‘Maverick’s Musings’ start with a tender tribute to a soul-mate. The young officer (YO) who had wooed and won the heart of a girl from an alien land shares his ‘Jab We Met’ (when we met!) moments of 1958. There was little in common between them except their humanity and core values of two ancient civilisations. They overcame impossible odds to create a relationship that lasted for 55 years. It is a heartwarming story that triggers emotions at a deeper level. The ‘episodic’ narrative then follows a linear timeline. It runs on two intertwined tracks. The personal thread follows his life from infancy to an awkward adolescence. Fortunately he finds a more confident life partner. The Greek girl uproots herself in pursuit of love and finds a new family in the warm folds of Indian military-life. Their life together matures into a well-rounded family. On the professional track the YO becomes a General in 30 years, after a series of trials and triumphs. The challenges include a resignation, a traumatic war injury, sadistic seniors, a cadet’s suicide and so on. He survives and succeeds. The family goes through phases of agony and ecstasy. Their ability to roll with the punches lies in their inner strength which this narrative shows in flashes- that source may be explored later!

The book provides the essence of the extensive travel undertaken by the author over a period of 20 years and how these voyages and exploration brought about the transformation in his personality and general perspective about life.

This book is a collection of 14 essays written through the year 2015 and reflect the events that have influenced the Middle-East and South Asia during the period. The sub-title, ‘Turmoil in the Middle-East’, indicates that a majority of the essays are focused on that region, although two essays examine troublesome incidents that took place in Bangladesh and Pakistan. A number of the essays were also published in the Eurasia Review, where they received critical acclaim and generated some debate and discussion. The primary objective of the essays has been to analyse contemporary events and to delineate the influence that they would have on the nations of the region and also on the international community. In today’s interconnected world, it is not possible for any single nation to remain isolated and unaffected by the major events in another part of the world. The analysis of the events that took place in the Middle-East demonstrates this truism like no other.

These reflections in Book Ten of the Earth Manifesto contain a series of introspections into the nature of the financial crisis as it unfolded in 2008, along with Evolutionary Understandings during the early years of the 21st century.

Aldous Huxley wrote: “If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.” One might infer from this remark that seeing ourselves as others see us—and acknowledging our very obvious imperfections—is the beginning of true wisdom. Oscillating between parody, parable, and prophecy, ALL ABOUT EARTHLINGS is a work of hyper-realism. As author William F. Wu writes in his introduction, “[it] is journalist W. E. Gutman’s most chilling dystopia. The historical retrospectives that undergird his narrative and the apocalyptic inferences they evoke prompt Gutman to conclude that humans are neither able nor willing to control their collective destinies: Greedy, hedonistic and reckless, they are engrossed in the here-and-now of their personal lives. Scouring through humankind’s most sordid chronicles of cruelty and hypocrisy, corruption and apathy, suffering, despair and death, and extrapolating from the lessons they impart, Gutman envisions a scenario of otherworldly retribution that seems as fitting as it is horrible to contemplate. “His use of a science fiction device (he doesn’t maroon Earthlings on some faraway planet; instead, he transports an alien emissary to Earth and gives him a voice) only tends to harden the sinister nature of his auguries. In the process, Gutman takes on and unapologetically slays some mighty sacred cows: God; religion; the papacy; evangelism; imperialism; militarism; capitalism; corporatism; mercantilism, and consumerism, all of which, he reckons, incestuously conspire against peace and tranquility on Earth and which, should Earth survive the evils their combined influences wreak, could one day spread beyond its celestial frontiers.”