I have titled this work Afghanistan, <b>My Ancestral Home</b>. If you get the idea that it deals with history and geography of the country where I was born and where I grew up, you may not find either in its pages the way you have read a history book or a... menu_book

I was about eight years old when I saw my mother's uncle for the first time. He had come to Kabul some days before and was then visiting us. He lived in our ancestral village of Kandibagh in the Chaparhar region of the... menu_book

We had just moved to Nawabad, a section of Kabul with relatively newer homes. It was at the northern foothills of the Asmayee, a mountain which sat in the heart of the city from east to west. About six thousand feet high, it was highly favored by the ci... menu_book

My parents were very pleased with the move to Naw Abad-e Deh Afghanan as it represented living in their own home in Kabul. I remember the house very well. It was quite spacious. You entered it from an alley leading up to some other homes along the nort... menu_book

I was fond of the outdoors and experienced both pleasant and painful situations. Mostly, however, they were enjoyable experiences.... menu_book

Grandmother had a distant relative who had been married many years before to a nomad chieftain. This relative had lost both her parents in infancy. Someone in the family had given her away to the barren wife of a Dowlazi (Dowlatzai) semi-nomadic tribesm... menu_book

From time to time, Uncle, a friend of the family, whose office was close to my school, condescended to let me ride his buggy with him. I sought this ride only when I knew I would be late for school or when the weather was inclement. I usually walked to ... menu_book

I was inducted into the Boy Scout Organization when I was in the second elementary grade. The school issued me and some of my classmates the entire outfit. We had drills for a month or so and then we participated with other boy scouts in the Students' A... menu_book

By the time I was seventeen, my mother had given birth to five children. My sister was three years younger than I. After her, came three brothers, the first two, each three years apart and the last, seven years later. But my grandmother had a voracious ... menu_book

Afghan historians have dealt, rather superficially with the events that shaped the country and the nation early in the 20th century. The ten-year reign of King Amanullah (l9l9-l929) has not received the kind of favorable mention that it rightfully deser... menu_book

I do not remember the place of my birth for my parents left it when I was still an infant. I was told that the family had been allotted two rooms in a big house that belonged to my father's uncle. My grandmother and her younger son, who was seventeen or... menu_book

For a good number of years Kabul had a Literary Society. In fact, some prominent employees of the Royal Afghan Government Department of Press and Information were also members of the Literary Society. The Society's beautiful monthly magazine, Kabul, al... menu_book

Once again I found myself in a class with several of my former classmates. One was my most recent classmate, the second of my two cousins. Three others were my earlier classmates who had stayed behind for another year in the l0th grade of high school. T... menu_book

I was escorted by the Director General of Publications to the Anees establishment and introduced appropriately as the new Editor-in-Chief of the paper. The staff, already aware of my appointment, greeted me warmly. They led me to my office, congratulate... menu_book

One morning there came a telegram for me from Kabul informing me that in a reshuffle of personnel in the Department, I was elevated to the position of Vice President the Department of Press and Information and had, therefore, to get ready to return home... menu_book

My appointment to the Cabinet as President of the Independent Department of Tribal Affairs (IDTA) came as a complete surprise to me. I had every reason to believe that, when my boss was appointed to form the new government, he would choose me as his Mi... menu_book

The years 1960 � 1970 came to pass under circumstances not foreseen by the general public. Not that the Afghans did not feel the need for some new developments, some change toward further improvement. The nation had long ago accepted the snail�s pace o... menu_book