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Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is an interesting read. It provides a different interpretation on the reasons for success and emphasises the fact of how wrong the adage “self made man/woman” is. Gladwell argues that success is never overnight but is deeply dependent on several factors from culture, society, education, and even the year of birth and then the preceding hard and dedicated work of some 10,000 hours required to achieve mastery. Then and only then having …

The Book of Joy is a life changing book. Do you believe in serendipity? I certainly do after picking up this book. It was like the universe was aligning just at the right time, and presenting me with this book because I needed its teachings most. This book was bought by my lovely wife while we were on a recent trip to Nepal. From a Tibetan bookshop too! At a time when more things were going …

In Bahrain, the citizen seems to be the unquenchable fount of money. Funds which most here are in desperate need of, are dragged out of our pockets by unremitting fines, fees and other government charges and levies.http://mahmood.tv/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/warning-notices-for-small-front-gardens.mp4Last month, the Traffic Dept had its fun by sending us speeding fines that were more than a year old! Proving that what they’re interested in is the meagre contents of our pockets rathe than serve as a …

On 21st March the TSA and Homeland Security are expected to announce their banning of electronic devices larger than a mobile phone on some flights to and from the USA. This ban will be in effect on certain airlines and countries. There appears to be ten airports from eight Muslim countries affected, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan and Egypt. On first read, I feel that this is a funny joke of the day. Yet another brainfart …

My son Arif’s Christmas gift to me was the book “Reel Bad Arabs, how Hollywood vilifies a people” by Jack Shaheen (it was made into a film as well – vimeo). It is a fascinating reference which took the author more than two decades to compile. In it, he reviewed over 1,000 Hollywood films which have denigrated Arabs, our culture and traditions, religion and way of life. The films reviewed were from the start of the …