IS HOME AN ILLUSION?

Mo Tejani - an Indian Shia Muslim by ancestry - was expelled from Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1972. Torn apart from his family and exiled from his continent of birth, he was left homeless, without sense of his own cultural identity. Over the next three decades on the road, he worked with non-profit agencies, learned a slew of new languages, met fellow cultural nomads in forlorn places, and became involved in some of the world’s most significant historical events.

In this entertaining globetrotting memoir, the author travels through five continents in search of a place he can call home. The trails and tribulations of ‘identity shopping’ in the ‘multicultural supermarket’ of today almost bring him to the brink of alienation but, as he discovers over the years, there are many along the road who are ready to lend a helping hand. Join him on his journey as he seeks liberation from his cultural chains and the catharsis of realizing his true identity.

Prologue...............................................................................................................
1 Volunteer Blues...................................................................................1
2 Refugee Camps................................................................................22
3 Islam And Me.................................................................................... 44
4 African Days...................................................................................... 77
5 Are You Experienced?................................................................... 109
6 Robbing The Poor.......................................................................... 141
7 On The Road................................................................................... 179
8 Safari Jumbani................................................................................. 206
Epilogue.................................................................................................239
Selected Glossary................................................................................246
Travel Chronology.................................................................................253
Acknowledgements..............................................................................255.

Mohezin (Mo) Tejani is a global Muslim gypsy who has been roaming the world for over four decades now. Exiled from Uganda during Idi Amin’s reign of terror in the 1970s, he was suddenly left homeless, with little sense of his own cultural identity. He spent the next forty years traveling through all five continents, working with the poor. He has taught world literature in Uganda, Canada, the United States, Thailand, Guatemala, and Ecuador.
The first of his three-volume travel memoirs, A chameleon's Tale: True Stories of a Global Refugee, was a 2007 New York P.E.N. Book Award finalist. The India edition, re-titled Thank you, Idi Amin: A Memoir of the Asian Exodus, was published in 2010. Two of Tejani’s short stories in this collection won gold awards in the Fourth Annual Solas Awards, one of which was published in the anthology Best Travel Writing, 2010 (www.BestTravelWriting.com). A third story was chosen as an “Editors’ Choice” at TravelersTales.com, and a fourth story won a silver award in the Fifth Annual Solas Awards of 2011.
Tejani is a regular on the Asian literary circuit. He has been called a “cross-cultural Kerouac,” and Tim Cahill says that reading his stories “is like eating popcorn: you can’t stop devouring them.” Tejani currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Visit his website at www.motejani.com.