September 12, 2004 Welcome to a generous selection of articles from DAWN's Weekly Books & Authors. This page is updated every Sunday. For current issue Click here The opposition’s role LET us talk of another key ingredient of democracy: the role of the opposition. A viable, vocal opposition ensures that democracy is at work. It checks the lapsing of the majority party or coalition into taking action which does not carry the nation with it.... EXCERPTS: Choices, decisions and trials ONE August afternoon of 1912 with the Delhi sky overcast with monsoon clouds and tired kites flying around in the steamy air, Ghulam Rasool sat on the brick floor, at his mother’s feet. “Ammi, through your prayers and Allah’s blessings I managed to pass the matriculation. Now I have to make a very important decision... ARTICLE: Journey of life RAFIQ SANDEELVI Born in 1961, Rafiq Sandeelvi has a masters in Urdu and is associated with teaching. He is also working on his dissertation for a doctorate. He started writing poetry in 1980 and his collections are Sabz Aankhon mein Teer (1986), Gurz (1986) and Eik Raat ka Zehr (1988). Besides other publications he has also... ARTICLE: In pursuit of ambition “I HAVE a lot of respect for books because they really are the primary reason for the civilization of the human society,” says Afreen Siddiqi. “And from the ahadith we find that the first thing Allah created was the pen. He told it to write and then the Loh-i-Mehfooz was written. This divine aspect to writing fascinates me.”.... ARTICLE: Globalizing dissent: A talk by Arundhati Roy THE renowned author and political activist Arundhati Roy was recently in Seattle as part of her US lecture tour. As a city which has become known for its political activism with... ARTICLE: Not like their parents IN the review of her book, No Logo, I described Naomi Klein as belonging to “Generation X”. Since some people asked me the meaning of the term “Generation X”, I felt... AUTHOR: As wide as the sky THE Burmese poet Minthuwun (actual name U Wun) was one of the leading poets of Burma of the 20th century. Indeed this writer feels privileged to have read a photocopy of... REVIEW: Using arts for politics MOST of us must have seen that two-volume definitive biography of Hitler by Ian Kershaw on the shelves of local bookstalls, and many must have studied it. It is a splendid... REVIEW: Meetings in Casa Mira “ANURADHA Majumdar creates a gentle creative search for a personal spirituality: the whole narrative is remarkable in intensity.” These comments of The Telegraph are incontrovertible, as the intensity of expression seems... REVIEW: Not a place of arrival THE world of Islam is facing a very uncertain future. As Muslims we are experiencing an assault by the western powers in the so-called fight against terrorism with Afghanistan and Iraq... REVIEW: Rendezvous of the eccentric kind WHILE not equalling Clinton’s great stack of notebooks for his memoirs, Orizio was nonetheless stuffing newspaper clippings into bulging folders for years before fleeing from the boredom and frustration of his... REVIEW: How Pakistan was born SYED Nesar Ahmad’s book Origins of Muslim Consciousness in India is based on his doctoral thesis and was published posthumously by his wife. Its relevance has been revived as new events... REVIEW: Rational or rationalizing? KNOWN best for her Prozac Diary, Lauren Slater has always made her mind her subject and come at it from all angles. The thing that has sustained her slightly mad and... REVIEW: America on the warpath THE many books that have appeared on the American war on Islamist terrorism (including the report of the 9/11 Commission) have tended to focus on the administrative and intelligence failures and... In brief IN the somewhat competitive relationship that the two countries are caught in, Pakistanis are always curious about what Indians ‘think’ of them and their country. They will be immensely pleased by the impressions formed by Maneesha Tikekar, an Indian research scholar, who spent five months in Pakistan. Across the Wagah is a sincere attempt to understand Pakistan... REVIEW: Nothing like it IN the words of Iqbal, it takes thousands of years for a soul of true substance to grace the world with his presence. The element of poetic overstatement apart, it indeed...

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