Book Launch: “Thinkers, Dreamers and Doers” by Dr. Arif Azad
This is a fascinating collection of essays in which Dr. Arif Azad covers a dazzling range of subjects. These include the works of authors as diverse as VS Naipaul, V Herbert, William Shakespeare, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and Leo Tolstoy. He offers astute readings of cultural texts from the American TV series Mad Men to the avant-garde cinema of Jean-Luc Godard. Politics makes its appearance from challenges for the left in Pakistan to the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain. Historical events from the Russian Revolution to between the covers of this book, we travel with the author across continents and cities. In lucid and honest prose, Azad offers pithy glimpses into the lives of numerous compelling figures: Bernie Sanders, Philip Roth and Joan Didion in the West, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Noor Jehan and Dr Lal Khan in Pakistan, to name but a few. The author also gives us glimpses of his own life as he reflects on people, places, politics and culture across time and space, knitting together rich insights and diverse experiences into a large patchwork quilt of readable stories that draw and hold our attention.
The book launch session will be moderated by Khayam Mushir, whereas Hamza Hassan will be there as a discussant. The book has been published by Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue (IRD).
“This is the kind of book that will make you want to read more.”
(Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes)
About the Author:
Dr. Arif Azad is a medical doctor with masters in both public policy and public health from the UK and Sweden. He holds diploma in urban managemnent and participatory democracy from the Netherlands as well as certificate in tobacco control from John Hopkins University USA. Azad has been a long-time member of the British Labour Party. He was also an active member of the writers’ organisation, the English PEN between 2001 – 2007.