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Silence is culpable
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ~ George Orwell India has changed. I hate to say it, but that is the truth. It is no longer the nation I grew up in. The question is, ‘Do we want to continue to…
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Urdu? What did I do?
A language, any language, is not simply sounds and script characters which represent thoughts. A language is the soul of the people. It is the vehicle which connects their past to their present, their present to their dreams. It is the means by which one generation leaves its legacy for the next. In my view…
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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…
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Negative or positive, the choice is ours
Negative people look for things to complain about and find them. Positive people look for things to be grateful for and find them. Make your choice I’m sure you’ve heard this before that every day we wake up, we have a choice. We can choose to see the day as positive or negative. And guess…
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When the voiceless get a voice
If there’s one overwhelming sign that numbers mean nothing and organization means everything, it is the plight of Dalits and Muslims in India. Dalits and Muslims are officially 17% and 13% of the population. That means that together one in three Indians is a ‘Dalim’ – Dalit Indian Muslim (my coinage today – in case…
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Interpreting Reality
Where and how do I begin? To speak from the heart, yet not reveal the grief, confusion and anxiety that it is filled with. Grief at the rapidly deteriorating situation all over the world where human life seems to have lost all value. Confusion as to why this sudden (or is it sudden at all?)…
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Where do you stand?
http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/hatem-bazian/2015/08/17/books-and-reading-in-the-muslim-world-a-serious-crisis A friend sent me the article above underlining perhaps one of the most pernicious diseases of the Muslim world – a lack of concern for knowledge. Reading it I thought I would share some reflections. In my world of leadership training and development, in the institutions where I studied and teach, we have some…