The Doctor from the East

Book excerpt: Good writings defy time and immediate surroundings to sustain their appeal. The entrancing aura of a well-knit article or story is lasting. Surely, Hardy's rustic Tess or Jude couldn't be out of sync in the year 2020 for technology savvy readers obsessed with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and accompanying high-tech spinoffs. Without being extravagant with words, one may say the same is true of Dr. Asif Javed's writings. Insightful and instructive, they are studded with revealing facts that are well documented to testify to the innate truth. The gifted writer tells us of the life and time of the Bronte Sisters, Ibn Batuta, Leo Tolstoy, Rudyard Kipling, Nawab of Kalabagh, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto et al. In more ways than one, the articles remind the reader of Dale Carnegie's 'Little Known Facts about Well-Known People'. Today, he is one of the most fluent and readable purveyors of the English language in the Pakistani American community. His writings have ranged from Punjab politics to port-partition Indian cinema, to English literature, to the Tsarist wars in Dagestan. All the time, he manages to convey, seemingly dense subjects in a seamless flowing style, making his writings a treat to read.