This Saturday was a beautiful cloudless day in Philadelphia. Just cold enough, but not too cold; nor too breezy. A sweater is all that you needed as long you walked on the sunny side of the street. The yellow, bronze and flamboyant red fall colors proclaimed the existence of God for some and drying up of chlorophyll in the leaves for others. In any case It was definitely not a day to sit at home. I decided to go to a café in the neighborhood that has tables laid out on the sidewalk and also provides free internet access. A nice little place to have a cup of coffee or tea and watch the world go by. I also took my laptop along.

After getting myself a cup of coffee and finding a strategically located table I opened the laptop to see if there were any new messages on the “Great Debate” that has been raging on for over two months now. There was none! For several days now the last message has stood at number 406 --- from Javed I Chaudry to Rafi Aamer. It seems the debate has finally run out of steam, as was expected. (Or has it?) Come to think of it, 406 is a lot of messages in a little over two months. It adds up to a lot of pages and lot of words.  Judging by the sheer number of messages this debate would rate as very successful.

Lazily, I scrolled down the page and looked at the names of the people who have participated in this discussion.  Some names popped up more frequently and more persistently than others.  Some appeared only in the very beginning, like the stars that appear early in the evening and then disappear, while others stay in the sky throughout the night and still others appear at different times of the night. Some shining bright and big while others small and a bit diffused, but all adding to the overall brightness and beauty of the night.

Then, for nothing better to do, I started working out some statistics. A total of 406 messages and 48 participants! On average almost 9 messages per participant. But averages, as we all know, can be very misleading. You must have heard of the person who had his one foot in the ice and one on hot coals. According to statisticians he was at comfortable temperature. But was he? 

Of the 48 participants only 8 persons (17%) were responsible for generating a total 274 messages (67%). Another 8 participants generated between 5 to 19 messages each while 32 participants generated 1 to 4 messages each. Out of the total participants 9 were women with a total of 17 messages. They used fewer words but were generally pithier and to the point.

As I had said in an early message we did not expect any winners in this debate.  Also, the purpose of the discussion, I assume, was not to prevail upon others but to exchange ideas, learn others' point of view and, in the process, enhance or enlighten ourselves.  But simply judging by the number of messages so far, clearly the front runner is Mr. Javed I. Chaudry with 63 messages, followed closely by Feroz Karamally (60), Rafi Aamer (42), Jawaid Chaudhry Virk (36) and Rashid Mughal (31). And if one judges by the number of words written by each participant, I think Mr. Akhtar Sherazi is way ahead of every one else although he has posted only 2 messages.

I doubt if anyone has changed his or her views as a result of this debate. But, personally, I feel I am better informed than before. I came across new information, new logic and new reasoning as a result of this debate.

Judging by the sheer pleasure of reading (again, it is a subjective yardstick), Urdu writers easily win the hearts (in some cases the minds, too). Starting with Zahra Naqvi, who appeared briefly like an early evening star, to Rafiq Sultan,  Masood Munawar from Norway, Rasheed Nadeem (khidoo syndrome), and to Akram Mahmood, they were all delightful to read.

Statistics, as we said, can be misleading and therefore must be used with care. A professor, who wanted to demonstrate the law of probability to his students, brought sliced bread and butter to the class. He buttered the slices of bread on one side only and told the class that he would toss 20 slices in the air, one by one, and predicted that 50 per cent (10 slices) would fall with buttered side up and 50 per cent would fall with buttered side down. As it turned out, 19 slices landed on the floor with buttered side down and one stuck to the ceiling!

Aziz Ahmad

Philadelphia

November 12, 2005