The Shade of Swords is a book by M.J Akbar, well known journalist, founder of The Asian Age newspaper and editorial director at the India Today. The book is a perspective on world history with particular focus on Muslims. M.J Akbar takes varying stances ranging from neutral to a Muslim point of view. The book starts from the history of Islam as it came into existence and traces its growth as it spreads to other regions of the world. The misconception that Islam was spread by the sword is exposed as during the time, all kingdoms used to be closely linked to the religion they practised and advocated it. So, Islam cannot be singled out for such aggression. The book states at numerous places how kings of other religions used power to convert the masses.
One of the highlights of the book is the coverage of the Crusades in great detail and from a largely neutral perspective. It illustrates the political situation in Europe and the Middle East lucidly. M.J Akbar details the shortcomings of the Caliph and Caliphate. After the Mongols plundered and looted Baghdad, and finally settled there, Hulagu Khan, the Mongol emperor asks the Ulema (religious leaders):
“Which man is better as a sovereign? An unbeliever who is just or a Muslim who is unjust?”.
Radiuddin Ali the sage of the times replied:
“The unbeliever who is just should be preferred to the unjust believer”.
As the chapters progress, the author talks about undivided India and the mistakes of Jinnah. In one of the chapters he states that
“The only Muslims in the world to enjoy sustained democratic liberty are not those in Pakistan but those who remained in India”.
The book concludes by providing a background on Iraq, Iran and Saddam Hussein. It is surprising to know that Ayatollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader of the Iranian uprising of 1979 and later the country’s head had an Indian link; his grandfather being from India. The last chapter is fairly long and has a lot of subsections. For a person who is not very keen on the Iraq-Iran politics, it feels a bit of a drag. Other than this, the book is fast paced and depicts the immense research the author has done in order to present the complete picture. The book is an interesting read and recommended to those interested in Muslim history and politics.
Semmozhi Park is a new park located opposite the US Consulate in Cathedral Road, Chennai. The Woodlands Drive-In restaurant used to be located there. I visited the park today with family to spend the evening.
Since I went on a weekday, parking was easy with plenty of spaces available. The parking charges are a nominal Rs.10 for the car. The entrance fees are nominal too at Rs.5 per adult. The park has quite a few fountains and they look nice.
There is a large play area for kids with swings, merry go round and slides.
There is plenty of space to walk around with nicely paved walkways.
The small lawns on the sides of the walkways are well-maintained and walking on them is prohibited. There is also a mini pond with swans in them. There are also plenty of benches available to sit and while away time.
The fountains are lit up with colourful lights after sunset and look good. Adding a musical fountain might attract more people.
Although, the park is a nice and quiet place it does become noisy with the traffic noises as soon as rush hour begins. Though it is nowhere near being a tourist attraction, it is a nice and inexpensive place to relax and spend time with your family.
Apologies for the poor photos, they were taken with an aging Nokia E51’s camera.
I have been having DNS issues with my net connection for the past few days. The DSL technician said that there was nothing wrong with the modem/line and hinted that it could be with an issue with the router. I did a few checks and decided to change the router, and went to Reliance Digital on Mount Road to get one. Before I purchased the router, I discussed the problem I was facing with a salesman there. He heard me patiently and asked me to recheck the LAN wiring/cable again and if needed contact the tech support of the router I had. He mentioned that just replacing the old router with a new one might not solve the problem. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a salesman advising not to buy a product, especially in these days of hard selling. Though I did not buy anything at Reliance Digital today, if I need a gadget or an electronic accessory, I would definitely go there first.
I traveled on Jet Airways from New York City to Chennai this week, here are my thoughts from the trip.
I was curious to see how Jet Airways fared as an international airline and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did quite well. I liked the relatively new aircraft - Airbus A330 with monitors on all seats for flight entertainment (unlike a few airlines that have monitors only in the EU-US leg) . There was a decent collection of Hollywood movies and an elaborate collection of Desi movies. The music collection was amazing - it included old Talat Mahmood songs and a recap of Geet Mala.
It was nice to see Indian pilots captaining the flights. Captain Rahul Nagar, the pilot for the NYC-MAA flight made one of the smoothest landings that I’ve experienced at the Chennai airport.
What I most hated about the flight was the food, which was rather bland. I had opted for vegetarian and found that both the dinner and lunch had almost the same menu - Dal, Rice and Paneer/Palak served with a Roti, salad and yoghurt. Being an Indian airline, I expected better fare both in terms of taste and variety.
The other thing that Jet Airways could improve upon is the 3+ hours stopover at Brussels. For a technical stop on a NYC-MAA flight, a maximum wait of 2 hours is acceptable.
But overall, I had a good experience and would definitely recommend the airline.
What I liked: Relatively new aircraft, music selection, Indian pilots
Did not like: Horrible food, 3+ hours wait at Brussels
Eid wishes to all friends. Hope the fasts went well, hope you gained faith and lost weight :)
This earlier post of mine talks about how Eid is typically celebrated amongst our community.
Photo courtesy: Giorgio Montersino
Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia is a travelogue interspersed with history. The author has covered almost the entire region surrounding the Indus including dangerous expanses in Afghanistan and surrounding areas. As the author travels across the country she provides relevant facts and events from history in order to form a complete picture. In a chapter on Sindh, she informs us that even in the past when an empire wanted to colonialize the other, they used excuses such as calling the other empire’s rulers tyrants and that they would free the common citizens, to gain public support for their efforts.
Most of the chapters in the book cover regions in Pakistan as the Indus primarily runs through that country. Indian Punjab, Kashmir and Ladakh are also briefly touched upon before the author finally forays into Tibet in search of the source of the Indus. The author has covered the country side much better than the urban areas and one gets a good picture reading her descriptions. The narration is easy to understand but the author could have avoided use of a few obscene words and graphic details. A few photographs have also been provided to supplement the narration. At times though, the reader yearns for more pictures of the regions described.
On the cultural nuances, Alice Albinia is no William Dalrymple and at many times does not take kindly to regional practices, silently remonstrating against them, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Overall, the book is a good travelogue and serves to help the reader get more than a glimpse of the life around the Indus river, including the dangerous and many hitherto sparsely travelled regions.
