an itinerant observer

1.       The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all And in the darkness bind them. In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie.” [The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien] And thus started, during my teens, a lifelong love affair with this epic trilogy – probably, the most popular work of all time from within the fantasy genre. That there can be reality in fantasy accompanied the realization that Tolkien’s Middle Earth is no different from the world that I inhabit. As happens in Middle Earth, there are hobbits, elves, dwarves, mythical and magical figures or creatures around me and in me – yet the beauty and evil, light and dark, of that human entity is paramount. I would like to call upon the  Tolkienian  in you to recall the conversation between Gandalf the wizard and Frodo Baggins a hobbit, and the presumably inconsequential ring bearer, in the 1st part, ‘...

Having left youth behind, in the throes of my midlife crisis (per my dear wife), I often ponder: What is change? Why is it needed? Where is it needed (most)? How is it brought about in a sustained manner and by whom? Before delving into this more, let me introduce you to my two young friends: Alezeh, a 14-year-old 9 th grader, and Mayank, an 18-year-old college student, with whom I conceived ‘ Biloongra -Books for Change ’, a grass roots effort promoting global child literacy and education. They pondered the above questions along with me at a café, over coffee and kolaches, at Rice village in Houston, on a sweltering summer morning. The discussion, dialogue and debate were timely. I had struggled with the questions primarily because it was unclear to me why we wanted to do something that might affect ‘change’ in public sector kids’ education in Pakistan. The oft cited ‘there’s a crucial need’, fell by the way side, once the going got tough. Such work from afar, while...

“ Baba , what are you reading?”, Noori peered over my shoulder to get a look at the book. All my reading life I have been much irritated when anyone has tried to peer into my book, especially by the over the shoulder route. It’s as annoying as someone peering over your shoulder to catch a glimpse of your email, while you’re working at your desk. Yes, I accept the double standards, but it’s okay for me to look over the shoulder of the other, but I certainly cannot tolerate it when I am the recipient. I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and very patiently told my 5-year-old kindergartner, “It’s a book called ‘the forty rules of love’”. It vaguely occurred to me, given the nature of the book, to pat myself on the back for not being short-tempered with her. “Is it about love?”, Noori asked. “Yes and no”, I said, “It is about love and no love for the other person”. “ Baba , when there is no love for another person then is there hate?” She wasn’t going to let go of this rare disp...

A previous essay ‘I feel, I write,therefore I am’ ended with the sentiment, ‘I feel, I read, therefore I am’ . Prior to drafting the new essay I had to decide on a book. The title of the new essay ‘ in and out of randomness’, although not all that random, was based on the book ‘ The Black Swan’ by N. N. Taleb. The book has nothing to do with the same name movie of Natalie Portman fame. A black swan event can be positive or negative, good or bad – it is deemed highly improbable, yet it causes massive consequences. The book is a fascinating, history-heavy account of how unpredictable today’s world is and how utterly random events are. Taleb writes more from a broad world historical perspective, but I wonder if a similar argument could be applied to one’s own life events…those that one considers to be monumental or life altering? In retrospect, we tend to tell ourselves a story and things or events seem to have occurred linearly and the outcome for that event was predictable based o...

On Observing Itinerantly “What does itinerant mean?” someone asked after obtaining my book. The question was a source of annoyance primarily because I expected the presumptive reader to seek out the meaning of itinerant prior to delving into the observations of one. But then I thought about the question from a broader perspective - the ethos of being an itinerant observer: what does it really mean to observe during one’s journey? An itinerant observer is really a time traveler. He observes life - human, animal, or plant – and then documents what he sees irrespective of perceived space or time aberrations or limitations. What does that mean you might ask. Well…if you consider time to be cyclical then the past, present and future don’t align themselves on a linear continuum…and then observing itinerantly becomes second nature. But what does that mean you might ask. If so, I will refer you to the preface of my book in which I tried explaining all of the above ‘phenomena’ to ...