KIRKUS REVIEW
Though less probing into the nature of mixed cultural and patriotic allegiances than one would expect from the title, this detailed and sensitive autobiography of a Pakistani is a genuine and frank account whose frequent sentimentality is mitigated by the author's straightforward and sincere self-projection. Of admirable linguistic control and facility, the style is originally descriptive and uninhibitedly emotional. The profound and lasting influence of family and creed is constantly and consciously apparent in the life of this son of the middle-class who made a name and a place for himself as a military doctor. With a liberal, but charming dose of anecdote and reminiscence, his varied experiences range from student life in England, European travel, pioneering undertakings as head of a medical regiment in Persia during WWII, visits with the Sultan of Muscat with the possibility of becoming his premier, to his activities during the death throes of the British Empire in India, the struggles attendant upon the partitioning of India, an assignment in the Far East, and a mountain-climbing expedition which proves to be a hazardous and cataclysmic undertaking. Humane, personal, and abounding in momentous, as well as intimately significant events, this unaffected book is at once of general interest and peripheral knowledge.