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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (43592)	2/13/2003 3:10:09 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

This post is especially geared towards Pandit's particularly caustic remark about my fledgling web-log. Nevertheless I shan't continue of my exasperation with certain Anglo-Indian patricians and rather return to the original intent of my post. My house has recently become the nexus (colourfully nicknamed by an Indian friend, Dharamshala, which I take to be a synonym for an Ashram) for friends to study for econometrics, since we had a gruelling test (such was the nature of the test that the class sighed their collective relief at "easy questions" like the derivation of OLS estimates) this Friday. Nevertheless whilst preparing the examination I passed most of my frequent and interim "breaks" chatting about inconsequential topics. There is a particular Lebanese friend with whom I have frequent conversations on politics (being of the Greek Orthodox Christian faith he had sympathies for the Phalangists nevertheless he informed me that even their rightist views paled in comparison to my implicit and inherent distrust of Muslims; at that I thanked him for the compliment) and during one of our unofficial "breaks", we had the following conversation: William: Your name is quite American, though I'm sure I've heard it somewhere. Me: Ya I'm named after a president of the States. William: Right but isn't there a writer also named Zachary Latif? Me: Oh really! (This was stated in a rather apathetic tone since I believed that he was referring to an established literary figure, or my namesake in the same sense that my father's name, Iqbal, is derived from that piercingly eloquent and quintessentially Pakistani poet, Allama Iqbal) William: He's supposed to be Iranian or something. At that I murmured something and was about to further interject that it was rather peculiar since I had never heard of the author nor was Zachary Latif an Iranian name. Nevertheless William continued further and stated: William: Ya he writes for the "Iranian Online"... Before he could finished my sentence I became estatic and began to exclaim that he was referring to me. A year ago I had authored an article on Iran and Israel for the Iranian.com and received some notice because of it (indeed it was my first article) nevertheless I was surprised that a friend, who had not known me four months prior, had actually read my article (apparently it was linked by the Independent). He had thought of Zachary Latif a writer and an astounding coincidence when I informed him that it was the one and only me. It is worth noticing how the Internet has integrated to such an extent that it has now begun to spill over into real life. My friend and I are in the same Masters Course and my writing has always been distinct of that reality nevertheless now no longer since my writing efforts are becoming known amongst those I interact with every day. Naturally since I recently turned 18 years old most of my friends are quite surprised when I do reveal that I am a prolific writer. Of course Pandit is so far the only one who takes deliberate jibes (albeit friendly and rather amusing ones) at my efforts and leaves me somewhat glowering at times thus my new refrain is "Anglo-Indian" to which he responds in that languid “Hindglish” accent (remarkably reminiscent of the accent affected during British India) "Zaaack, don't you dare call me an Anglo-Indian". * Latif is prevalent in North Africa, though it has become ubiquitous in Pakistan (Pakistanis have wholly adopted Perso-Arabic Muslim surnames nevertheless there are a few amusing anecdotes, which I'll relay later, as to the differing pronunciations) and is of Arab origin whilst Zachary is an American name. ** During the Colonial Raj there was a deliberate stress amongst the native elite to acquire the English language at the expense of native dialects like Hindi. Nevertheless the imposition of English is the final redemption for the Sub-continent and ensures its continual integration in the global arena. Zachary Latif 10:30 latif.blogspot.com