Publisher's Notes On a cold December morning in 1979, my father picked me up over his shoulders and placed me on the walls of our garden in Kabul, whispering, "See those tanks?" I watched the heavy tanks making their way on the street-- an image that has been permanently branded in my memory. This December will mark twenty years since the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR. That event drastically altered the lives of many individuals: lives lost, families disintegrated, millions of people turned to refugees and to the world's standards, numbers and statistics as the result of war. However, the flames that were ignited twenty years ago has not yet yielded to a halt. Twenty years later and in exile, we have separated and moved to far corners of the world. We have adapted to new surroundings and environments, in places we wouldn't have dreamt of residing. We have taken our heritage with us, but we have also come to accept and adapt to new ways of living and thinking. Yet, many of us do not understand the real reasons behind the misery and destruction that has ravaged Afghanistan. The majority of our people don't have an understanding of our ancient and present history and have a very limited exposure to our contemporary writers and artists. We have become educated with the Western artists and writers and to some extent, the Eastern ones, but not with our own. If the average Afghan, raised in the West, is asked if they have ever read contemporary Afghan literature or seen the work of an Afghan artist, the answer will probably be "No". This has created a giant void. How can a people that want to find themselves and their identity and help the reconstruction of a broken nation have such limited knowledge and understanding of their own history, literature and arts? We must have an appreciation for our humanities and history and nourish it. A darkness has shrouded us; we must remove that veil of darkness and allow the light to take its place so that twenty years from now we will not be standing in the same place asking the same questions. May God be with you, Farhad Azad Publisher - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Copyright © 1999 Aftaabzad Publications. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form without permission.