Blogs

Mullah Mjanja / A New Novel Mullah Mjanja I had known Mjanja (an alias, naturally) almost fifty years ago, from my time growing up in Tanga in the seventies. Mjanja means shrewd in Kiswahili. This is a title our friends gave him because he used to be cunning with his teachers, friends, and foes, getting…

Haazar. Chashm. Agreed. The blessed month of Rajab is here. There is a deluge of Facebook posts, WhatsApp forwards, and emails extolling me to become more pious and Allah-conscious this month. Our respected and revered aalims, too, are all fired up – recite this and that dua they extoll in sermons, recite ziyaarats, pray these…

Kisukaali, I want to die. These words are from Mullah Mchungu as I sit alongside his bed. I feel safe, as the menacing walking stick that he sometimes brandishes is nowhere in sight. He is ailing again. At just over eighty years old, I’d expect his human engine to have ups and downs, and aches…

Slipping And Sliding Working and traveling for CAI takes me to numerous hot spots in this world and although most of them are dicey, uncomfortable, and sometimes outright dangerous, a recent trip to commission a completely renovated CAI donor-funded school in a remote village in Tanzania is one that I will cherish – for the…

Pakistani Dairy I purchase an Emirates ticket to fly me to Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. Emirates gives me a seat on their partner airline, Flydubai because they do not fly to Multan. Flydubai reassigns my seat to a vague airline, Smartwings, an airline based in the Czech. Rather confusing but here I am flying in a…

A Pudgy Flight, A Dicey Ride, And Babul Ki Dua A visit to the chaotic town of Gorakhpur and a drive to the village of Hallour in UP is not for the faint of heart. But nothing that I cannot handle, except the early morning flight from Mumbai, is packed and the fellow beside me…

A Jungle School After the depressing trip to Pakistan where Sohail and I oversee the logistics of administering the purchase and distribution of 10,000 blankets and 7,000 tents to the victims of the devastating floods in September and October, we head to Manila, Philippines. Manila is a replica of any metropolis in Southeast Asia. Crowded…

It seems the Pakistani government is finally convinced I am harmless since they issue me a one-year multiple-entry visa for the first time and I find myself at Karachi airport. The arrival hall is jampacked and it’ll take me at least an hour or more to clear immigration but a sympathetic officer pulls me aside…

There is very little joy in Amna Naqvi’s (alias) tender life of eight years so far. All she knows as the daughter of a peasant farmer is an arduous and dreary existence; a daily routine of early mornings, before sunup, drawing water from the backyard well, sweeping dirt floors, washing clothes, and shaping stinking, still…

The Queen Is Dead! Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully on September 8, 2022; I’ve heard and read of very little else since then. Bapre. You’d think the world was about to end. Okay, so, almost all of us know who she was, as she reigned over more than a billion people of the Commonwealth at…

Rape And Kill – Applaud And Ladoos Happy birthday India I land in Mumbai on a very soggy morning, after a very turbulent flight from Dubai, buffeted by clouds that are heavily pregnant with monsoon rain. I am returning after a year, prevented by other pressing worldwide CAI projects and doodoo protocols. Nobody asks me…

A Fine Squatting Act – Ali Syed Khoja TRS (New Zealand) and CAI (USA) are partners in several medical and orphan care projects around the world so it is natural TRS personnel want to visit some of them. Shaida Hussain Bhayani, Imran Chunawala, Mohammed Mithani, and Ali Syed Khoja come to visit Tanzania and Kenya.…

Muharram Rituals – Have We Lost It? Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar, is immensely significant, especially to me, as a Shia Muslim. It is the month in which the grandson of my Prophet (s) and his family and companions were surrounded, traumatized, inhumanely denied water in scorching heat, and the men butchered.…

A Suitable Groom Mullah Mchungu sits on his easy chair slurping steaming chai from a saucer. His blinding dentures sit by the side table, ready for action as soon as the old man is done with his breakfast. Hameesi, the Mullah’s personal assistant and in-house manservant stands by patiently, a half-filled cup of the chai…