The book in my hand

A weekly column on what well-known personalities are reading and planning to read. This week, it is Shaida Mohammad Abdali and Kavita Sharma.

KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, 23/02/2015: Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Ambassador of the Republic of Afghanistan to India interactive session Trade and Investment Opportunities in Afghanistan at MCCI in Kolkata on February 23, 2015. Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

The Book in my Hand is a weekly column on what well-known personalities are reading and planning to read. This week, it is Shaida Mohammad Abdali and Kavita Sharma.

Shaida Mohammad Abdali

Overwhelmed by the current precarious situation in our region, I am interested in reading books that help me draw a line between conspiracy theories and the actual reality.

The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World

Shaida Mohammad Abdali is Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India .

Kavita Sharma

Mahabharata has a lot of discussion on death and each character in the epic chooses to die in a unique way. I am at present exploring the idea of death through my readings of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal , Raj Kotwal’s God’s Own Death, and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air . My interest in death grew after I lost my husband some time ago as I had to recover from the loss and start afresh.

My book on the Mahabharata will contain the understanding on death that I have gathered by reading these texts.

Kavita Sharma is the Vice-Chancellor of the South Asian University .