Mona Siddiqui

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

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For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

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My castaway this week is the academic and commentator Mona Siddiqui. Born in Karachi and brought up in Huddersfield, she is a rarity, a female Muslim theologian.

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Professor of Islamic and Inter-Religious Studies at Edinburgh University, her analysis and opinions regularly shed light on controversial issues affecting the Muslim faith, and her calm and reasoned standpoint can be heard regularly on the Today programme's Thought for the Day. Brought up in a house stuffed full of books, her academic promise revealed itself early on, and despite dallying with the idea of journalism as a career, she finally followed the path her mother wanted for her academia. She says, I like to be in places where I feel my voice can be heard and I can say things of some value. So, Mona Siddiqui, have you always found it easy then to speak up when the opportunity arises?

Presenter1:27

I have never shied away from speaking about issues that I think are important, and I know that a lot of what I say is controversial for many Muslims as well.

Presenter1:37

But I think you have to have an ethical imperative to say things and

Presenter1:42

If you are in a privileged position, you know, in a free academic environment, then I think you also owe the public something. And you should speak up about issues that matter. And what about this idea, of course, in everything that you write, and when you're asked to comment, and when you're doing thought for the day, you know, you're introduced as a Muslim speaker. Where does religion, where does being a Muslim, sit in your life? Is it important?

Presenter2:07

It's obviously part of who I am, but I'm a a person who happens to be Muslim rather than a Muslim speaker. But I think partly because of the way media talks about and identifies people, and partly because of the way it needs to encapsulate in short statements exactly who you are, you become defined as a Muslim speaker. I do find that problematic at times. Right. And when you say problematic, just explain that. What's the problem? I think people are always trying to find out the Muslim angle to things, as if, you know, I wake up every morning and think, what Muslim thing will I do today? And you don't think like that. You're just a normal person who, when asked about an issue of faith, yes, you can say something about it. But yes, in my academic writing, that's what my research is. But I think we are becoming slightly obsessed with how we define people according to their religious beliefs. Yes, that's an interesting idea, isn't it? That somebody in your position who has devoted her life to the studies that you have and who is constantly asked to comment on the things that you are

Presenter3:04

Almost thinks, oh, a bit less of that, please. Yeah, and absolutely. And I mean, even when we're talking about thought for the day, which is a huge privilege to do, but you are then defined by, well, you're a thinker, as if other people don't think, or you do thought for the day, which means you can only sustain a thought for two and a half minutes. And you're trying to say, I'm not just that, I do that as part of my work, but I do other things as well, which are quite normal. We're going to go to the music then. Your first piece this morning is what? What are we going to hear? It's L-O-V-E by Nutkin Cold. Why have you chosen this one? It's just a lovely, lovely, lovely, love song. And sometimes that's all you need for a pickup in the day.

Speaker 43:39

L is for the way you look.

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At me.

Speaker 43:45

Bo

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Is for the only one I see.

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V

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Is very, very extraordinary.

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Is even more than any one that you adore can love.

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See

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Is all that I can give.

Speaker 44:08

To you.

Presenter4:09

Matt King Cole, it's L O V E love. So, Manu Siddiqui, you you set up the Centre for the Study of Islam at Glasgow University in I think it was nineteen ninety eight, so you were the first female Muslim chair in Islamic Studies in Scotland. What did they expect of you, and what did you expect of the job?

Presenter4:27

Well, right from the very beginning when I came to Glasgow University, I was involved in some kind of radio work. So linking me with the media was automatic for people.

Presenter4:37

So I think for a lot of people my main contribution was how do I reflect on issues to do with Islam and religious and ethical debates in public life. I heard that people expected you to wear traditional Islamic dress. Is that right?

Presenter4:51

I think my husband, who is an accountant in Glasgow, told me of a funny story once. He said, When I first got the job a few months down the road, there were some people. I don't know whether they were in the mosque or whether they were in his office, but they were basically saying to him, Oh, have you seen this woman who's been appointed at Glasgow University? You know, she wears a skirt and she doesn't cut her hair and she never says peace be upon him after she mentions the prophets.

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And he listened and he listened, and at the end he said, Yeah, that's my wife.

Presenter5:19

So in the past, then, Monosidiki, you've said celebrating diversity is creating difference. What did you mean by that?

Presenter5:26

I think diversity has to be negotiated with multiple voices. It has to have people who feel they have a stake in society. And a lot of the time I think we're actually ticking boxes that do we have the right colour, the right religion, the right gender, the right this and that in various workplaces. The most important thing in diversity is the question which I'm increasingly beginning to ask myself is: can people of really diverse backgrounds and cultures live meaningfully together? They can live together in the sense of live next door to each other.

Mona Siddiqui5:56

Yeah.

Presenter5:57

But if we want a society where people feel they have a stake and a loyalty and a sense of belonging, I think that demands something else. And I'm not sure that we're there. There are some very distinctive markers that mean that these days people feel themselves to be very different from each other but living in the same community. And I'm thinking here of something like the wearing of the veil. We've seen a ban enforcing by a few countries and individual cities across Europe recently. Do you think that's a step forward? I think the veil is an iconic image of everything that the West has struggled against. It's achieved some parity of gender relations, it's achieved some sense of how men and women can be equal in the workplace. And to many people, the veil symbolises everything that is against that. Now people who wear the veil will defend it and say, I wear the veil because it's my faith and because I don't feel any less equal to anyone else. It's a two-way conversation. First of all, why do women increasingly want to wear the veil? Whereas this wasn't the case when my parents came. Nobody had their head covered. I would also ask people: if you're really serious about this conversation, then what is offensive about it? Is it the way somebody dresses is unsettling me? Or is it because I just want that person to look like me? And the veil is an intra-Muslim problem as well. It's not an Islam West problem. Because it's become so huge in the conversation about faith that I think it's almost eclipsing far more important issues, much to Islam's detriment. Time for some more music then, Munusadiki. What are we going to hear your second choice at the morning? This is the Blue Danube by Johann Strauss. And why have you chosen this piece of music? When I was in primary school, we had a music teacher who used to play classical music when we all walked into the assembly hall. And every day there was a new piece of music, and I was just entranced. And I think this was the first piece I heard. And I thought, I want to play music in my life.

Presenter8:53

The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, played by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Riccardo Mutti. So, Mona Siddiqui, you were born then in Karachi in Pakistan. You lived there until you were five. Can you remember anything about early life in Pakistan?

Mona Siddiqui9:03

Can you

Presenter9:07

Very little. I just remember a play that I took part in and I had to dress up as a bride. And I was ecstatic because I didn't actually have to say any lines, but I just had to look good. And I just sat there for two hours, just dressed up as a bride, as a Asian bride should be, just quiet and sitting there. And my best friend played the groom, and that's the only ma image I have. And do you remember why your parents decided to leave? Did they talk to you about that?

Presenter9:32

No, and that's a generational thing, I think. But maybe they had discussed it, maybe they just thought we don't need to tell the children, but I don't remember any conversation. And that's why for many years I thought we might be going back.

Presenter9:45

Uh, really twelve, thirteen years. Aged five, that's a very long plane journey. It was a very long plane journey, but I just remember my parents wouldn't let me carry anything and I made them and it was just a little jug. But, you know, I wanted to be always part of something. I wanted to know what was going on, even though I was so little. Were you a little busy nickers then?

Presenter10:03

I wouldn't quite describe myself like that. But yes, I didn't want to remain totally ignorant about what my family was doing. Very delicately put. So, your dad was a psychiatrist then. He moved and set up practice study here in Britain. We came to Cambridge first, and he worked there for a year, and then we moved to, he got a permanent position in West Yorkshire in Huddersfield. You were one of her many children?

Mona Siddiqui10:10

Um

Mona Siddiqui10:13

Yeah, he

Mona Siddiqui10:16

He came to

Presenter10:25

We were four when we came, but six months into Cambridge, I think my mother felt so l alone because we were all at school, and she wanted another child, and my younger sister came along. Then she had an afterthought, and my youngest brother came along. That was it. And what sort of people were your parents then? I mean, psychiatry denotes somebody who obviously has an analytical brain. What kind of father was he? They were both of them were very strong presences in our life. I mean, my father, now when I look back to the kind of

Presenter10:53

environment he grew up in, which was a small village in India. He came from no privilege to the UK and made a huge life for himself and for his family. And I think that kind of journey is far more um

Presenter11:06

inspiring than the kind of journeys I will make with my children because they have so much more, you know, that is available to them, whereas he had so little.

Presenter11:17

But both my parents were avid readers. There were always books in the house. But now when I think about the kind of reading my father did, I realise how exceptional he was. He knew Arabic, he knew Persian, he knew Hindi, he knew Urdu, he knew English. He would buy books, he would talk to us about various books. I suppose I never really appreciated that about my father till after he died. Let's have some music. What are we going to hear next, Mona? This is A Ghazal, which is a love song sung to music. And it's by Jakjit Singh, and it's Dumko Deka.

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Tum kude kha tu ye khaya naya.

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Zinderi Dhum Tunghala Saya.

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They come. Uh

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To Yi Khala.

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Tumkodeika by Jaijit Singh. I I'm wondering, Manasidi Keith, is that the sort of thing you would have listened to at home with your parents?

Presenter12:26

I did. And we spoke in Urdu with our parents, so we were raised completely bilingual. But my Urdu improved by listening to songs like this because it was basically poetry and there were words I couldn't understand and I would harass my mum, what does this mean? What does this mean? But yes, I did. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. I just thought there is no equivalence of this music i in kind of Western culture. And you've said in the past you've described the attitude of some of your parents' generation as a siege mentality, talking there about immigrants who've come and thought, well, we need to buckle down and keep our identity. That that wasn't the prevailing attitude within your home.

Presenter13:03

Not at all. I mean, you know, as girls growing up, we didn't have many social freedoms, it has to be said, but we did have a lot of intellectual freedoms. And that meant that we could really talk about anything that we wanted in in in the house. And I think it was my mum's way of making sure that she was still there as an influence and a presence in our lives, but that di we didn't feel trapped. And she didn't really want, as far as I could see, any of us to grow up thinking that, you know, somehow we were victims or that we were minorities. For her, having a sense of confidence in who you were was paramount. And for her, the means of getting that confidence was largely through education. And you were a clever girl at school. You did well. I wouldn't say I was clever. I loved school. That doesn't mean I was clever. I was bad at maths. I was bad at sciences. And so, you know, by default, I had to go into the humanities.

Speaker 313:51

Uh Yeah.

Presenter13:52

But you enjoyed the human language. I did. I I love languages. But I did like the whole experience of just being in school and learning and and and just seeing it as a place where you could develop.

Speaker 313:52

Yeah.

Speaker 313:53

I think

Presenter14:01

Any teenage girl strains against the rules and regulations that mum and dad said. Were there particular rules and regulations that you thought, you know what, my friends are getting to do this. Why am I not?

Speaker 414:06

Uh

Presenter14:13

It's hard to explain without making it sound almost tyrannical, but she definitely wasn't. But there were certain things we just didn't ask. We just knew the answer would be no. You know, there was no kind of conflict and anger there. It was just little things like staying over at people's houses. A lot of our Muslim friends did that, but we were quite different. And because we weren't part of a wider community, we were quite cut off from the Asian community. And we never lived like that, and I still don't live like that. Do you think that that is one of the reasons that you've become a rigorous academic? Is because, you know, early on you learned to live a lot of your freedoms in your head. It was a, as you say, it was a freedom of thought. Absolutely. I think that's spot on. And I suppose whatever profession I would have chosen.

Mona Siddiqui14:37

Music Museum.

Presenter14:56

That freedom would have been what I suppose defines me. Freedom comes with its own risks, and the more you explore things, the more you question things, the more uncertain you are about certain things. But then, you know, I don't think um risk is a bad thing. And what about your parents' expectations for you? What what did they want you to do?

Presenter15:15

I remember very clearly this conversation with my mother. She said, I wanted you girls want to be a barrister, want to be a doctor, and want to go into university.

Presenter15:26

I don't think my mother had the slightest idea what that actually entailed in terms of commitment and hard work and you know, she also wanted us to be married and have kids.

Mona Siddiqui15:31

Yeah.

Presenter15:35

You know, to be honest, we loved her so much we didn't question it. So what about your other sisters then?'Cause we know you fulfilled her dreams. No, my sister, my older sister, became a doctor, and my younger sister is a barrister. That's extraordinary.

Presenter15:48

But we didn't see that as something that was imposed on us. We were quite happy to, you know, have these conversations with her that were part of exploring who we were. There was a time when I did want to go into journalism, but again, I knew that would lead to conflict because journalism wasn't really seen as a respectable career. Well, it's not really.

Presenter16:07

Well, thanks for confirming that. But so, you know, this was safe. Academia was always going to be respected.

Mona Siddiqui16:08

That

Presenter16:14

Let's have some music. What are we gonna hear?

Presenter16:16

This is A Red Red Wine by UB Forty. I think again it's one of those songs that is lovely to hear, great great words, great beats, great rhythm, but also it was in the charts at a time when I was going through a rather difficult period emotionally, and it was played all the time and it's just stayed with me.

Speaker 316:58

Well yeah

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It's up to you.

Presenter17:05

UB40 in red, red wine, and you said going into that Monocity Hi that it particularly brought back memories of a a tricky time in your life. What what was happening, what was tricky?

Presenter17:14

It was just between the time when I was almost preparing to get married, but I didn't want to be married at the time. I wanted to continue with the life I had, which was very comfortable, very nice life. I had no idea what married life would be like, but um I didn't want that rupture at that stage. You were twenty-seven? Yes, yes. Um but you know, it's not that I ha regret getting married when I when I did, it's just at the time there was so much else going on. So how did it come about? How did you meet your husband to be?

Mona Siddiqui17:31

Mm-hmm.

Mona Siddiqui17:33

Yeah.

Presenter17:44

Well, it was arranged largely through uh family friends, but I met him and he was in Glasgow and that's why I moved to Glasgow when I got married. Right, and it's it's r interesting, of course, because the word arranged uh carries with it so much cultural significance. But it was it was technically, was it, a sort of arranged union in that this is a good good man for you to be able to do it? Yes, it was, yes it was. And I didn't have a problem with that in the sense that we weren't s told that, you know, you you can't find your own life partner.

Mona Siddiqui17:55

Significant.

Mona Siddiqui18:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Presenter18:08

But because we hadn't found our own life partner, there was an assumption that, well, we'll find our life partner for you. And time was cracking on. You were 27, yes.

Mona Siddiqui18:13

Time was cracking on. We were twenty seven, yes.

Presenter18:16

Yes, that's true.

Mona Siddiqui18:17

What do you think?

Presenter18:19

I thought it was a really nice guy that this guy will make my life comfortable and I will enjoy my life. Right. And I think sometimes that's all you need. It should be said that you've been, I I think, happily married for twenty years now. Yes. I have three boys and I feel extremely blessed.

Mona Siddiqui18:30

Yeah.

Presenter18:35

A dutiful daughter, then. You were being a dutiful daughter. That sounds really self righteous, doesn't it? No, well because I've said it, not you. Yes, but if I say yes, yes, I suppose. But I think, you know, I wasn't just doing this out of duty. I was also going to start a new adventure.

Mona Siddiqui18:41

No, but well because

Presenter18:51

And this new adventure involves somebody else, and this person needed to know what I was feeling and take me knowing that. And I have to say that he was extremely supportive.

Presenter19:03

But I think, you know,

Presenter19:04

We have all kinds of moral impulses, and I think we don't talk about duty enough. Human flourishing and good family life is about understanding everybody's needs and trying to live with certain compromises. You see, what you've just said there is entirely contrary.

Presenter19:20

to what most of the Western world right now is getting at, and especially through that period just coming out of the sixties, seventies and of course into the eighties, of the solidifying of the idea of self fulfilment. Go to hell, the rest of you, because actually I need to fulfil what I

Mona Siddiqui19:24

Yeah.

Mona Siddiqui19:27

Uh

Presenter19:36

Believe is possibly maybe my destiny, but certainly my right. What's your view of that?

Mona Siddiqui19:40

Yeah.

Presenter19:42

I I think that you can't sacrifice all your aspirations for somebody else, because it would just destroy you internally. But I think you do have to make choices. I couldn't possibly have made a choice that would have saddened my parents. Um I'm sure I did do many things that upset them, but I think this was a big thing for them.

Presenter20:02

Tell me about your next piece of music then. What is it and and why is it important to you? This piece is Mozart's piano sonata in A major, and it's a piece I heard around about eleven, twelve years ago.

Presenter20:14

And it just brought back this kind of intense longing, if only I hadn't given up the piano.

Presenter21:19

The Alaturka, part of Mozart's piano sonata in A major, played there by Mitsuka Uchida. You said, Muna Sudiki, that you decided that you would be married and you started to make your life in Glasgow. You had been studying for your PhD at the time you married. And then, after a period of time, you became a lecturer at Glasgow University. You had, by that time, two young sons when you were married. Yes. And then in very quick succession, you lost both of your parents. That's a lot to happen in a very small amount of time. That was just awful, actually. Losing my mother when my middle son, who's now 16, he was around about eight months. Very traumatic. Those are the s sorts of circumstances. You say a new baby just eight months old and one other child, a young child. Yes. Plus, you're in a new city. Plus, you're relatively newly married. That can be a combination of circumstances where people can feel their head going under the water.

Mona Siddiqui21:40

Yes.

Mona Siddiqui21:47

Small amount of time.

Mona Siddiqui22:08

Yeah.

Mona Siddiqui22:10

Bus you have

Mona Siddiqui22:12

Are you

Presenter22:18

You know, what what carried me through that time was um it was um my middle son, who's called Zuhair. It was his birthday coming up at the end of June, and she died um actually she died in May.

Presenter22:29

And um

Presenter22:31

I thought I can't possibly have a party for him. I mean, there's just no point, and she's not going to be here, and it was all about who am I going to show my children off to now?

Presenter22:39

Then I thought this is so unfair to him, he doesn't know what's happening. So I thought, No, I have to carry on. But, um, it was not an easy time. My father died two years after my mother.

Presenter22:50

And um when you lose both parents, suddenly you do feel really alone. Do do do you find, as as people who've been, you know, close to their mothers often do, that in a sense she she lives on through the way you have parented your three boys?

Presenter23:03

Yes, I think there are a couple of things that she's basically said, the principles of respect, which I have tried to raise my children with. That no matter who you're speaking to, you you speak respectf respectfully. Respecting difference, but also being confident in who you are, not having to feel apologetic about who you are.

Presenter23:22

These are things I think that are important for a young generation. Do you take your sons? Have you taken your sons to Pakistan?

Presenter23:29

Once I took them about four years ago, they were in their early teens at the time. I felt that they should see, because my husband's family, his extended family, still live in Pakistan as well. And I took them and I just wanted them to see that they had other family there, perhaps family that they might never ever feel close to, but that there was a different life there as well. And they really enjoyed it. But for them, it wasn't home. So that was 2007 then? That was the year that Benziabuto was shot?

Presenter23:55

Yes, it was shortly before we were due to return to the UK. It was so surreal because we were getting ready to go to a dinner, and my husband came in and said, Beneziputo has been shot.

Presenter24:07

And I switched the television on and said, Yes, yes, but we have to hurry, we'll be late. And he said, No, we're not going anywhere now. Everything will be shut down and the streets will be empty, or there'll be rioting, so no one's going anywhere.

Presenter24:17

And it was at that point that I realized that although the holiday had been lovely,

Presenter24:21

Where you have no security or safety for your children or for yourselves, that could never be home.

Presenter24:27

Um so your sixth uh disc then, why have you chosen this? Um this is a famous kawali which is really religious poetry that's sung to music.

Presenter24:36

And the first time my mother went to Pakistan, one of my uncles gave her two C D's and one of them was by the Sowbury brothers because he knew that I really enjoyed music.

Presenter24:45

And I was a convert to the Qoalim genre after that.

Mona Siddiqui24:49

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Mona Siddiqui24:51

But the jolly

Mona Siddiqui24:54

Bharata Jolly, Hamusaputi Bhuta Jolly.

Mona Siddiqui25:05

Burnda Jolly, Burnda Jolly, Burda Jolly.

Speaker 325:09

Pumariostane says the man that can hip out. Pumare ostane says the man that can the hipatha. Oh he

Presenter25:20

Bahad Najouri by the Sabri brothers there. Let's concentrate for just a minute or two then on things globally. We've seen recently these waves of violence across the Muslim world in Pakistan, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan. They followed this, it has to be said, little-seen American movie which mocked the Islamic faith. Do you think the right of free speech has a limit?

Presenter25:41

I don't think any society can have complete free speech. I am free speech has become again another short on ready to say what people can write and comment about. And I'm not saying that shouldn't be allowed, absolutely.

Presenter25:54

But most of us grow up knowing that there are certain things, whatever we feel, we can't just come out and say them. But I mean, in this context.

Presenter26:02

It's the reaction that's causing the controversy.

Presenter26:05

If you look at the majority of people who are protesting, they are not protesting because they've thought this through. It becomes a very easy way to...

Presenter26:12

express outrage. And the outrage might be against Western policies, it might be against all kinds of other things, but it becomes easy to peg it on religion, and nothing gets people riled up as much as religious language.

Presenter26:25

What is falling on from that, then? Uh the recent case of the French magazine you'll remember Charlie Ebdo, it's called.

Presenter26:31

They published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Now this magazine has also meted out derision to other faiths, and given that.

Presenter26:40

You know, there are people who look at this and they ask what is it that provokes some Muslims to such a violent reaction? Why is it that those who want to protest can't seem to do it peacefully? I think there have been this time there have been some voices that have said that, and I've heard people say this on the television, that Muslims need to take a chill pill. You know, it doesn't really matter what people say. You should have more confidence. And I completely agree. I think the problem is that people that the Muslims who are protesting don't want to understand that this kind of freedom comes at a cost. No one is saying to Muslims that by printing this you aren't entitled to practice your faith.

Presenter27:19

What they're saying is that we are allowed to hold everyone up to derision, and that in some ways nothing is sacred anymore.

Presenter27:26

That just isn't understood by a lot of people. How can you say nothing is sacred anymore?

Presenter27:31

Now, unfortunately, it expresses itself through violence because violence becomes the most obvious way of showing your anger, rather than well thought through opinion pieces and people on television talking about this. There must be lots of people who are Muslims who are really fearful of what's happening recently because they are British citizens, they are European citizens and they want a peaceful life.

Presenter27:55

Time for some music. What are we going to hear? Your seventh of the day? Uh seventh choice is Remembrances, and played by Itzak Perlman from the soundtrack Shinders List.

Presenter28:04

My middle son who plays the piano and the violin, he has been um really improving his violin recently. He's on grade eight now. And I was upstairs doing my work and I heard him practice this piece and I was stunned because it's suddenly I realized that he'd gone from a little boy practising his violin pieces to actually playing something that was so moving.

Presenter29:34

Remembrances by John Williamson played by Itzak Perlman. That was from the soundtrack to the film at Schindler's List. I wonder, Mona Siddiqui, as a mother of three boys and working at now Edinburgh University that we've moved to um through the eyes of your sons, through the eyes of your students, what do you hope for?

Mona Siddiqui29:46

That's right, yes.

Presenter29:54

For my own children, I want them to grow up confident. I want them to have faith.

Presenter30:00

I want them to

Presenter30:02

Push themselves to be the best they can. I really don't want them to sit on their laurels or take life for granted and take all the privileges and the talents that they have for granted. And as a theologian, the relevance of faith. You know, many, many people now live lives without faith and believe that they live better lives because they're not trammeled by the expectations of faith. What about that? How relevant do you think faith is?

Mona Siddiqui30:23

Expectations

Presenter30:27

My son recently said to me that

Presenter30:30

A Muslim friend of his had said.

Presenter30:32

Islam is not for me. I I don't believe i in it. And

Presenter30:36

And I said, Do you feel like that? He said, I sometimes think about this, but what I know is whether I agree with everything or not.

Presenter30:44

I have faith in God.

Presenter30:46

And that gives me hope. That's all I want.

Presenter30:48

Whatever else they do or don't do.

Presenter30:50

that they have that faith that there is something beyond them.

Presenter30:55

As you were starting out at the beginning of your academic career, then, as we know, you you spoke very tenderly about losing both of your parents in in a short space of time, what do you think they'd make then of the of this prominent life that you've made for your yourself now?

Presenter31:10

Well, I told my younger sister I was coming on to do Desert Island Dis, and she said, If only our mum were alive.

Presenter31:17

How do you think you'll cope on the island? Well you'll be alone with your thoughts, and as we know, you have this very

Presenter31:23

Active intellectual interior, you'll probably you'll probably have plenty to think about, plenty to do.

Presenter31:28

I quite like my own company actually. I mean I'm I'm quite an open person but I don't need a lot of people around me, so

Presenter31:35

I think I will reflect and hope that somebody eventually will come and rescue me. But yes, I th I'll be all right.

Presenter31:40

What's the final piece we're going to hear today then, Wanda? This is Bach's Cello Suite No. One, Prelude in G major. What is it about this that speaks to you?

Presenter31:50

Do you know, I think that sometimes we have absolute perfect moments in life, and we never forget them. And this was a perfect moment. I was in a restaurant, I'd just about finished a meal, and I was sitting there, and the sun was streaming in, and this was being played.

Presenter32:44

Uh

Speaker 332:45

Uh

Speaker 332:45

Um

Presenter33:20

Yo Yo Ma playing Bachcello Suite number one, the Prelude, in G major. So we come to the point now, Mona, where I will give you the books. I'm going to give you the Koran and the complete works of Shakespeare, and your lives take another book.

Presenter33:32

I don't know if there is a book out there like this, but it would have to be the top ten short story collection. There must be, mustn't there? I want a book that has Mansfield, Maugham, Chekhov, Hemingway, everybody. Right. I'm hoping that book exists. I'm hoping it's not too big, and if it does, we shall find it for you. And and what about a luxury?

Presenter33:50

Well, a real luxury probably won't be much use on a desert island, so I'll have to take something that is a necessity for me. That will have to be tea.

Presenter33:57

Tea has been a constant presence in my life and when I was about two months old I had hooping cough and my father had given up the doctor's given up that that was going to be my last night and my mother said I sat up with you all night and I dropped tiny little droplets of warm plain tea into your mouth hoping that it would keep you warm and and I prayed and prayed and prayed and by next morning you were fine.

Presenter34:25

You may have the tea, then. And which track, then, of the eight would you like to save?

Presenter34:30

I think I'll take Ubi Forte's Red Red Wine. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to Oblivion, since I don't drink, but I'll take that drop.

Mona Siddiqui34:33

Yeah.

Presenter34:38

Mona Sudiki, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you.

Presenter35:18

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.