Author Rashid Iqbal Khan Featured In Online Interview at BooksAndAuthors.net

Born in Delhi (India) Rashid Iqbal Khan, a medical doctor had his education in Pakistan and the United States. He holds a master's degree in medical management in addition to his medical qualifications. He currently works for NGOs in Pakistan. He was awarded the Star of Distinction (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) by the President of Pakistan in 1998. He lives with his wife and four children and grandchildren in Karachi. "Alina of Azimabad" is his first novel.

(PRWEB) April 10, 2005 -- BooksAndAuthors.net: Where did you grow up and were reading and writing always a part of your life?

Dr. Rashid Iqbal Khan: I grew up in Quetta, a city in the Baluchistan Province of Pakistan, where I studied at two premier Institutions, the St. Josephs Convent School upto Standard 5 and the St. Francis Grammar School upto Cambridge classes. At an early age, reading literature became part of my life. I read Shakespeare, Walter Scott, RL Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, the Bronte Sisters....actually whatever I could lay my hands on. American literature was not that accessible except for Hemmingway, Steinbeck and Pearl S. Buck. We did not have the works of US authors in the school library in those days.

I started writing early and was the editor of the English Section of the college magazine. My poems were published in the only English weekly of Baluchistan - "The Quetta Times."

BooksAndAuthors.net: Who and what has been your biggest influences and why?

Dr. Rashid Iqbal Khan: My school teachers Sister Philomina an Sister Columba (both Irish nuns) were instrumental in inculcating the habit of reading and writing at an early age but it was my father who really encouraged me by buying me English fiction in remote Quetta and asking me to write reviews after reading them.

BooksAndAuthors.net: "Alina of Azimabad". Tell us about this piece of work.

Dr. Rashid Iqbal Khan: "Alina of Azimzbad" is a novel depicting problems faced by women in South Asia -- domestic violence and trials and tribulations of daughters-in-law at the hands of mothers-in-law. The work is based on the life and times of Alina, the daughter of an Anglo-Indian Catholic mother and Moslem father. The story begins in the aftermath of the partition of India; Alina gets entangled in the ugly world of feudalism and her serene life changes to tragedy and pain. Battered by her feudal lord, her endless woes drive her to desperation and she connives to kill her tormenter. Her "over the top" actions and emotional feelings have been highlighted in the work. The plotline moves forward throughout the script and readers learn about gender issues of South Asia in a vivid manner. Alina eventually gains her freedom and gets reunited with her first husband and son and moves over the United States. The problems of gun-running, kidnapping for ransom, house breaking and feudal vices have been effectively reflected.

The novel is the first of its kind and is likely to attract readership among the South-Asian diaspora in the west and among women fiction enthusiasts in the United States. It is a diverse genre, feudal drama, erotic thriller and family saga all in one. It is likely to pique the interest of women readers the world over.

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