Wednesday, May 11, 2005
i, mina farid malik, of the aforementioned selfassigned-insignificant-blob-of-philistine-curly in saeed ghazi's class, did something wonderful day before yesterday in his class.i impressed him.
impromptu presentation in class on 'barn burning', a short by william faulkner. i hogged most of the speak-time (sorry, snobby, i was on a roll :D), it being one of those epiphanous moments where the text and you become one in a perfect understanding of each other. and from there it's easy, it's effortless, it's poetry slipping off one's tongue like a shahtoos through a ring.
and saeed actually interrupted.
and repeated a phrase i just said.
and said it was 'a beautiful turn of phrase'.
i blinked, felt pleased and smiled and said to myself, 'finally, someone who is listening' (bilal was too, don't feel too jealous, mama butler;) ) and since i was busy making out verbally with the text, carried on.
i wouldn't be able to tell you the order of points or what snobby said in between but i do know one thing: it felt like home. this is what i know, this is what i do best. a text, words, and me weaving them together, trying to conjure up the picture of gossamer and light i see in them with every little cell of my skin. but the best wasn't just the moment, or the few heads that were nodding, or watching saeed respond to points were were making and being engaged on an equal level that was fantastic. no, the best was when saeed said the presentation was 'excellent', was 'beautifully phrased', was well-worded. was a whammy! and as if that wasn't enough (although it occurred to me after i sat down that i could have ended on the narrator's name metaphor, bauhat aafat ending hoti but it was just fine this way too), later on tania told me that saeed was
impressed. muchly. wow! i say, and do a little jig of joy. saeed ghazi was impressed by little old me! yay! but then she says that he said
'some of those sentences should have gone straight into a journal'
and buss. qayamat hogayi. it was like landing a marlin bigger than my boat. the problem with being a writer is that one must have a good dose of egotism to presume anyone would spend time and money reading whatever you gave them, and perhaps even spend a more time dissecting it and writing ph.ds on them and the suchlike. i keep reining in my egotism because arrogance is not a particularly wonderful trait to possess, especially given how transient whatever we base ours on is, always. but sometimes it's just liberating to let it loose and say YAY, MAIN TO CHA GAYI! and everyone'll get a good grade too, yay! and also, snobby and ahad brainstormed up very good insights to the text. so yay all 'round!
man alive, i love literature. and people who swim the same river, even if it's a different current. saeed's impressed, what a dasti pleasedness!
Mina at 9:24 PM
