Dear Reader:

I have titled this work Afghanistan, My Ancestral Home. If you get the idea that it deals with history and geography of the country where I was born and where I grew up, you may not find either in its pages the way you have read a history book or a book on the geography. It does not serve that purpose and the author admits he is not a historian or a person well versed in geography

It also does not cover the various aspects of the culture of the Afghans, becauseeven though the country is small, 250,000 square miles, it is very much diverse in terms of the Afghan nation, and the different regions that they live in. It does, however, attempt to depict the way of life of the lower middle class in Kabul and Nangarhar provinces which the author is most familiar with

Again, the author does not claim that all people in these two provinces go through the same developmental period or invariably do the same things that he has experienced throughout the life period that he describes. In this respect he hopes that it will be looked upon as an autobiography--with a difference

Some historic events have been alluded to, some geographic facts have been mentioned, some political observations have been made and some general cultural characteristics of the people of Afghanistan have been described

Please overlook any oversight and some false assumptions on the part of the author about facts and figures for the author humbly admits his shortcomings. The author hopes that if you take time and trouble to leaf through this book's pages and generalize things in your mind's eye, you may get a picture of an Afghan as he grows up and goes through life in that far pavilion that is Afghanistan-- the centuries old abode of a nation that has experienced (and is still experiencing) great vicissitudes in its history, located as it is in the crossroad of civilization in the heart of Asia


Mohammed Khalid Roashan
Kirkland, Washington

01/01/2002

All rights reserved by the author