Podcasts - best heard on the car radio but really anywhere
Modern Love - A Kiss Deferred, He's Going Back to His Former Wife and so many other really good ones
American Life - Heard some really funny podcasts over the holidays about Christmas, etc
Teacher's Pet - a gripping story from down under .. Australia .. somewhat similar to Serial
To Live and Die in LA - another whodunit
Dr. Death - your faith in surgeons will be shaken to the core
Serial - It all started with Serial which I still think is the best of them all!
Movies - You just must watch
Separation, Past .. by same Persian director - Separation was best foreign film one year
The Party - Peter Sellers is a bungling Indian Actor at a Hollywood Party
Its a Mad Mad Mad World
Mr Rogers Neighborhood
On Golden Pond
Chariots of Fire
Wild
Do Sitarey Zamin Per
The Wave
Love Story
2001 Space Odyssey
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Saving Private Ryan
Forrest Gump
ET
Matrix
Star Wars
Jaws
Night of our Souls
French Connection
Bourne Identity series of movies
Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons ...
Sholay
Bicycle thieves
Cinema Paradiso
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dangal
Godfather
Lagaan
Casablanca
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Gone With the Wind
A Few Good Men
Hell or Highwater
Shaurya (the story is taken from A Few Good Men but still does a great job in the context of India's brutal suppression of Kashmiries
TV Series (need to work on this one)
Seinfeld
13 Reasons Why
Stories by Rabindranath Tagore on Netflix
Manto TV Series and Manto Film
Ankahi
Virgin River
Delhi Crime
Friends
Breaking Bad
Big Bang Theory
Everyone Loves Raymond
The Walking Dead
Books - Currently Reading or Recently Read
Sapiens by Yuval Hariri - an anthropological history that challenges the traditional conceptions and makes you think and read and think and continue reading
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - an epic story of a Korean family spanning three generations
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - If you love nature and the outdoors with a bit of love thrown in
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri - Such a delightful novel by this Bengali author who raised a boy in the USA
Bey Misaal Afsaanay (Incomparable Stories) compiled by Roohi Kanjahi - a collection of 50 short stories by writers from Pakistan and India - has been a favorite book for years!
Communism in Pakistan by Kamran Asdar Ali (professor of anthropology at University of Texas in Austin and my friend)
Fifty Places to Hike by Chris Santella
Authors - These guys almost never let you down
Bertrand Russell - Why I am not a Christian, Conquest of Happiness
Saadat Hasan Manto - Mozelle and Ten Rupees are English translations also
William Dalrymple - The Last Mughal
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
Tolstoy - War and Peace
Herman Hesse - Siddharta
Ernest Hemingway - Old Man and the Sea
JK Rowling - Harry Potter series
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One hundred years of Solitude
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet & Broken Wings
Salman Rushdie - Satanic Verses, Midnight Children
Naguib Mahfouz - Midaq Alley
Rabindranath Tagore - The Collected Works of Rabindranath Tagore
Guy de Maupassant - The Entire Original Maupassant Short Stories (translated)
DH Lawrence - Lady Chatterlee's Lover
Plato - The Last Days of Socrates
John Grisham - Pelican Brief, Firm, A Time to Kill
Mario Puzo - Godfather
Frederick Forsythe - Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File
John Crichton - Jurassic Park
Alistair Maclean - Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone
Erich Segal - Love Story
Julian Baggini - Atheism
Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Poets
Pablo Neruda
Rumi
Li Po
Ghalib
Faiz
Sahir Ludhianvi
Jalib
Nasir Kazmi
Parvin Shakir
Jaun Elia
Newspapers/Magazines
New York Times
LA Times
Merip Report
The Economist
Le Monde Diplomatique
Dawn
Guardian
Granta
Arizona Highways
National Geographic
Express Tribune
India Today
Ohh The Great Outdoors!
Gimmelwald - Come down from Mt Schilthorn, Bernese Alps, Switzerland
Rim to Rim or just to Phantom Ranch for 2 nights with revelry in the cantina!
Havasupai Falls - walk in the shallow turquoise colored pristine waters of the creek and under the waterfalls
Sierra Nevadas thru Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail - Go to Rae Lakes from Onion Valley Campground
Spur Cross Ranch - Loop through Elephant Mountain or go to Skull Mesa or towards Seven Springs
Mount Olympus, Greece
Cinque de Terres, Italy
Table Top Mountain - Cape Town, S Africa
Annapurna foothills, NepalBattleship Mountain and Flat Iron, Superstitions, Arizona
McDowell Mountains: Tom's Thumb (short way thru north side or longway thru Gateway, Bell Pass, Telegraph Hill and Viewpoint, Arizona
Picacho Trail, Casa Grande, Arizona
Chiricahua, SE Arizona
Cities/Towns to Romance
Sienna
Seville
Cape Town
Paris
London
Prague
San Francisco
Sarajevo
Dubrovnik
Dinkelsbuhl and Rothenburg
Lahore
Khujwa (ancestral village in Bihar, India)
Volunteer with the Best People Ever
Amnesty International
No More Deaths
Kashmir Coordination Committee
Local to Global Justice
Irtiqa
St Vincent de Paul
International Rescue Committee
Local to Global Justice
What Else?
Friday lunches with a couple of friends since 1990s - others are welcome and do drop in
Visit elderly people and provide cheer
Call friends/family across the world
Visit friends/family all over the world
One on one happy hours with people one knows
Hang out with out of the ordinary folks .. people with quirks and who don't follow the society's norms
Long drives with the music or podcast or just your own thoughts
