The teaching of evolution is banned. Nothing is natural or accidental; everything is revealed and ordained.

On a fossil dig in the Salt Range of the Punjab, an area that once lay beneath the Tethys Sea, Zahoors granddaughter, Amal, finds proof of the dog-whale. No one knows it yet but she has found Pakicetus, the oldest known primitive whale.

Back at home bad news awaits. Amals baby sister Mehwish has become blind and Amal will have to stay home to raise her.

Mehwishs world is both magical and terrifying. Through Amal she learns to read a seeing persons alphabet.

She can also see Amals drawings of primitive whales. Her grandfather teaches her illegal English love poems.

Meanwhile, in Lahore, Noman, neurotic, very funny (and horny), an aspiring mathematician, hopes to one day find a number like a magic bloom. Instead, hes appointed secretary to his father, a minister in the Party of Creation.

His father wants Noman to create a pure science to help put the youth of Pakistan back on the Straight Path. Noman now finds himself attending conferences on scientific miracles all around the world and editing a magazine called Akhlaq, in which he picks out verses from the Quran to prove that evolution does not exist.

The problem is, he could just as easily find verses that prove it does. Instead of finding the Straight Path, Noman finds Zahoor.

While the culture war between the Islamists and the secularists rages, Noman bats for both sides: working for his father, while turning increasingly to Zahoor, a man who believes that mathematicians are also artists, philosophers scientists, architects poets. The friendship between Noman, Zahoor, Amal and Mehwish grows into a parallelogram, shaped by and shaping each other.

And then, on Amals wedding, tragedy strikes. The friends must realign yet again.

It seems it will take an old man on trial to make youth find itself (less)

Nothing is discovered; all is revealed. On a fossil dig in the Salt Range of Pakistan, Zahoor's granddaughter Amal stumbles upon a clump of rock.

No one knows it yet, but she has unearthed the very thing that orthodoxy denies. At home, bad news awaits: Amal's baby sister Mehwish has become blind.

Amal must sacrifice her aspirations to become Mehwish's eyes. Through Amal, Mehwish learns to 'read' with her fingertips, discovering a world both magical and terrifying.

What is 'revealed' takes on new resonance. top (less)

The author, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq focuses on his experiences about the early diplomatic aristocracy. This book will captivate its readers with the country's history and pass on the details to current and future generations (less)

It deals with different types of diseases affecting plants, and describes the control methods also.The book has been intended primarily for the use of students engaged in advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses in plant diseases.

It will also be an asset to those studying food science, agriculture, environmental science and health administration (less)

This book will be highly informative to students, professionals and researchers in the field of botanical sciences, who want an introduction to current topics in this subjects (less)