aliyusufali

Reshma’s Story After trying for three years, the Pakistani government finally decides I am not a threat to their country and grants me a visit visa. They have reason to…

Bollywood In Najaf? It is incredible how the Coronaviruses have upturned all our lives, but especially for frequent travelers. Like me. Consider this. Emirates Airlines has me on a confirmed…

A slap There is a war of words of larger-than-life proportions next door at the Leela Hotel here in Mumbai, India. I can hear the feuding couple hurl filthy abuses…

My Bloody Gallbladder Stones For uninteresting reasons, I end up in the emergency room of Fatimiyah Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. I must have a very large stone in my gallbladder…

Aal Is Vel It is in an aircraft 28,000 feet in the air that I find out a COVID-19 test is required to be allowed back to Mumbai from Kolkata…

When the first reports of Afghan families selling or marrying their adolescent daughters for food or debt settlement flashed up on my TV, I was somewhat skeptical. Widely followed mainstream…

Who Cares It’s Deepawali, or Diwali, the festival of lights for almost 1.5 billion people of the world population, almost 15% of us. I remember it as a festive period…

Ulfat – Zanzibar I meet Ulfat some three years ago, in her grandmother’s pitiful house somewhere in Zanzibar. It has taken me a ten-minute walk in waterlogged muddy lanes to…

Have Sheesha, Will Smoke Emirates flight EK 726 from Dar es Salaam to Dubai is almost full. The crew (most of them) look like human beings now, unlike recently, when…