Life of the Mind

He lived life with indefatigable zest, read widely and wrote with authenticity-without hypocrisy or cant. His particular fields of interest were English literature and political theory. While Shakespeare was almost a second language to him he had read in depth the works of almost every political philosopher from Plato to Fukyama. Shahzad was deeply disturbed with the poverty of the many. He saw the dominant powers in the world moving towards greater affluence while the deprived and oppressed continued to subsist in acute poverty and misery. He was firm in his view that this was not 'the end of history'. He sought in his readings and in his research a new political system that would assure a more just dispensation, which promised equitable distribution of wealth, power, hope and wellbeing. Shahzad had this way of identifying a subject, researching it thoroughly and reducing his thoughts into precise, analytical prose. "Life of the Mind" is a collection of some of his essays. They will prove of interest to the reader who is inclined towards higher scholarship. -from the tribute and exordium to "Life of the Mind", by Dilshad Najmuddin.