Hyderabad and Mumbai March 10-13

My flight arrived in Hyderabad in the morning of Tuesday the 10th on schedule. It was a public holiday for the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, so the Henry Martyn Institute and many businesses in general were closed for the day. I went into the city and met Timothy Marthand, the concert pianist, with whom I had stayed during my previous trip to Hyderabad last September. I felt a bit under the weather, so I took it easy and spent much of the following day, Wednesday the 11th, watching movies on my computer at Timothy’s place.

On Thursday the 12th, I got a ride to the HMI campus with Christy Femila, a former MTh student at Luther Seminary in St Paul. Minnesota who is now the academic program coordinator. It was her turn to lead the daily morning devotion, and most amazingly none of the other staff members showed up, except for three of the cleaning ladies and three staff who came at the tail end. Attendance at morning devotions is a mandatory part of the work day, but the new HMI director was away on travels and the institute administrator was also away from the office that day, so when the cat’s away the mice will play. People were predicting full attendance the next day, when the director would be back in town. In general anarchy prevailed in the office that day, with few people actually doing much of any work. As I discussed over lunch with some short term visitors from Germany, the lack of attendance and lack of work commitment reflects the lack of interest that many of the staff members actually have in the institute’s ethos and goals of interfaith reconciliation, which is sad.

I had a good conversation with Qadeer Khwaja, a local Hyderabadi Muslim who has rejoined the HMI faculty after having left to finish his PhD. His joining the Islamic studies faculty is a major bit of good news for the institute, whose academic programs had been struggling since I left in mid-2006. I gave a presentation about the Muslim interest in Jerusalem to the students in the Islamic Studies program. The HMI campus is as lovely as ever.

Qadeer Khwaja and me at his desk

The HMI campus

Last September Timothy had talked me into buying his used iPhone, which turned out to be an excellent investment, and this time around I purchased his used Canon digital SLR camera. I had been thinking to upgrade anyway from my pocket digital camera.

On Friday I took a morning flight to Mumbai and spent the afternoon at the centre of the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board. This centre of the Nizari Khoja Ismailis (followers of the Agha Khan) had twice sent their student trainees to the Henry Martyn Institute for courses in Islamic Studies in 2000 and 2005. Teaching these groups of highly motivated Muslim students about Islam was among the most enjoyable teaching experiences I have had, and I have stayed in touch with a number of them, some of whom continue to work at the Mumbai centre. I had a long chat with Hussain Jasani, the institute director, and that evening had dinner with Khairunnissa Lakhani, one of the 2005 participants, and her husband.

Some of the ITREB participants in the 2005 HMI programme and me

Khairunnissa Lakhani at her desk