Were he alive today, Faiz Ahmad Faiz would have, all at once, been thrilled and alarmed by the fast-changing world order and the shaking hegemony of Western imperialism and its local linchpins.

How indeed can a lover of Faiz's poetry, even a very imperfect one as myself, witness the so-called Arab Spring and the toppling of dictators like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali without thinking of his famous poem Hum Dekhenge (We Will See)?

It's hard to explain to anyone under 30 (who'd have been 8 when the Berlin Wall fell) what the Cold War was like, or even that it happened. Clashes between "communism and freedom," a readiness to incinerate the planet, stalking "subversives." A culture bathed in politics. The Hollywood red scare, the career of Ronald Reagan: from B-actor to president. And spy mania. It seems as remote as the Middle Ages yet many of us were there.

If you want your kids to understand the Middle Ages, you can take them to Medieval Times at the CNE. If you want give them a sense of the Cold War, take them to a council meeting at city hall. Look for Giorgio Mammoliti.