GOWANUS

An International Online Journal of Idea and Observation

Autumn 1999


 

Complete text in one file


Ethnic Cleansing of the Kafirs in Pakistan

Visitors to the Kalash Valley have to pay a toll to enter.
The toll ticket given to the visitor is jokingly called
"the zoo ticket."

by Abbas Zaidi
(Pakistan)

*

The President in His Labyrinth

On the day before Venezuela's new Constitutional Assembly was
elected, Chávez removed Bolívar's sword from a bank vault and marched
with it to the house near Plaza Bolívar, not far from the Congress.

by Anthony Milne
(Trinidad & Tobago)

*


 

               Bridges and Trees

   "I've always wondered something," she said coldly.
   "What do you do here?"
 "I guard the bridge," said Abdul Rahman politely.

 By Ellen Larson
(Egypt)

 *

Of Small, Skimpy Things
Letter from India

 This new Calcutta boasts theme parties,
tequila nights in the Salt Lake marshes,
Checkpoint Charlie meets Rambo on New Year's Eve.

by Anjana Basu
(India)

*

CONTEMPORARY URDU LITERATURE

 You can find verses inscribed with flowery patterns expressing
the most intimate feelings, religious or philosophical truisms, erotic outburst--all of these on the inside and outside of rickshaws, taxis, buses, restaurants, cigarette kiosks and in commercial advertisements.

by Razi Abedi
(Pakistan)

*

Two Reviews

               Interpreter of Maladies

Indians are aliens in Lahiri's stories, people stranded
in a country and a culture that is not their own but
which demands conformity from them.

                Awake When All the World is Asleep

       Ghatage's stories are set in Bombay, stories of the         ordinary days of Indian life that take place in
a thousand and one cities across the subcontinent.

                   By Anjana Basu
                           (India)

*
Jesus Christ Lord of Hosts
Meets Southern California

Jesus scans the menu, mouth watering. He settles on a large
rare hamburger with onions and green peppers

By Holly Day
(USA)

*

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