Interview

Weekend is here.

It has been quite good so far other than the gloomy weather.

Friday, both Prasanna and I, we watched the movie – “ Malamal Weekely.”- What can I say, the movie was not as good as we had expected and we were glad that we did not go watch it in the theatre.

I also had a chance to see “ S.Rushdie’s” interview in PBS. He is also one of the guys that I would like to meet someday.

Why? one might ask.

No doubt, for his courage,his perception and for what he writes.

Salman Rushdie is, after all, the man who spent ten years of his life underground, hiding from Islamic assassins. He says, “The mélange of culture is in us all” and I truly agree with him. I have seen his interviews and really missed the opportunity to hear him speak at Harvard, when he had come for the book signing of “Shalimar the clown.” It would be a whole different experience to meet and talk with him in person.

His publication of THE SATANIC VERSES in 1988 ignited a firestorm across the Muslim world for its depiction of the prophet Mohammed. And around the world, copies of the book were set afire in protest. Even the powerful Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a calling on Muslims worldwide to kill the apostate Rushdie wherever they found him. He went into hiding, moving from safe house to safe house, appearing only sporadically in public, always listening for footsteps behind him.

He refused to take his books out from the shelves, despite the threats from the Muslims.
Even recently when cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammed sparked worldwide protests and deadly violence, the leader of the Islamic group Hezbollah said there would not have been a problem if the assassination of Rushdie had succeeded.

And look where he is now. Throughout his ordeal Rushdie kept writing. His nine novels have been translated into 40 languages. Rushidie has become a very public champion of free speech and an outspoken critic of fundamentalism.

What I really liked in his interview is when is he said,“ Human beings look for transcendence. We're not satisfied with the every day because we are dreamers, because we are an imagining creature, we do have the ability to imagine a world which is not simply the flesh and blood world that we inhabit.”

During the interview session with Bill Moyers, Salman Rushdie said, "You know, even us atheists are obssessed with God". He has a point. Atheism is an idea that people arrive at after questioning the logic of their particular religious tradition. It seems to go beyond the need to explain the world and to alleviate our fears.

Without even realising, I manged to watch the whole hour of the interview. I have to admit, I must have very much enjoyed watching his interview because usually I do not even have the patience to watch anything without flicking the channels, however, in this case, I watched all of it without even touching the remote control.

I have yet to read the SATANIC VERSES. I think it will be an interesting read.

We went to watch the World cup soccer at the Aryal residence this morning and enjoyed the Fish curry and tama. A great “thank – you” goes to Ms. Appu. For the second game, we headed to my regular place, “Phoenix Landing,” and also met Hemendra dai along with Neevs and Anil dai and bibhu dai. The game was interesting. Argentina and Germany Won!

Later that night, we had a dinner at a French and Cambodian restaurant.

Today has been a good day.

Let me bid farewell for tonight.