AASHISH 1926-2034 BOOK DESCRIPTION In 1947 Aashish Kumar Chhatuvedi, a Punjabi Hindu, is twenty years old. A recent college graduate and a newlywed deeply in love with his wife, Tulsa, Aashish is looking forward to a happy life. Abruptly a huge part of India, including his family village near Lahore, is torn away to create Muslim Pakistan. In the Hindu-Muslim violence that follows, with part of his family murdered, Aashish flees with his wife, his father, and his Bua (his father's sister) across the border to a refugee camp near Khajuraho in central India. There he faces the twin challenges of assuming leadership of his family and forging his life into a force for a healthier and more peaceful planet. Always at the center of his life is Aashish's seventy-seven-year, sometimes turbulent, always passionate, love affair with Tulsa. AASHISH 1926-2034 is the story of his long life told in his own words, and those of his Bua and others, and including a utopian vision by Kiran Verma, poet laureate of Khajuraho. The story has been brought together by his son, Anil, as Aashish's personal journal covered only the period from his wedding night until his wife's death. He wrote nothing after that. The story ends with Anil's glowing tribute to his father. WarrenHall Crain 25 November 2013 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
About the Author: AASHISH 1926-2034 Author Bio WarrenHall Crain's boyhood days were spent at Woodstock School, an international boarding school in north India, and at home for school vacations with his parents who were Christian missionaries in Burma. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The College of Wooster and a Master of Divinity degree from The Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School . He has served churches in Detroit, Anchorage, Cordova, and Seattle. He served three years in the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans as an officer on an ocean minesweeper, one of the U.S. Navy's smallest ships, . He has been a volunteer in community development in the United States, India, Jamaica and Fiji and is currently a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer as a Visiting Professor of English at Arabaev University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. . As a Rotarian he has been involved in many community projects with the Rotary Club of Emerald City in Seattle and international projects with Rotary clubs in India. Some years ago his Rotary district honoured him as "Rotarian of the Year". For thirty years he maintained perfect attendance (meeting with other clubs around the world when he was not in Seattle), and is a major donor to The Rotary Foundation. Married and divorced twice, he is the father of four children and seven grandchildren - and is the proud great-grandfather of twin boys. He is a prolific writer (novels, poetry, essays, short stories) - with about one metre of shelf space filled with bound volumes of his personal writings. Some of this has been shared with family and friends. AASHISH 1926-2034 is available in paperback or for Kindle reading from Amazon.com. He is planning several more books, including two future histories, a book of short stories and poems, READINGS FROM AN INDIA JOURNAL, and A LIFE WELL LIVED. He is an atheist. Having grown up in a Christian family and having attended Christian schools, he tried for many years to be a Christian himself. In recent years he has stated explicitly that his belief is that there is no God, though he honours the world's great religious traditions. He continues to be a genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. And he has two other role models (or heroes) - Mahatma Gandhi ("Bapu" ) and Martin Luther King, Jr. ("Brother Martin"). For much of his life he has divided his time between the small temple town of Khajuraho in Central India and Seattle, U.S.A. WarrenHall Crain 25 November 2013 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan