Afrah Jamal

First Published in Daily Times / (Pakistan) / 1 June 2013 Reproduced in The Kashmir Moniter Fans who have kept up with Robert Langdon, our favorite symbologist/iconologist on quests that take him to the Vatican, Paris or Washington, will willingly join the professor jogging through the picturesque streets of Florence. Even when he claims to have a sad case of amnesia, no way of telling the time (his signature time piece lost), and a wily assassin on his tail, he is a force of nature. It is a part he was born to play. And in Dan Brown’s murky universe, it is one he reprises at the first sign of an anagram. The author uses the sorry state of mankind as a launch pad to project his ominous design, decrypt a Renaissance painting and set a controversial debate in motion. His novel provides delicious historical context as it plumbs the depths of Dante’s tortured soul and his savage interpretation of hell, helpfully illustrated by Botticelli ( and available for viewing on iPad’s Da...

Published in Daily Times / 09 March 2013 under the title MISSION I(A)MPOSSIBLE Author(s) : Lorenza Raponi and Michele Zanzucchi Translated from Italian by Lorraine Buckle Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Described as an ‘ agent of change ’ and a shining example of ‘ humanitarian Islam ’ by one author and hailed as a modern day ‘St. Francis of Assisi’ by another - the simply dressed old gentleman who sits unobtrusively in the front row is merely on a stop-over before he runs off again to save some lives. Many present at the launch of ‘Half of Two Paisas - The Extraordinary Mission of Abdul Sattar Edhi And Bilquis Edhi’ - co-authored by Lorenza Raponi and Michele Zanzucchi, are already part of the ‘Edhi’ admiration society. Lorenza and Michele met ‘The Edhis' during a trip to Pakistan in 2005. The philanthropist on the frontline of poverty who founded the Edhi Foundation and charmed the visiting Italians has been playing the part of the savior for over six decades. Ms. Raponi ...

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert /Reviewed for Liberty Books Blog by: Afrah Jamal Link to Liberty books Blog: EAT PRAY LOVE: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia A magazine assignment took a 30 something woman from NY to Bali where a ninth generation medicine man prophesied her return. She keeps her appointment because he said she would but also makes fresh plans; putting her old life on hold, signing up for an extreme religious experience in India and enrolling in language courses in Italy – because she realized she should. ‘Exhausted by the cumulative consequences of a lifetime of hasty choices and chaotic passions’, Elizabeth Gilbert will leave the ruins of her former life (nasty break-up & all) and head out into the wilderness for some very unusual R&R. Her spirits demand an instant pick me up and a dramatic makeover. This voyage of self discovery requires that she take a year off, trading in the comforts of home for the comforts of Europe ...