Ebullient Libran

Some Interesting Reading

The intention behind this peice of write-up is to share with you all some of the interesting books and articles that I have been reading/ have read offlate.

Irshad Manji's book "The Trouble With Islam Today" made intresting read. The fact that it was written by a Muslim on Muslim and Islamic issues made the book more worthy of the time and money expended. The book is strewn with facts and facets of Islam that I had never known. For example the concept of Itijihad. Itjihad was infact the central aim of the book- to bring back into the lives of 'ordinary' Muslims the age old self-evaluation and critical thinking concepts in Islam. The simple prose and 'to the point', 'in your face' sentences made me sit for hours reading the book. So the book scores a good 10/10 for having achieved what it had gone to say in the blurb.

The other aspect that added color to the book was the examples cited. Each example, backed a particular view point of the author in a scathing way. All in all the book has to be a brave affair both for the author as well as the publisher, coming as it does at the time when the whole world has been gripped by Islamophobhia and there are the blood hungry mullahs driven by the orders of the tribal chieftains from the deserts of Arabia.

You might ask whats my opinion on Islam and Muslims before and after reading the book. I'm no saint and hence I'm influenced by my prejuidices and forgone conclusions on Islam and Muslims. As the author says the the extreme form of Islamic thoughts is from the desert, and for the desert Wahabi tribe. I go a step further and say the religion in all it contours should have been restricted to the desert and should have been for the tribal lords and their cohorts.

The other book that I have been reading is from the famous leadership guru Robin S Sharma. Titled "The Monk Who Sold His Farari", it's all about regaining your life; for a life rich in satifaction to the Soul, the Body and the Mind. The author has expressed his thoughts and opinions on ways to lead a more rewarding life through the use of a simple story. The protaganist of the story is Julian Mantle. The story is all about the transformation the protaganist had after a total breakdown and how he regained his life back with fullest control over his mind. You know what the main character of the story comes to the Himalayas of India to meet his preceptor and gain the ultimate knowledge of life.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears", "there are no mistakes, only lessons", these and many more sentences of invaluable and high moral content dot the book in the first few chapters that I have read. Infact you can make a big poster of all those "peppy-talky" one liners. I'm now into the 8th chapter where the protaganist explians the way the transformation was acheived by him to John (the narrator of the story). I will update this blog with more as and when I reach a new stage during the read of the book.

Last but not the least. The other peice of read was from the editorial of "The Hindu". Authored by none other than Vladimir Putin (President of the Russian Federation), the article was on what the Russian Federation aspires to do when it takes over the rotating presidency of G8. For the uninitiated G8 stands for Group 8; a grouping of worlds richest and highly industrialised nations. The focus of the aritcle was on three items- Energy, Killer Diseases and Education.
The emphsis on energy can be overlooked by no one, especially the fast developing nations of Asia. The President's point of note was on how the worlds hunger for energy will define future peace and confrontations. Though this article was written before the arrival of Mr Dubya to India, the article in now way missed the beat of the future moment. The fact that US went out of its way to strike a nulcear deal with India goes to show the games played by G8 countries at a very high diplomatic plain all with one eye on the future in the sub-continental turfs.
Killer diseases like Influenza, Bird Flu and others, that could affect all countries of the world was the second important note in the article. The new strains of diseases would also be defining the future of the world in terms of conflicts and agreements, and in terms of health of the future population of the world.
The third note was made on the need for eductating the world. The call for educating the entire world made better sense at this juncture as lack of education has led to strife and turmoil in various parts of the world. The color revolutions in the Balcans took place on the premise of need for more jobs and freedom, both being a proxy to eduction in one way or the other. The strife in Latin America that has led to the installing of Left of center governments, the madrasas of Pakistan and P.O.K, and the growing Islamitization of former Soviet Blocks are all cases in point.

To sum it up. It has been a great 30 plus days of reading. Hope to share with you all more and more on the books and articles that I read.

posted by Akhilesh @ 12:34 AM