world: see, Dr. Azad above, plus Nagoub) or any of our political parties.

4) If I had written our '71 constitution, I would have only put in the word "Democracy" in there. From this comes my distaste for our two major parties, one of which sacrifices democracy to protect "socialism and secularism" (or so it has said) while the other sacrifices democracy to protect "nationalism" (or so it has said). This also makes me unable to support JIB, JP and any other "third force", be it bureaucratic, military or technocratic.

And if you ever find me straying from this spirit, leave a comment, a rant or send me an email. Trust me, I'll appreciate it.