From Garden of Eden to North America

From Garden of Eden to North America is the autobiography of Dr. S. Gul Hunzai, who was born and bred in the central part of historic Hunza in northern Pakistan. Purportedly, civilized humankind first emerged from the Garden of Eden, located in Hunza; Emilio Spedicato, an internationally acclaimed research icon at the University of Bergamo, Italy, contends that locating the Garden of Eden to Hunza Valley satisfies Biblical data. Genesis describes Eden as a very special mountainous region of central Asia where four great rivers spring out of a huge massif (a compact group of connected mountains), and Spedicato interprets this as the range that separates Hunza Valley from Wakhan Valley, Afghanistan. Some scholars are of the view that it is from the Garden of Eden that the two common terms east and west were derived, “east” meaning towards Eden, and “west” meaning away from Eden. Ancient Hunza is an historic region that every literary-minded person will enjoy reading about. 

Dr. Gul was just seven years old when he revealed to his parents that he would one day become a doctor and then a director. His father smiled with pride, saying, “as usual, you are talking too big,” while his mother interrupted and said that he was not speaking on his own — that his inner voice was instead coming from the angels. This was to be the first of many premonitions, intuitions, sixth sense activities, clairvoyance, spiritual communications . . . no matter what these feelings might be named, they often come true for Dr. S. Gul, shaping his life, ambitions, and destiny. 

Dr. Gul continues his story beyond childhood to recount his good times as a bachelor in the cosmopolitan cities of Pakistan and an amazing social life in Syria during the 1970s. He gives a detailed account of historical places he personally visited, people he encountered, and his impressions of an intriguing and busy lifestyle. He describes his marriage to a Hunza princess, breaking the centuries-old Hunza tradition of intermarriage among royalty. 

The family transitions from Damascus to an underdeveloped conservative society in Pakistan, and then moves again to Libya. The unexpected and counterintuitive socioeconomic conditions prevalent in Libya in the 1980s and the miracle that helped Dr. Gul exit from Libya offer quite an engaging read. Subsequently, Dr. Gul and his family happily transition to Saudi Arabia, and he works as a decorated physician. The account of the sociocultural and historical aspects of Saudi Arabia is illuminating. 

Soon the family is on the move again, this time leaving for the UK so that Dr. Gul can enrol in Glasgow University, Scotland. After the completion of his studies, he returns to his home country and is selected on merit as a Director by the Directorate General of Special Education and Social Welfare for Pakistan, fulfilling another premonition. However, at that time, his life’s ambition had not yet been achieved. Ultimately, Dr. Gul was to discover that although his experiences had made him an expert at integrating into new environments and different cultures, he was about to face his greatest and most rewarding challenge yet; becoming a new immigrant to Canada. 

Dr. S. Gul has achieved in a single book that which I could not in my dozen books. Future historians will benefit from his account of ancient Hunza and its traditions, and will marvel at the wonderful life of this unique person. 
Mustansar Hussain Tarar, internationally acclaimed writer 

I hope historians and literary-minded people in the coming generations will greatly benefit from reading this book, which will provide them with a window to look into the past in order to understand the present. 
Farman Ali, City Editor, The Express Tribune, Islamabad