Author: Yawar Baig

  • Yala, Leopard Paradise

    Yala, Leopard Paradise

    He had killed the buffalo late the previous night. The dark was his friend. Thanks to the reflectors in his eyes, he could see as clearly in starlight as we can see in bright daylight. If he could have read a book, he would have, reclining on a massive tree branch overhanging a pathway. As…

  • Give them memories

    Who is your Role Model? Think of someone you know or knew personally, not a public figure. For how many of you is that a parent or a teacher? If I asked your children the same question, what do you think they would say? Who would they be thinking of you? How do you know?…

  • Two mysteries – Teaching and Parenting

    Two mysteries – Teaching and Parenting

    Our present methods of teaching which are inflicted on by far the vast majority of children the world over are the single biggest cause for killing the imagination that every child is born with and making them into square blocks which fit our own frightened, constrained and slavish worldview. Those who comply we ‘pass’ and…

  • Wah! Taj

    Wah! Taj

    Chacha, did you hear what I said? What did you say Sangeet Som beta? I said that Shah Jahan was a traitor and an enemy of Hindus who wanted to wipe them out and that the Taj Mahal is a blot on Indian culture. Shabaash! Kya baat hai! Teri tho jai ho! But tell me,…

  • Where are we headed?

    Where are we headed?

    You may have seen the famous documentary, Four Horsemen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU In this film is this quote: When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.      ~…

  • Why did Hyderabad die?

    Why did Hyderabad die?

    The Hyderabad Public School where I studied. A symbol of the Nizam of Hyderabad This is not a history but an attempt to understand what probably happened in those last years that led to the demise of Hyderabad as an independent country and its annexation by the newly independent India. It is speculation; perhaps informed…

  • Simple pleasures – Lifelong memories

    Simple pleasures – Lifelong memories

    Uncle Rama at his desk – River Kadam in full flow Time, late 60’s to middle 70’s. I used to spend all my school vacations and later, whatever time I had free from college with Uncle Rama in Sethpalli. Sethpalli is a small village about two kilometers from the bank of the Kadam River, with…

  • My Thoughts

    My Thoughts

    My deepest fear is that I will simply die one day Crying for what might have been The earth will be free of carrying my burden And there will be no trace of my passing What use such a life? That one lives and one dies Yet there is nothing to show that either happened!…

  • Which way to go?

    Which way to go?

    There is a beautiful teaching story from Korea of a Zen master and his disciple. The master took him to the bank of a stream that flowed between rocks. There he made a small paper boat and floated it on the water. He told his disciple to follow the boat and report back to him…

  • Give a dog a bad name…

    Give a dog a bad name…

    I want to begin with a brief thumbnail view of global geopolitics since the collapse of the Soviet Union under President Gorbachev. This was an event that was widely applauded and rejoiced, including by Muslims worldwide. Little did they realize what it would lead to. For a military state, an economy based on war, an…