This book is a personal story, a collection of snippets and anecdotes from Shaukat Hassan’s fifty plus years of eventful journey through life. The author shares many delightful incidences, the scary moments that spelt danger, and his occasional brush with death. His development work spanned six continents over a period of forty years, often placing him in the midst of crisis situations that frequently led him to question his faith in man’s capacity to govern justly. He was numbed by the death and destruction he witnessed firsthand during the Tamil-Singhalese conflict. He found himself sympathizing and working with the citizens and activists of Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution. And he spent five years in fear of whether he would be among the next victims of Taliban bombing in Afghanistan as he worked with the Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani governments to improve the governance of that country.
The book narrates the author’s work and experiences under challenging circumstances and often in hazardous environments — whether in Sri Lanka or Ukraine or Palestine or Afghanistan – with simplicity and elegance. This book provides valuable lessons learned from interactions with different governments, militaries, academics, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, media and citizens’ groups across the world. It is also a study of trying to balance conflicting interests of donor agencies and the communities they professed to serve. It reveals many real life challenges associated with vast differences in cultural perceptions and practices, and with differing definitions of concepts such as ethics, morality, honesty and truth. The author acknowledges the countless men and women from all walks of life who enriched his life in small and large measures.
The book is also a story of visits to many historical, cultural, and religious sites, and of learning about man’s imprint on earth’s history at large, and of his contribution to humanity in particular. The book represents a professional and personal odyssey across the world that will delight the reader.
