Blogs

Reminding Me Of Zainab: I am bleary eyed and woozy headed, seated on an Emirates Airline flight waiting to be flown to Mumbai after completing the seemingly non-ending 15 hours flight from Orlando to Dubai, with an added 3 hours transit wait. So, you will appreciate I am not in the best of moods. Especially…

CAI has built and operates 6 medical clinics in the remotest lands in Allah’s creation – the treacherous mountain terrain of Afghanistan. These distant lands are home to perhaps the poorest and disadvantaged people on earth. Most of the 300 sick people who are treated in these clinics daily, for free, have never seen a…

I have observed Mohammedhadi Somji, a distant relative of mine, for a few years. I have seen him attending lectures at HIC with an aid of an along-white cane, sitting cross-legged through lectures and ignored by his peers, leaving for home with his parents. He intrigued me. Although I greeted and kidded around with him,…

Hameesi, Mullah Mchungu’s grinning native Tanzanian caretaker, lets me into the sparse apartment in the ancient and drab building that is Mullah’s home since he was born in Dar es Salaam eons ago. He points, still grinning, to the still form of his boss, relaxing in an antique hammock type seat that I used to…

My Tears Of Blood – Asma’s Story I have been associated with Burma’s Rohingya minority since 2012, when the initial massacre by the country’s army sent refugees teeming into Bangladesh for succor. Then, CAI donors assisted with food and tents sent to the victims at the camps set up by UNHCR. I was also able…

Hopping Through Dar / Tanga / Pemba / Zanzibar Emirates flight EK725 from Dubai lands Dar es Salaam 5 minutes ahead of schedule, the American pilot tells us it’s because he helped push the aircraft…haha. He has been joking since takeoff, telling us that he wears his seatbelts all the time because he is scared…

Land Of My Imams / I Am So Upset, So Mad FlyDubai is a terrible airline. It has modern aircrafts and all, but an unfriendly crew and lousy service. It is as if they know they play the second fiddle to their cousins at Emirates and the resentment shows. Flying economy, nothing is free. Since…

My Name Is Salman Khan! So brags Salman, a circa nine-year-old I encounter the day before yesterday, walking the short distance from the Leela Hotel, a stone’s throw from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. It simply used to be called Bombay International Airport during saner, more cheerful times. Although the Leela is a piece…

The #MeToo Movement, Scary Times. For Me. Mullah Mchungu has me scared silly. So scared, that I have begun living the life of an upright mo’min in India, to the tee. It all starts here in Mumbai, where I am holed up for a few days, auditing and making sure CAI’s many Indian projects are…

An African Trip – Of Hope And Toothaches Royal Air Moroc have a policy, I suppose, of total darkness in the aircraft cabin from the minute the cold and tasteless snack service is over to the time it begins descending at the destination. It’s a cue to all traveling in cattle class to sleep, no…

Muharram – Then, Now The 10 days of rituals that lead up to Ashura were one of the most important religious rites I eagerly participated as a child; still do, albeit for altered reasons. These are the annual rites that Ahlebeyti Muslims commemorate the tragic events that gripped Karbala some 15 centuries ago. Even as…

Mullah Mchungu’s Spanking Dilemma So, I am frustratingly trying to extract impossible to get information about a reported Taliban attack on the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan where 50 orphan boys cared for by CAI are located when my cellphone farts, flashing Mullah Mchungu’s name. I curse, almost. I have tons of pending fires I need…

With the way India’s Prime Minister Modi lauds the achievements of his administration since he assumed office, you’d think India’s roads are paved with gold. But the vehicle I am in hits another mean jarring pothole and I am returned to realities of political farts; repeat untruths enough times until they become deluded facts. Okay,…

The Rohingya Tragedy, My Turn – Abbas Moloo On a recent visit to New York, I meet up with Sohail Abdullah, a CAI trustee, and a longtime friend. We chat about ongoing projects and he invites me to join him on his next trip to audit some of CAI projects, projects in Philippines and Bangladesh.…