Book Review: Ali Baba: The House that Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark

Duncan Clark provides an account of the world of Jack Ma, one of the leading figures in the present economy of China. Jack Ma built one of the largest companies of the world. An American tourist give him the name 'Jack.' His original name is Ma Yun.Jack took the Gaokao. In China it is seen as the most challenging exam in which high school students appear for a merit based exam for higher education. Jack badly failed in the exam. scoring 1/120...

Read More

Book Review: Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia by S. Hussain Zaidi

In Dongri to Dubai, Zaidi has made a commendable effort in engaging the reader in very chapter of the book. The book presents numerous stories beautifully weaved by the author. It primarily focuses on the rise of Dawood Ibrahim. Starting from his childhood it shows how Dawood entered the world of crime. Dawood loved cricket. He dropped out of school when he was only ten (p. 51). When Dawood gained power he used the cops to decimate his rivals.Zaidi...

Read More

Book Review: Xi Jinping's Governance and the Future of China by Zhou Xinmin

In this book review I cover some of the points which I find interesting. As soon as Xi took office he showed a strong commitment to solve the fundamental problems of China. Zhou, the author of this book states that the unity of knowledge and practice is a cornerstone of the Marxist theory of knowledge- a basic principle and methodology of dialectical materialism.  He believes that Xi Jinping has put emphasis on practice, stressing theoretical...

Read More

Book Review: MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman by Ben Hubbard

In mid 1700s one of the ancestors of MBS named Mohammed Ibn Saud made the first attempt to create a Saudi proto-state around his native village of Diriyah. Mohammed got an edge by forming an alliance with the fundamentalist cleric named Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahab (p. 5). The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was declared in 1932 and the discovery of oil took place in 1938.When MBS was growing up he saw who mattered in which tribe and the positions of...

Read More

Book Review: The Luminous Life of Rajiv Gandhi (Edited by Shyam Dua)

Rajiv Gandhi was the grandson of Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Rajiv's father was Feroze Gandhi and his mother was Indira. Both of them moved to New Delhi from Lucknow. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. To avoid being jailed for corrupt election practices in June 1975, she had declared a state of emergency and brought democracy to a halt. She launched a crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition. She served as the...

Read More

Book Review: Beyond the Gorges of the Indus: Archaeology before Excavation by Karl Jettmar

Karl Jettmar retired from the University of Heidelberg in 1986. He was an expert in the field of Central Asian Anthropology, archaeology, and art history. This book not only bring out the ancient history of the Northern Areas of Pakistan, but it also an appeal for the conduct of archaeological excavations. Between 1954 and 1989, various expeditions to the Trans-Himalayan zone allowed Jettmar to acquire unique and intimate knowledge regarding the...

Read More

Book Review: Letters by Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky, one the famous Russian writers left around 20,000 letters for his readers. 13,000 of which were written to him only by Soviet writers. This book presents more than 100 letters of Gorky written between 1889 and 1936. It also includes material which Soviet publishers have issued few years before the publication of the book. Various aspects of life in Russia, Europe and America of the first three decades of the...

Read More

Book Review: Mother Teresa: Her Life, Her Work, Her Message: A Memoir by Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado

Mother Teresa's father was of Croatian Origin and her mother was of Venetian origin. Her home country was Albania. Albania gained its independence after five centuries of occupation by the Turks. Mother Teresa was against abortion. She believed that charitable assistance must be provided without the desire for publicity (p. 139). She found her support in Jesus and taught the world what it means to be rich in the love of God.Mother Teresa had a diplomatic...

Read More

Book Review: The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture by Theodor W. Adorno (Edited and with an introduction by J. M. Bernstein)

Theodor Adorno emerged as a critic from the renowned Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. I mention some of the interesting points covered in the book. He believes that all culture shares the guilt of society (p. 17). Curiosity is the enemy of the new which is not permitted to exist anyway (p. 84).Adorno says that the power of the culture industry's ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness (p. 104). He further stresses that 'the...

Read More

Book Review: Lure of Karakorams by A. Sayeed Khan Qamar

Lure of Karakorams is written by a journalist who was also a member of the staff of the Pakistan Press International (PPI). He visited Northern Areas of Pakistan a number of times due to his professional duties and hobbies of hunting.In this book the author writes about the travel restrictions and relaxations imposed by the government of Pakistan on international tourists. The preface to the book is written by the author dated in 1973. The author...

Read More

Book Review: 5 Russian Masters by Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev

5 Russian Masters is an amazing compilation of short stories of five great Russian writers. In this collection I loved reading Anton Chekhov's short stories the most. Six of his stories touched on the themes of submissive behavior, dreams of freedom, memories, perceptions, anxiety and future. Leo Tolstoy's three short stories highlighted themes of hard work, kindness, honesty. Tolstoy's short story The Candle stresses that, as you sow so shall...

Read More

Book Review: Erdogan Rising: A Warning To Europe by Hannah Lucinda Smith

First published in 2019, Erdogan Rising is a significant contribution for readers who want to understand contemporary Turkey and is political dynamics. It addresses the question of how Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to power, his policies and how he centralized power. Hannah spent time in Turkey and Syria to cover important events during very crucial times. She also joined the mass movement of migrants on their journey to Europe in 2015.  The author...

Read More

Book Review: An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India by Sashi Tharoor

An Era of Darkness is about the atrocities against women, ship building in India, role of Scots in India, three big darbars in India, Indian Civil Service, racism. exploitation, Indian parliament and justice in India. It also covers the Criminal Tribes legislation of 1911, colonialism, caste, British, Shi-Sunni divide in Lucknow, Nehru and Edwina, transporting Indian convicts from India, studying English literature in India, English language and...

Read More

Book Review: The Little Book of Big History: The Story of Life, the Universe and Everything by Ian Crofton and Jeremy Black

This little book by Crofton and Black gives us a better understanding of the story of humanity and how modern humans fit into the universe. It starts with the Big Bang Theory. Further it discusses how stars and planets are formed and how our planet earth sustains life. Stories from a range of disciplines (which include cosmology, biology, archaeology and anthropology) are covered in this book. It is divided into six parts. One, setting the scene,...

Read More

Book Review: The Life of Tipu Sultan by Kate Brittlebank

Tipu Sultan was born on the 20th of November 1750. From the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh to Powis Castle in Wales to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, today's tourist can see displays of Tipu memorabilia from the material to the mundane (p. 4).Tipu's father was Haider Ali, in whose time Mysore was in a strong position (p. 10). Haider Ali began his rise through the ranks of the Mysore army of the Wodeyars. Mysore allied itself...

Read More

Book Review: The Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan: Fear, Desire and Revolutionary Horizons

 Aasim Sajjad Akhtar says that a grounded theory of politics is much needed for the formerly colonized South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (p. 3). He states that this book brings attention to the challenge of 'forging an alternative hegemonic conception in the historically imperialized zones of the world- system' (p. 5). The author stresses that one cannot understand the global crises without centering attention on non-western, postcolonial regions,...

Read More

Book Review: Their Language of Love by Bapsi Sidhwa

In this book, Bapsi Sidhwa presents her first collection of short stories. Sidhwa admits that her short stories are lengthy, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them. The stories covered in this collection takes the reader into the realm of post-colonial diaspora. The cultural world in each stories are described with great detail. These stories also show how factors such as language, class, religion and ethnicity play important roles. I...

Read More

Book Review: Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World

The main thesis of the book stresses that all leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Marshall states that their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and concrete. He examines Russia, China, USA, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Western Europe, Japan and Korea, and Greenland and the Arctic. Marshall includes their climates, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and borders- to provide a context often missing from political...

Read More

Away from the Crowd

Shah lived in a joint family. His father, a hardworking farmer was known for his hospitality. Shah lived with his uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces. Growing up, Shah knew that with time he would have to take more responsibility of his family members. Like his father, Shah worked very hard. But his father kept him away from the fields and pastures. His father wanted him to do pursue higher education and be the first university...

Read More

My Batchmate

 Yesterday, I met one of my undergraduate batch fellows (BN) in the capital. Back in the university, he studied economics. I remember him saying how he would teach children in a small rural school, after graduation. Usually after making this particular point he would often smile. Seeing him smile strengthened my belief that he had other plans in his mind.Yesterday while having green tea, he was busy with his phone sending voice notes. Upon asking...

Read More

Book Review: Among the Mountains: Travels Through Asia by Wilfred Thesiger

In this book, Wilfred Thesiger a well known British explorer of the twentieth century writes about his travel experience in the mountains of Middle East and Asia. The author makes some interesting revelations about the people, terrain, flora and fauna, that he observes during his travels. He also shows his bias in his writings.He states that at Brep in Chitral all the inhabitants had goitre (p. 20). He mentions about the presence of Kirghiz, Wakhis,...

Read More

Book Review: A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947-1955 by Yaqoob Khan Bangash

Bangash's book covers a very important but often neglected phase of Pakistan's history. The complicated process of integration, the postcolonial transition and the ways in which it affected the nature of the state is also covered.There are certain details which are new to me, so I mention them in the review. General Muhammad Ayub Khan married his daughter to the son of Wali-e-Swat. Kalat and Bahawalpur states gave money to Chief's (later Aitchison)...

Read More

Book Review: After the Neocons: America at the Crossroads by Francis Fukuyama

The central theme of this book is the post September 11, 2001 foreign policy of the United States of America. Francis Fukuyama has come to the conclusion that he can no longer support neoconservatism (both as a political symbol and body of thought) as it has developed into something which has become irreversibly identified with the policies of the first term of George W. Bush's administration. Fukuyama stresses on the need to redefine American foreign...

Read More

Doing the Right Thing

Yesterday I saw my neighbor busy with supervision of cementing the front yard of his house. He had directed the laborers to create a a gentle slope using cement. Now, the cement slope exceeds the boundary of the plot and very clearly violates the parameters of the main road.This makes me think about "doing the right thing." In this country, creating problems for others has become a fashion now. In PK, I see people parking on footpaths which...

Read More

Seeing is not Believing

I grew up hearing that seeing is believing. I think this idea was as meaningless back then, as it is right now. the use of pictures, videos and print, plays a very important role in propaganda.The last Prime Minister was a prime example of excessive propaganda. He was portrayed as a messiah who would rescue the country from all challenges. Hero worship reached its height when anyone criticizing the Prime Minister or his policies was ruthlessly trolled...

Read More

Generation PUBG

Today (30 June 2023) while exercising in a nearby park I saw two small girls copying me. This made me smile. They were trying to copy every move. Trying very hard to do push ups they repeatedly asked me if they were doing it correctly. These little girls were aged between 8-10 years, wearing their Eid clothes. They really wanted to learn different exercises. As I was leaving, I saw the girls running and trying to do difficult exercises inside the...

Read More

The Ideal Job

Sitting on a velvet sofa, he gazes at his little grandson. He smiles at him, who is busy building a tower with his lego pieces. The tower crumbles!  Removing his spectacles, the proud grandfather loudly says: "My grandson will become an engineer."Replying to this the boy's grandma enters the sitting area and says: "A government engineer." To which her husband replies: "Obviously."In a mild tone the grandpa says: " A government job is like a...

Read More

BMW

Growing up in a small village Masti Khan saw many hardships. His father was a small trader who barely managed to feed his whole family.Masti studied at a local school, but this did not stop him from helping his father in his business.  After completing grade ten, Masti went to the nearest town. He was a very hardworking student who would never miss his school lessons. He submitted his home assignments on time and was very organized. As...

Read More