Absolute Intention

About the Book

Absolute Intention aims at deciphering precious personal experiences and memories with a view to sharing it with my readers. I seek to cherish and rekindle the fondest memories of my life. It is a poetic odyssey of feelings and emotions, describing the tree of life and its branches depicting the myriads of emotions, experienced by human beings on a daily basis, pertaining to joy and sorrow, hope and despair, trial and tribulations combined with optimism, enthusiasm, and energy. It spirals around Eastern and Western thoughts and ideas—a kind of blend distilled in its simplest form without compromising its true colors and spicy aroma. The book deals with thirty-one topics, each with background narration and several poems to complement the subject matter. I have had the immense joy and privilege of living in India, Pakistan, and the United States. These unusual geographical situations indeed gave me the added advantage to live through these three wonderful cultures and in the process, learn the best I could from each one of them. The book is my live-in experience of these cultures and subsequent picks of the crop from three varied great cultures and scenarios in which sense it makes this book conspicuously different from the rest of its kind. I have compiled my own life experiences by ushering what I have learned over the years. I would like to reflect on the knowledge and experiences gathered from my people emanating from all walks of life—to begin with, from my grandmother, parents, friends, and scholars. In all humility, I would not attribute myself as a writer but rather a person who unscrambles a complex jigsaw puzzle of vast array of knowledge at my disposal from endless resources. Arabic word in Quran taffakur means the study of nature and our surroundings. The second word taskbur is, the mastery of nature through research, education, and technology. Great emphasis is given on the word Iqra which means read. Reading and understanding are the keys to attaining vast knowledge. The position of our beloved Mother Earth is one among the billions of stars afloat like equating the position of one person to the whole vastness of this earth. The salient topics that proved so very significant and beneficial in my life are as follows: 1. Irrevocable faith in Almighty God: The omniscient, the omnipotent, the supreme sustainer, benefactor of all creatures, big and small. 2. Love and forgiveness: God is love and infinite love; he loves us beyond our imagination and comprehension. Forgiveness is God’s virtue and the biggest gift, from human perspective. 3. Honesty: Tell the truth, nothing but truth. Utterance of one lie warrants hundreds more to substantiate. 4. Education and knowledge: Its acquisition overcomes fear and superstitions, a never-ending exercise in all spheres of human life for our constant betterment. 5. Building on character and strengths, recognizing our weaknesses, and taking measures to overcome the flaws that impede our growth and progress. 6. Prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best. Make the best of a bad situation with grit and resolve. 7. Desire: This is a bottomless pit impossible to fathom. 8. Concept of worship: If God merely wanted the humans to pray, then he would have just created angels who are solely entrusted and dedicated to obey and pray to God, while human beings, on the other hand, have to fulfill their destiny by tackling hunger and emotions and keep making efforts to bring about positive changes in their lives. To be a decent human being, one has to prove with actions to be a good mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife, son, daughter, and neighbor. If people meet all these obligations and yet find time to pray, then that person has to be in God’s grace and his protection and would be rewarded accordingly.

About the Author

I was born in the South Indian city of Hyderabad, India, on March 17, 1947, raised and educated in Pakistan. I am now residing in the United States of America as its proud and patriotic citizen. This versatile cultural heterogeneity has endowed me with the richness of inspiration that culminated in writing this book and all the poems. My pursuit to creativity has been ably supported and complimented by my beloved spouse of thirty-six years, Elizabeth (Betsy) Snyder, having tied the knot on December 16, 1972. As to my educational background, I have a master’s degree in microbiology. My scientific background has naturally grafted in me a discipline of research and analysis of facts from fiction.