Dear Rafi Aamer...I love
your letter. If you were
here I would have given
you a hug and kissed the
hand that wrote the
letter.
If I was ever in court and
needed a lawyer I would
like you to defend me.
For me Tagore was a
wonderful poet and well
deserving of a Nobel prize
in literature.
In my mind difference
between a logical argument
of science and poetic
metaphor of poetry and
creative writing is that
...logic captures the
glass half full
...poetry and metaphor
tries to capture the glass
half empty. It is hard to
capture logically what
does not exist
Science deals with WHAT IS
and that is wonderful.
But life is glass half
empty as well as glass
half full.
In my opinion science and
art, logical and creative
thinking, right and left
sides of the brain
complement each other. I
have respect for both and
learn different things
from them.
In poetry a poet can
communicate what is
outside the couplet. Faiz
said
wo baat saray fasanay main
jis ka zikr na tha
wo baat un ko bohut
nagawaar guzri hay
Faiz communicated
something that is not in
the couplet and left it to
the imagination of the
reader.
I am a great admirer of
science in biological
sciences, things than can
be proven in the
laboratory and seen with a
naked eye through
microscope or telescope.
But I am also admirer of
philosophers and
psychologists who try to
study love and creativity
and help us understand
them in a logical and
rational way. Social
sciences are qualitatively
different than biological
sciences and qualitative
research is different than
quantitative research.
I like their rational
approach to love and
creativity and prefer that
to religious approach.
For psychologists they
have to see with their
inner eye but then keep on
trying to prove it
logically. Religion does
not take that
responsibility to prove
things logically and
rationally. So a scientist
is a poet and conceives
something with the Right
Brain but then takes
responsibility to use Left
brain and proves it.
I think we have far more
in common and our
similarities outnumber our
differences.
For me Tagore's metaphor
is significant. It
highlights that when a
surgeon picks up a knife
he has a mind of a
scientist but also need a
heart that is
compassionate and it is
hard to talk about
compassion in a rational
and logical way as it
cannot me measured.
Kinsey in his movie
said...scientifically we
can discuss sex but hard
to discuss love
scientifically. Do you
think a scientist can be a
poet or a poet scientist?
Would those two sides
conflict or complement?
One more time, I love your
mind and always looking
forward to see you one of
these days.
affectionately sohail
ps...I keep on requesting
Pervaiz to add our letters
to website for others to
read and requesting Rafiq
to contribute as well.