Across Three Continents

Dr. Ehtisham’s chronicle of the events he witnessed and became part of, in his life lived on three continents, is not a roller-coaster ride. It is however, a fast-paced train journey that takes the reader from the villages of northern India, all the way to upstate New York. The peek out of the window on to Ehtisham’s canvas, arouses a curiosity to read and discover more about the tumultuous and epoch-making happenings narrated by this orthopedic surgeon who is not shy to hide the indelible Marxist imprint, received in his formative years in Karachi, from reflecting in his approach to issues such as the collapse of housing market in the USA.

The book is a journey through four different civilizations and an analysis of three political economic systems. It is an engrossing story of the ancient civilization of India, forced to live side by side with a Turko-Persian and Arab Muslim civilization, and then reborn by way of vivisection as two modern nation-states. Ehtisham introduces his readers to the minimalistic culture of Indian village life mixed with the complexities involved, in the followers of two religions living live side by side. He takes us from the days of relative communal harmony and acceptance of diversity in the united India, through the British colonial policy of divide et impera to the culmination of religious fundamentalist indoctrination on September 11, 2001.

In providing the audience with a superb distillation of his lifetime’s learning, Ehtisham evaluates the post-1947 nation-states struggling for their political, cultural and economic identity. As a doctor he makes acute observations about the impact of economic system of a country on its healthcare system and whether healthcare is a social service or a commodity.

In a fast-paced style typical of the person Ehtisham talking to his disciples and colleagues, the author Ehtisham also keeps the readers trotting along through the pages packed with information, which a discerning eye might also find in the very informative footnotes. The book is a beginners’ guide to the Indo-Pakistani history, politics, religions and economics.

After following the author on his journeys through three continents, it is hard not to think of this verse by the poet-philosopher Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil:

هر کجا رفتم غبار زندگی در پیش بود یا رب این خاک پریشان از کجا برداشتم

* Dr. Mohammad Taqi