Creating Opportunities | Making the Impossible, Possible!
I ask the driver to take me to Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaun and Gulbaag Colony. The former two are minority Muslim pockets and scars from those couple of days of mayhem are still evident, even after eight years. Drab, dusty and filthy at places, the State has neglected to develop these narrow wandering streets into […]
Firoz Gulzar Mohammed Pathan (FGMP): The train from Surat to Ahmedabad next morning is another comfortable ride, on time departure and arrival. Chotubhai Dosani, my host, picks me up and we lunch in style at his home and I have the afternoon free to relax and catch up with piling emails that were almost inaccessible […]
Nagaram Housing Project – An Update: Alhamd’Allah, we have sponsors for 11 out of 16 impoverished and destitute families that urgently need housing assistance in Nagaram, AP. Please help the remaining 5 families get a roof over their head coming into the monsoon season in the near future which will make their current hovels a […]
Gujarat on February 27, 2002: a train carrying a group of radical Hindu devotees is set on fire at Godhra, Gujarat resulting in the deaths of 59 people, supposedly by a Muslim mob. Subsequent findings question this version, as it is proved fire could not have possibly set from outside the train, rather, scientific and […]
Two days before Bha stopped talking and went into a coma, he called me to his room and sat me down by his bedside. Bha, Mohammedreza Sultanali Yusufali, my eldest brother, was a father figure in my family. My father, you see, passed away in 1960, and since then Bha had led at the top, […]
Haw, haw, please come; you will be okay, I have curfew passes for us. So says my friend, Shabbir Lalani, an active social worker based in Hyderabad. He is assuring me of my safety in the violence engulfed city; bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims that has flared up in the Old City, resulting in total […]
Afghanistan Trip, May 25 – June 04, 2010 There are some that have shown interest in joining me for the trip to Afghanistan interior this May / June; maximum chartered flight can accommodate is 5 including me. Well, the plans are now firm and following schedule should prevail, insha’Allah: May 25 – Meet at Kabul […]
Kabul, Afghanistan – Friday February 26,2010 Six heavily armed men casually walk towards the entrance of Park Residence Hotel and as casually, pump several bullets into the heavy set middle aged guard sleepily guarding the entrance on this calm and sedate Friday holiday. They quickly overpower and kill 2 other guards just inside the iron […]
Off to Afghanistan: I will, insha’Allah be in Afghanistan when you receive this email; please pay for my safe return. I am there for one final inspection of Imam Hussein (A) School that insha’Allah opens in May this year. As earlier advised, our team is in place for this great event and I request your […]
My distant relative, a pious man of advancing age, regards me with watery eyes, his mouth struggling to cope with overflow of paan remnants so when he speaks, his speech is incoherent and I have to pay special attention to understand him. This relative, (I can’t pinpoint how we are exactly related, but he has […]
