In this age of creeping fascism through the rise of right-wing populism and personality cults across the globe, a growing intolerance for any difference — intellectual or physical — and dehumanisation of the ‘other’ through systematic lies and shameless deception leading to violence, it is good to have a few friends who can look beyond all that is happening around us and who remain calm and composed.

It’s even better if some of them suffer from an incorrigible bibliophilia, keep introducing you to old and new books and then quietly convince you to seek knowledge from both the present and the times gone by in order to keep the hope alive in these testing times. I am really happy to have some friends like that around me but the five, all younger than me, who have introduced me to amazing books over the years should be acknowledged. They include Irfan Ahmad Khan, Jim Roth, Divya Singh Kohli, Faisal Buzdar and Mehmood-ul-Hasan.

A few days ago, Hasan brought me another book I was trying to find for some time. It is a translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Dr Khalifah Abdul Hakim, done decades ago. As many of us know, the Bhagavad Gita is considered a divine text in the Hindu faith and a highly regarded religious classic across diverse cultures in the world. It is said to have been written 2,000 years ago.

In the form of a versified dialogue on a battlefield, it deals with the dilemmas of existence, if and when a war can be justified, what is the........

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