It is my birthday today, the Georgian one. I like my lunar birthday better, on Shabaan 5th; birthday of my 4th great Imam Sajjad (A). I sit at my desk and ponder over remarkable 54 years that have passed by; try and humor excited 10 year old Maaha Zainab’s futile attempts to keep a baked […]

Muslims in Sri Lanka number about 2 million, 10%, concentrated mostly in the east of this exotic island. There was a time when Muslims dominated business and commerce, especially in Jaffna, but war by LTTE saw atrocities against them. Scores of Muslims were gathered in mosques and grenades thrown at them; those that survived had […]

I watch a crow on a branch of a massive tree intently, who stares back indifferent. Because my Kingfisher flight from Chennai, India to Colombo in Sri Lank has been delayed three times already and soured my disposition, I pick up a pebble and hurl it towards where she perches, missing wildly. The crow simply […]

Here we go again, another squirming dictator with dire cramps and julaabs, in Libya this time. If it were not for the bloodshed there, his rantings on TV this morning in a womanly voice would have been comical. You know, I had not heard Ghaddafy speak before and with the press terming him a ‘strongman’ […]

Except for fatter mosquitoes with meaner stings, Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh is almost the same as I left it some ten years ago. Immigration, customs and baggage clearance is pretty efficient however and I am out of airport into milling crowds outside in less than 30 minutes. The traffic, usually choked, chaotic […]

Emirates Airline 202 bound from New York JFK is bang on time today, a few minutes early even; no routine, vague excuse of a tardy inbound flight to contend with. These airlines must think we travelers are pretty dumb and gullible; as if we care ant’s ass if their inbound flight was late. Anyway, we […]