Vista of My Memories by Mushtaq A. Khan (Author)
AMAZON BOOKS – – Paperback – $25.99 – February 21, 2022 << click
Vista of my Memories is an autobiographical journey, which presents selective personal experiences in Guyana. The experiences that are selected for this memoir are reflective samples of experiences that resonated with me in my journey through the corridors of the institutions of race, religion, and class, in the various communities where I lived and worked, and in whose affairs I participated actively.
Those communities included Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, which was once labelled “The Garden City of The Caribbean;” Linden, “The Seat of Guyana’s Proletariat;” Essequibo, the “Cinderella County;” and Berbice, “The Ancient County.” Of the 47-year time frame of this narrative, an accumulation of 32 years was spent in Georgetown, 9 in Linden, 4 in Berbice, 1 in Essequibo and 1 year abroad, in Italy, pursuing postgraduate studies.
The timeframe of 1947-1994 spans the period from the year of my birth to that of my migration to the United States. It begins during the era of British Guiana, under British colonial rule, and continues through the challenging and exciting independent Guyana. Following independence, the era of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, featuring “Cooperative Socialism;” involved nationalization and miniaturization, where “the small man” was said to become “the real man.” Eventually, “Economic Pragmatism,” involving the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, led to the phase of “Liberal Capitalism” where the private sector was to become the engine of growth in the society.
The narrated experiences are, in themselves, stories of pleasure and sadness, challenges and ease, high hopes and great expectations, despair and disappointment. The combination of them all influenced the quality of my nature, as I grew and developed into the type of person that I am. Having served in the capacity of a follower, as well as a leader, of my fellow humans, in three major areas of activities, banking and finance, youth and students’ politics, and the sport of cricket, I was able to interact with Guyanese from myriad sectors of society.
In essence, it is an informative educational narration of a historical nature in Guyana which is a land of cultural diversity situated on the main land of South America. However It’s culture is more linked to the Caribbean than to South America.
