Caravan of Light

Imagine yourself surrounded by an enchanting daybreak in the valley of Kashmir where the mantra of the Brahmans spreads the aura of Love and Harmony. You are Welcomed to a world where you explore the Secrets of Nature embedded in the Life-story of Iqbal as narrated by a pen which has the power to relive the Story as if developments are taking place all around you. Yes, I m talking about Khurram Ali Shafique’s   Biography of Iqbal Part 1 “Ibtadai-Daur (till 1904)” . Before embarking onto an enthralling Voyage, the Contents page declares that there are nine stations or stages to be covered before the reader finds itself arriving towards the end of the First out of a Total of Six Parts of a captivating experience. And as indicated in the Preface every ‘station’ holds a hidden message ready to get revealed as the journey of the reader proceeds. The flow of Time takes a backward turn and the story begins from the time when the early ancestors of Iqbal would greet a newborn Day with hy...

Studying Centripetal force and Circular motion in Physics class we started discussing the everyday importance of the phenomenon. As I could not come up with a unique and interesting example from everyday life that could fit in, the lecture started boring me, and the only escape I could find was looking out of the window of class-room. The scene was perfect, a cloudy sky with grassy play-ground in view. But what were some little girls doing on the other side of the ground? I wondered. Oh, they were playing Kikli. A traditional game which is deeply rooted in the culture of Punjab, Kikli, involves mostly two or an even number of young girls, in which girls of each pair stands facing each other, holding each others hands with their arms crossed and the toes of their feet touching one another in the center. The girls then stretch their arms as much as possible, bend their backs and start whirling around, singing songs. The girls must keep their balance as they spin, and if anyone of them ...