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The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.

Tahir Shah

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Tahir Shah
Age: 57
Born: 1966
Born: November 16
Author
Comedian
Explorer
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
Strange
Universally
Easy
Spirits
Found
Grasp
Spirit
Realm
Believe
Followers
Never
Realms
Islam
Netherworld
Exist
Overlaid

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Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.
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Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.
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Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.
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To Succeed, you must reach for the stars, and let your imagination find its own path
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I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas.
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There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.
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Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.
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Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?
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These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.
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Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.
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One senses that, in these conditions, no amount of wet-wiping could bring true hygiene.
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In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that i will come to no harm.
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The inertia of a jungle village is a dangerous thing. Before you know it your whole life has slipped by and you are still waiting there.
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I was becoming addicted to Bombay. There was squalor and poverty, but I had begun to realise my good fortune and would never again forget it.
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For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.
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Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.
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During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.
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The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.
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There can be few situations more fearful than breaking down in darkness on the highway leading to Casablanca. I have rarely felt quite so vulnerable or alone.
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It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.
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