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[The following answer is mostly relevant to becoming a professor in literature, though some of the information is also applicable to the sciences. You can read the comments at the end for differing opinions.]Be warned: this is a long, detailed answer. Take a stiff drink before reading….Step #1 High School Degree: You get good grades in high school.You apply to a good school for the BA program.Step #2 Bachelor’s Degree: You get good grades in the BA program during those four years and start networking to find a mentor, and try to learn all you can. If you are in the humanities, you will also probably have to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language—though that might not be the case in other fields. You do that by successfully passing the equivalent of 12 credit-hours of coursework, at least 6 of which must be sophomore-level, but you can also gain equivalency by taking tests to demonstrate to your knowledge.Step #3 Admittance into Graduate School: During the senior year of the BA, you start looking for a two-year master’s program at another (preferably slightly more prestigious) school, and you apply to several with letters of recommendation from your teachers.If you don’t get it, you either give up and take a new profession, or you sit out for a year and try again.If you do get in, you only pursue it if the school offers you financial support in the form of a graduate teaching fellowship (GTF), teaching assistantship (TA), or otherwise pays for your tuition with waivers. This means, you will not pay tuition, and in exchange you will work helping established professors teach large lecture classes, assist them in research projects, or else teach low-level courses for Gen Ed students—sometimes after some very brief pedagogical training, but often with little to no preparation at all.If the school lets you into a master’s program, but doesn’t provide any financial support except student loans, you politely decline. It’s way, way too risky to accumulate college debt when academic jobs are so rare and competitive. You either wait a year and start the process over, or you pick another job.Step #4 Finish Your Master’s: In the master’s program, you will take two years of more advanced graduate classes. In the humanities, if you are at one of the better schools, you will probably have to demonstrate proficiency in a second foreign language—not the same one you used for the bachelor’s degree. Traditionally, if you used a Romance language for your bachelor’s, you will need a Germanic language at the master’s level, and vice-versa, though that is becoming more flexible. You show proficiency the same way as mentioned in the bachelor’s section—by passing four classes in that language or taking a proficiency test.Step #5-A: Thesis Research: The last year of the master’s program, you will typically write a master’s thesis. In the humanities, that might be a long study on a topic, perhaps 80–100 pages long, in which you provide some original insight or new information on the field that has never been argued before. The sciences, it will be some sort of lab research project with a shorter write-up afterward. You will have at least one advisor to guide your research, and usually two faculty readers, and you will sit with them at the end of the project for a thesis defense, in which there will be an oral examination and you will argue for the plausibility of your project’s results.Step #5-B: Ph.D. programsSome schools will combine the master’s program with the Ph.D. (doctoral program), and during the second year of graduate studies, you will undergo a qualifying examination. Students who score the highest may move on to the Ph.D., while the others take the master’s degree and then must apply to separate Ph.D. programs. In the sciences, some rare students go directly from the bachelor’s degree to the Ph.D., with no master’s degree in the middle. However, in the humanities, it is more common to earn a master’s at one school, then apply to a Ph.D. program separately.It’s considered bad form to gain all three degrees at the same institution. Normally, you seek to move up to more prestigious schools with each degree, if you can. That may involve moving across the country at least once, and possibly twice.Most master’s degrees are 30–36 credit-hour programs, and they typically take two years because you are enrolled in fewer hours and teaching at the same time, compared to the bachelor’s degree. Most Ph.D. programs take 3–6 years to complete, part of that variation depending on how much teaching or lab work you are doing while you are working on the degree.Note that in the humanities, if you are at one of the better schools, or if you are in a field like medieval studies, classical studies, or history, you will again need to show proficiency in a third foreign language as part of your coursework. Typically, they want you to choose a language relevant to your research in some way or a language in which significant scholarship is done in your field. (If you don’t like foreign languages, becoming a professor may be a very bad idea—however, the sciences usually don’t require so much background in other languages.)Step #6 Dissertation Research: The last year or two of the Ph.D. is spent doing your doctoral dissertation, a long, book-length study of a subject you will write in a process similar to the master’s thesis. Then you get the title of doctor—but you are still not a professor! The title doctor refers to the degree of Ph.D., while the title professor refers to an academic rank in the hierarchy of a university. People can be a doctor without being a professor or — more rarely — they can be a professor without being a doctor.At this point, you usually try to get the doctoral dissertation published through some scholarly publisher, and you go on the job market. To become a professor in the USA, you need to get a “tenure-track” job, as opposed to a lower-ranking, less-well paying job like a “lecturer” or “instructor,” or part-time work as “adjunct.”The job market is terrible and competitive. The majority of Ph.D. graduates will not get tenure jobs their first year. Many, many of them may not even get lecturer or instructor jobs, and some must settle for doing a “post doc” (a one-year post-doctorate appointment during laboratory scutwork). Some may wind up doing 3–6 years of such post-docs, and then either drift out of academia or get stuck doing adjunct work. (Edit: in this thread, some commentators in the sciences suggest post-docs have more prestige in their field than they do in the humanities, so this may vary.)Adjuncts are the worst position in terms of pay, recognition, and benefits. These are part-time teaching positions given as scraps or leftovers to non-tenured, non-full-time faculty. They pay so poorly, adjuncts may work at 2 (or 3, or 4!) different schools doing one class there, then commuting somewhere else to a different job there, all for terrible pay. They can try to compete for full-time jobs by publishing research, but that very rarely works. My advice is, if you try to be a professor, and you find yourself doing adjunct work, you might want to set aside an academic career and do something else with your talents and skills. The knowledge you gain in a Ph.D. will make you enticing to a variety of occupations, not just academia, which at least in the humanities suffers from a glut of labor right now.Step #7: Seeking TenureIf you’ve made it this far, a small percentage (less than a third in my field of literature) of those Ph.D. doctors will be hired on tenure-track jobs, which is the first step to becoming a full professor. Typically, when you are hired on tenure track, it is a 5–7 year contract. Once you are hired, you gain the rank of “Assistant Professor.”During that time, you will teach classes at the hiring university, and you’ll have a 3-year or 5-year review when you sit down with your department head or the provost and discuss your progress and how you are doing. At a research institute, their main concerns will be how your research is going. During that 5–7 year period, they’d like to see you publish 3–5 scholarly articles or publish a book-length monograph, be active in national scholarly organizations, and present 3–5 papers at academic conferences.In the sciences, where there is a lot of group collaboration, the administrators de-emphasize book-length monographs, but want to see you as “P.I.” or “Primary Investigator” on 3–5 experiments that get published as papers in scholarly journals and maybe as a secondary investigator on another 7–12. They’ll also want to see you apply for and land some large financial grants to run and operate laboratories (which are spendy!).At smaller teaching schools rather than R1 research universities, what will get you tenure is more your teaching, your classroom performance, and doing committee work for the university. They will tend to de-emphasize research and want to see good teaching evaluations and a list of successful students you mentored who went on to successful careers with your guidance.Your sixth or seventh year of the position, you apply for promotion and tenure. Sometimes, that is bundled into one application, but other schools treat them as two separate applications. If you get tenure/promotion, you gain the rank of “associate professor” and a pay-raise. (Typically, academics only get promotion and accompanying pay-raises maybe three-times over the course of their career, which is a contrast with most other professions.)If you are tenured, this means you and the school have a commitment to each other. People mistakenly think this means you cannot be fired any more, but that’s not quite the case. Tenure typically means you cannot be fired for researching or teaching academically controversial material unless a vote from the faculty senate agrees to terminate you, which means it is a lot of hassle and trouble to get rid of you in that regard if you have the full support of your research colleagues or teaching colleagues.However, just like any worker outside academia, you can still be fired or disciplined by your Department Chair or higher-ups for (a) unprofessional conduct, (b) illegal activity, (c) financial distress for the college, or (d) neglecting your duties of teaching and research. Tenure is not a job for life!Step #8: Working up to Associate ProfessorAfter becoming an associate professor, you are now eligible to apply for a sabbatical once every seven years. A sabbatical means that, for either one full year or one full semester, you are freed from teaching duties and can instead focus full time on your research. Typically, at the end of the sabbatical, you are expected to reveal a new book you have written or some other substantive academic project. (If you don’t produce that, you might never have another sabbatical approved again!)Step #9: Becoming a Full ProfessorAs an associate professor, you will not be eligible for status as a “full professor” for another 7–10 years, depending on school policies. You continue teaching, publishing, and doing committee work, and after that you can apply to become a full professor, so it takes maybe 14 -17 years to earn that rank. To be granted it, you often have to demonstrate some sort of leadership in the college—such as serving as a Department Chair, heading a difficult committee, or participating in the Faculty Senate.The only rank higher than “Full professor” is “Professor Emeritus.” This honor is typically only given to professors the year before they retire. It comes with no additional duties or responsibilities because it is primarily honorific. Achieving that rank may be accompanied by a festschrift, i.e., a collection of research essays written by your former graduate students who publish it with a dedication to you and a letter of thanks for all you have contributed to the field.Conclusion:I love being a professor, but I encourage interested students to think long and hard about how much time, work, and money is involved. The odds are stacked against you, especially in my field of literature. In the late 1980s, for a single job opening as a literature professor, there might be 200–400 applicants apply for it. Even at small liberal arts colleges like the one where I teach, we might get 40–60 applicants for a single job. There’s no guarantee after doing all the work that you’ll ever be hired.So, if you love learning and love your topic, keep this challenge in mind. Graduate school isn’t for people who just love a topic. It’s for people who are obsessed with a topic and willing to work for years to achieve their goals. If that’s not you, don’t wander into it by default. Keep your eyes open about the odds, or at least keep in mind that you can do a lot of things with a Ph.D. besides becoming a professor.

Partial Knowledge is always harmful. So please do read the whole.Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (India's Prime Minsiter 1947-64) in ‘The Discovery of India,’ 1946, p. 218, 225.“The impact of the invaders from the north-west and of Islam on India had been considerable. It had pointed out and shone up the abuses that had crept into Hindu society - the petrification of caste, untouchability, exclusiveness carried to fantastic lengths. The idea of the brotherhood of Islam and the theoretical equality of its adherents made a powerful appeal especially to those in the Hindu fold who were denied any semblance of equal treatment.”“...his (Babar’s) account tells us of the cultural poverty that had descended on North India. Partly this was due to Timur's destruction, partly due to the exodus of many learned men and artists and noted craftsmen to the South. But this was due also to the drying up of the creative genius of the Indian people.”“The coming of Islam and of a considerable number of people from outside with different ways of living and thought affected these beliefs and structure. A foreign conquest, with all its evils, has one advantage: it widens the mental horizon of the people and compels them to look out of their shells. They realize that the world is a much bigger and a more variegated place than they had imagined. So the Afghan conquest had affected India and many changes had taken place. Even more so the Moghals, who were far more cultured and advanced in the ways of living than the Afghans, brought changes to India. In particular, they introduced the refinements for which Iran was famous.”Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Presidential Address to the Fifty-fifth Session of the Indian Congress, Jaipur, 1948.“(The Muslims had) enriched our culture, strengthened our administration, and brought near distant parts of the country... It (the Muslim Period) touched deeply the social life and the literature of the land.”Humayun Kabir in 'The Indian Heritage,' 1955, p. 153.“Islam's democratic challenge has perhaps never been equaled by any other religious or social system. Its advent on the Indian scene was marked by a profound stirring of consciousness. It modified the basis of Hindu social structure throughout northern India.”N.S. Mehta, in 'Islam and the Indian Civilization,' reproduced in 'Hindustan ke Ahd-i-Wusta ki ek Jhalak,' by S.A. Rahman.“Islam had brought to India a luminous torch which rescued humanity from darkness at a time when old civilizations were on the decline and lofty moral ideals had got reduced to empty intellectual concepts. As in other lands, so in India too, the conquests of Islam were more widespread in the world of thought than in the world of politics. Today, also, the Islamic World is a spiritual brotherhood which is held together by community of faith in the Oneness of God and human equality. Unfortunately, the history of Islam in this country remained tied up for centuries with that of government with the result that a veil was cast over its true spirit, and its fruits and blessings were hidden from the popular eye.”Prof. K.M. Panikkar in 'A Survey of Indian History,' 1947, p. 163.“One thing is clear. Islam had a profound effect on Hinduism during this period. Medieval theism is in some ways a reply to the attack of Islam; and the doctrine of medieval teachers by whatever names their gods are known are essentially theistic. It is the one supreme God that is the object of the devotee's adoration and it is to His grace that we are asked to look for redemption.”Zaheeruddin Babar in his Autobiography 'Tuzuk-i-Babari,' (Founder of Mughal Dynasty, Ruled India 1526-1530).“There are neither good horses in India, nor good meat, nor grapes, nor melons, nor ice, nor cold water, nor baths, nor candle, nor candlestick, nor torch. In the place of the candle, they use the divat. It rests on three legs: a small iron piece resembling the snout of a lamp... Even in case of Rajas and Maharajas, the attendants stand holding the clumsy divat in their hands when they are in need of a light in the night.“There is no arrangement for running water in gardens and buildings. The buildings lack beauty, symmetry, ventilation and neatness. Commonly, the people walk barefooted with a narrow slip tied round the loins. Women wear a dress ...”Dr. Gustav le Bon in 'Les Civilisations de L'Inde' (translated by S.A. Bilgrami)."There does not exist a history of ancient India. Their books contain no historical data whatever, except for a few religious books in which historical information is buried under a heap of parables and folk-lore, and their buildings and other monuments also do nothing to fill the void for the oldest among them do not go beyond the third century B.C. To discover facts about India of the ancient times is as difficult a task as the discovery of the island of Atlantis, which, according to Plato, was destroyed due to the changes of the earth... The historical phase of India began with the Muslim invasion. Muslims were India's first historians."Sir William Digby in 'Prosperous India: A Revelation,' p. 30."England's industrial supremacy owes its origin to the vast hoards of Bengal and the Karnatik being made available for her use....Before Plassey was fought and won, and before the stream of treasure began to flow to England, the industries of our country were at a very low ebb."Brooks Adams in 'The Law of Civilization and Decay,' London, 1898, pp. 313-17."Very soon after Plassey the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London, and the effect appears to have been instantaneous, for all authorities agree that the Industrial Revolution, the event that has divided the l9th century from all antecedent time, began with the year 1760....Plassey was fought in 1757, and probably nothing has ever equaled the rapidity of the change which followed....In themselves inventions are passive, many of the most important having laid dormant for centuries, waiting for a sufficient store of force to have accumulated to have set them working. That store must always take the shape of money, and money not hoarded, but in motion."...Before the influx of the Indian treasure, and the expansion of credit which followed, no force sufficient for this purpose existed....The factory system was the child of 'Industrial Revolution,' and until capital had accumulated in masses, capable of giving solidity to large bodies of labour, manufactures were carried on by scattered individuals....Possibly since the world began, no investment has ever yielded the profit reaped from the Indian plunder, because for nearly fifty years Great Britain stood without a competitor."Muslims in India - An OverviewThe Muslims entered Sind, India, in 711 C.E., the same year they entered Spain. Their entry in India was prompted by an attempt to free the civilian Muslim hostages whose ship was taken by sea pirates in the territory of Raja Dahir, King of Sind. After diplomatic attempts failed, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, the Umayyad governor in Baghdad, dispatched a 17-year-old commander by the name Muhammad bin Qasim with a small army. Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir at what is now Hyderabad in Pakistan. In pursuing the remnant of Dahir's army and his son’s supporters (Indian kings), Muhammad bin Qasim fought at Nirun, Rawar, Bahrore, Brahmanabad, Aror, Dipalpur and Multan. By 713 C.E., he established his control in Sind and parts of Punjab up to the borders of Kashmir. A major part of what is now Pakistan came under Muslim control in 713 C.E. and remained so throughout the centuries until some years after the fall of the Mughal Empire in 1857.Muhammad bin Qasim’s treatment of the Indian population was so just that when he was called back to Baghdad the civilians were greatly disheartened and gave him farewell in tears. There was a Muslim community in Malabar, southwest India as early as 618 C.E. as a result of King Chakrawati Farmas accepting Islam at the hands of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The Muslim presence as rulers in India dates from 711 C.E. Since then, different Muslim rulers (Turks of Central Asia, Afghans, and the descendants of the Mongol - the Mughals) entered India, primarily fought their fellow Muslim rulers, and established their rule under various dynastic names. By the eleventh century, the Muslims had established their capital at Delhi, which remained the principal seat of power until the last ruler of Mughal Dynasty, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed in 1857 by the British. A few British visitors were given permission by Akbar to stay in Eastern India more than two centuries before. The British abused that privilege, and within a few decades the British began to collaborate with Rajas and Nawabs in military expeditions against the Mughals and Muslim rulers of the east, southeast and south India. After two centuries of fighting, the British succeeded in abolishing the Mughal rule in 1857.Muslims were a minority when they ruled major parts of India for nearly a thousand years. They were well liked generally as rulers for their justice, social and cultural values, respect for freedom to practice religion as prescribed by the religion of various communities, freedom of speech, legal system in accordance with the dictates and established norms of each religious community, public works and for establishing educational institutions. In their days as rulers, the Muslims constituted about twenty percent of India's population. Today, Indian Muslims constitute about fifteen percent of India's population, about 150 million, and they are the second largest Muslim community in the world.The region now part of Pakistan and many other parts of India were predominantly Muslim. After the British takeover in 1857, many of these areas remained under loose control of Muslims. When the British decided to withdraw from India without a clear direction for the future of Muslims (former rulers), a political solution was reached for some of the Muslim majority areas. This resulted in the division of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947.Among the famous Muslims scientists, historians and travelers who visited and lived, though briefly, in India were Al-Biruni, Al-Masu'di, and Ibn Battuta. Their writings illuminate us with the Indian society and culture. Al-Biruni stayed in India for twenty years. Ibn Battuta, an Andalusian who was born in Morocco, served as a Magistrate of Delhi (1334-1341) during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Tughluk. It is conceivable that Ibn Battuta’s description of Muslim India inspired Ferdinand and Isabella who had taken over the last Muslim kingdom of Granada, Spain in 1492. That same year Columbus received the permission in the Alhambra palace (of Granada) and made his famous voyage bound for India in search of gold and spice but he landed in the Americas.Contributions of Muslim Scientists to IndiaDr. A.P.J. Abul Kalam - India's Missile ManDr. Arvul Pakir Jainulabedin Abul Kalam, popularly known as Dr. A.P.J. Abul Kalam, caught national and international attention as "India's Missile Man" with the successful launching of 'Agni' fromChandipur(Orissa) on May 22, 1989.Born in 1931 at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Abul Kalam is a DMIT (Diploma from the Madras Institute of Technology) in Aero Engineering. He was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree (Honoris Causa). He was Director-in-charge of ASL-V mission at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) before becoming the Director of the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) which is located in Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.Dr. Abul Kalam is the brain behind "Agni"; the indigenously developed 17 meter long and 75 ton multiple stage missile with a payload of 1000 kg (kilogram). Its range is anywhere between 1600 km (kilometers) to 2500 km. He was assisted by a 400-strong team of scientists.Due to his team's efforts, India overcame the stipulations made by the seven Western Countries' Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to deny missile technology to the third world countries.According to the eminent space scientist, "our indigenous missile technology is comparable to the best in the East or the West with its re-entry technology guidance and control technology with on-board computers."Dr. APJ Abul Kalam, who hails from Tamil Nadu, worked on projects such as 'Prithvi', etc. at the DRDL in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. For his contributions to India's Missile Program and the successful detonation of Nuclear Weapons in May 1998, he was appointed as Advisor to the Defense Minister and subsequently awarded "Bharat Ratna" the highest civilian award by the Government of India.Dr. Israr Ahmed - PhysicistDr. Israr Ahmed, Director, Center for Promotion of Science, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, is a distinguished scientist. He is considered an authority on Theoretical Nuclear Physics and Quantum Scattering Theory. Besides, he edits the AMU's Urdu monthly 'Tahzibul Akhlaq' and Hindi monthly 'Nishant' since 1986.Born on December 19, 1940, Dr. Israr Ahmed, is the son of Mr. Mukhtar Ahmed. After his graduation from Gorakhpur University in 1959, he pursued his post-graduation studies and earned a Ph.D. in Physics from AMU. He joined the AMU as a Lecturer in 1961. Since 1984 he is serving the Physics department as its Chairman.His 48 research papers have so far been published in the international journals. A number of research scholars have been awarded M.Phil and Ph.D. under his supervision.Dr. Israr Ahmed is an associate member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics located in Trieste (Italy) headed by the late Nobel Laureate, Dr. Abdus Salam. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and as well as the Indian Physics Association.He organized a conference on 'Religious Seminarae and Science Education' on March 26-28, 1987 and DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) Symposium on Nuclear Physics December 26-31, 1989 at the AMU, Aligarh. He also conducted several introductory science courses for the teachers of Muslim religious seminaries. Besides, he is also a science fiction writer in Hindi, Urdu, and English.M. Ahmed - Founder of 'Cardinal Geometry'Mr. M. Ahmed, IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer, is the author of a Calendar for all years from 45 B.C. to 1999 A.D. and an abridged version of it for 250 years.He can tell in few seconds the day one was born, if he puts before him his date of birth. He has evolved new concepts in Mathematics, popularly known as 'Cardinal Geometry.'It is a new type of Geometry, which deals with the Mathematical Curves, surfaces and coordinates. He has also written a treatise on the subject.He was born to Mr. Abdul Muthalib Rawther on November 2, 1941 at Adder (Kerala). Mr. Ahmed was the first rank holder in the University of Kerala in both B.Sc. (1961) and M.Sc. (1963) examinations in Mathematics.After a year as a lecturer in Mathematics in different colleges, he joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1965. He was the Collector of Madras, Member-Secretary, Madras Metropolitan Development Authority, Secretary to the Government, Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Warehousing Corporation and is now Vice Chairman, Madras Metropolitan Development Authority. Recently he has been elevated to the grade of Special Commissioner.In spite of his busy schedule as an administrator, Mr. Ahmed spends some time in academic work and has made a significant contribution to the Mathematics by evolving new principles.The Cardinal Geometry is an innovative concept in Geometry, developed by Mr. Ahmed, enabling the creation and study of many symmetric mathematical curves and surfaces. The classical geometry knows only a few symmetric curves and surfaces like the circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola, cardioid, limacon, lemniscafe, curves of Cassini etc., and some of their surfaces of revolution. Besides these curves, many lemniscafes, blimps, crescents etc. have been generated by him.According to Mr. Ahmed, the Cardinal Geometry theory could possibly be extended to the study of magnetism, motion of particles and bodies. It would have both theoretical and practical use in Engineering and Architecture.Dr. S.Z. Qasim - Antarctica HeroDr. Syed Zahoor Qasim, Member Planning Commission, Government of India, was till recently the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia(University) in Delhi. He has had his early education in Allahabad and then at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh from where he took his M.Sc. degree in Zoology. He stood first in the order of Merit for which he was awarded University Gold Medal. For a few years, he was a lecturer in the Department of Zoology at Aligarh before proceeding to the United Kingdom for higher studies in 1953.He returned to India in December of 1956 and joined the Department of Zoology of AMU as a Lecturer. He became Reader in 1957 and started a new laboratory of Fish and Fisheries in the Department. In 1962, he joined the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Bombay(Mumbai) as a Professor of Fisheries Biology and in 1964, moved to Cochin as Assistant Director in the Directorate of International Indian Ocean Expedition(IIOE) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR). Here he extensively worked on biological oceanography especially on the primary productivity of Kerala Backwaters and on the atolls of Lakshwadeep.From 1970 to 1973, Dr. Qasim was the Director of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute at Cochin. He also held the additional charge of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin for about one year. Here he promoted new lines of work in Fisheries Biology and initiated the development of mussel culture and pearl culture techniques for the first time in India. This work earned him the prestigious award of "Padma Shri."In January 1974, he took over as the Director of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. In February 1976 he was responsible for the commissioning of the first Oceanographic Research Vessel Ganeshani for NIO. He initiated many new programs on the productivity of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.In May 1981, Dr. Qasim was appointed Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Environment(DOE) and within a year (April 1982) he took over as Secretary of the newly established Department of Ocean Development. He has been responsible for the acquisition of a second Oceanographic Research Vessel "Sagar Sampada" for the Indian Oceanographic research.Dr. Qasim led India's First Expedition to the Antarctica and successfully organized and guided the other seven expeditions to the frozen continent from 1981 to 1988.His work on Fisheries Biology, primary productivity, mari-culture particularly mussel and pearl culture, estuarine ecology, environmental pollution and Antarctic research will always be quoted profusely. He has published more than 200 original research papers in national and international journals. For his original work and distinguished services, he won many honors and awards.He led many delegations of India in several international conferences and meetings.Dr. Qasim is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Indian academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, among many others. Under his guidance nearly 40 students obtained their Ph.D. degrees from various universities in India.He is Editor for several journals and member of the Editorial Boards of many national and international scientific journals. he is an Honorary Professor of several Universities including Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Annamalai University, Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and the Jamia Millia Islamia(University) in Delhi.Dr. Qasim is blessed with three daughters and lives in New Delhi.Dr. C. M. Habibullah - Eminent GastroenterologistDr. C. M. Habibullah is known as one of the most eminent Gastroenterologists of the country. He is presently Dean of the Decccan Medical College and Director of Owesi Medical and Research Center located in Hyderabad. Formerly Professor and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology at the Osmania Medical College and Hospital, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.He is also Chairman, Academic Committee, All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi and president, National Association of Liver Study Group.Son of Mr. Ahmed Hussain, he was born on 12th October, 1936 at Chittor(Andhra Pradesh). He took his early education from Chennai. Afterwards, he did his MBBS from Guntur Medical College in 1958 and was awarded Gold Medals in Pathology and Surgery. He was awarded M.D.(General Medicine) in 1963 and D.M.(Gastroenterology) in 1972.Afterwards, he worked in a number of Hospitals and Medical Colleges in different parts of the country. He is associated with a number of institutions. He is a fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences, American College of Gastroenterology, and International College of Angiology and also elected member of the Academy of Medical Sciences(Gastroenterology) of the former USSR and nominated member of National Board of Examination and AIIMS.More than 80 major research papers by him have appeared in scientific journals. More than 106 papers have been presented by him at national and international conferences. His current interest is in liver cell transplantation therapy in cases of acute liver failure and vaccine action program in viral hepatitis cases.Several scholars have obtained M.D., D.M., and Ph.D. degrees under his guidance and many research projects have been completed. Besides, new drug trials have also been done.He has two children lives in Hyderabad.Dr. S. N. A. Rizvi - Authority in NephrologyDr. S.N.A. Rizvi is considered one of the few authorities on Nephrology in India. He is a Professor of Medicine, Head of Nephrology and Endocrinology Division, Maulana Azad medical College and associated Hospitals in New DelhiSon of Hakim S. Sultan Ahmed Rizvi, he was born in a family of renowned for Hikmat, on 1 August 1939 at Amroha(District Moradabad, U.P.). After doing his graduation and postgraduation in Biochemistry, from AMU, he took admission in Medical College. Thereafter completed M.B.B.S. and M.D. degrees in 1969 with gold medal in clinical thesis from Delhi University.Dr. Rizvi, who has specialized in four fields-Endocrinology including diabetes, Nephrology, Rheumatology and Internal Medicine, is supervising the Dialysis services at Maulana Azad Medical College and LNJP and G.P. Pant Hospitals since 1972. Since then about 24,000 patients have been given free dialysis service. It is the only Hospital in the country which provides free dialysis. it costs about $600.00 The new dialysis unit is fully equipped with ten machines in non-infection units and two in Australia antigen units. The latter is the only unit available in the country. Dr. Rizvi reduced patient Mortality from 69 percent to 36 percent; Acute renal failure from 69 % to 36 %; and Chronic renal failure from 100 % to 60 % . He reduced Poisoning from 60 % to 4 %.Dr. S.N.A. Rizvi, who has recently taken over as the head of the newly established Tetanus Department, has been honored with several fellowships and awards- Fellowship of AIID(All India Institute of Infectious Diseases), Bombay(Mumbai) in 1980 for his distinguished work on diabetes; Fellow of the Indian Academy of Medical Sciences, Delhi in 1983; Fellow of the Indian Society of Nephrology in Chandigarh in 1984; Fellow of the Indian Congress in Nutrition(International Nutrition) in 1985. Fellow of the Indian Congress of Allergy and Immunology) in Delhi in 1986; Indian Congress of Physicians Fellowship in 1990 besides a number of national and international awards. He was recently been awarded by the Nobel Laureate Mother Theressa in recognition of his significant contribution to Nephrology. He was invited as a Guest Speaker to speak on several topics by national and international organizations.He has also been a life member of numerous scientific societies. His 220 papers have so far been published besides contribution of chapters in various books of medical sciences. he has also been the Associate Editor of the Journal of Indian Medical Association(IMA) of Medical Specialties, and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Indian Medical Association and also member of the editorial board of the Journal of Indian Society of Nephrology.He has got special interest in the poor. He spends Sundays at free medical camps in Delhi organized by the medical or voluntary organizations. He has three children and lives in New Delhi.Ornithology - Study of birdsIndia has the credit of having eminent ornithologists who are Muslims. Mughal Emperor Jahangir was an expert ornithologist. Jahangir described with care and accuracy various characteristics of animals and birds, their geographical distribution and behavior. The internationally renowned Indian ornithologist, Salim Ali, says, "His memoirs are a veritable gazetteer of natural history of the India of his day."For the first time in the history of ornithology, he noted how sarus cranes mate, brood over their eggs, in turn, and how chicks are hatched and taken care of. He also observed one human quality in this bird: the parents love not only their eggs and chicks but also each other.In 1958 there was sensation in the world of ornithology when a Russian researcher, A. Ivanov, discovered a portrait of the dodo, a large, non-flying pigeon-like bird which had become extinct about three centuries ago, in a collection of paintings at the Institute of Orientalists of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. There was nothing to identify the painter, but the style was without doubt of Ustad Mansur, the court painter of Jahangir. Now there is other evidence to show that it was the portrait of a Mauritius dodo which a merchant had presented to the Emperor around 1624. So, in the world of ornithology, Jahangir and the dodo made a dramatic reappearance nearly three centuries after they had died.Salim Ali - Internationally recognized OrnithologistSalim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, better known as Salim Ali, the bird watcher extraordinary was born on November 12, 1896.He is a recipient of the J. Paul Getty Wild Life Conservation Prize for his contributions to ornithology, the study of birds. He has won several national honors and awards as well. Surprisingly, Salim Ali has no university degree. He is a world renowned expert on weaver birds. Salim discovered Finn's Baya which was believed to have been extinct for 100 years until he discovered it in the Kumaon hills.In 1941 he published 'The Book of Indian Birds' that contained lively descriptions and colored pictures of every species. It made spotting a bird easy for the layman.In 1948 he began an ambitious project in collaboration with S. Dillon Ripley, an ornithologist of international repute, to bring out in ten volumes Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. This work contains all that is known of birds of the subcontinent, their appearance, where thy are generally found, their breeding habits, migration and what remains to be studied about them.Salim Ali has travelled all over India on his bird-watching surveys. It is claimed that there is hardly a place in the country where his heavy rubber shoes have not left their mark.Professor Mushahid Husain - This is written by Muzammil HusainProfessor Mushahid Husain, Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, is an eminent scientist. Born in 1952 at Moradabad, UP, Professor Mushahid Husain did his postgraduate degree in Physics from Agra University, Agra (UP) in 1975 and joined Lucknow University for his research work. He worked on “Effect of chemical combination of X-ray absorption edges” and was awarded Ph.D. degree in 1982. Same year, he joined Bhopal University as Asstt. Professor, and established a research group there, which later produced couple of Ph.D. students on “Application of Chemical Shift of X-ray Absorption Edge” wherein a new method of characterization of material by chemical shift of X-ray absorption edge was developed.In Aug. 1986, he joined Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi as a faculty member and set up a Material Science Laboratory in the Department of Physics. Under his able supervision, in a very short duration the same laboratory was identified as one of the centers to undertake research training program in the field of Semiconductor Science and Technology by Regional Network of Science & Technology (International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy) and Centre for Science & Technology of Non Aligned and Other Developing Countries, New Delhi. Under this program, a number of scientists from NAM countries (Srilanka, Nepal, Bangladesh etc.) have successfully completed their research training at this laboratory.He is one of the pioneer workers in the area of research on Amorphous Semiconductors and has been instrumental in creating a group of young scientists to work in the field. In amorphous semiconductor, his group is studying the structural, electrical, dielectric, thermal and optical properties of amorphous semiconductors, which have extensive use in the solid state devices.Recently he has taken up research work in conducting polymers and nano materials specifically the carbon nanotubes. He is synthesizing the carbon nanotube by using Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition (ECR-CVD), which is a unique method.Prof. Husain has completed four research projects on amorphous semiconductors funded by University Grants Commission and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. He has also conducted two major research projects entitled ECR plasma etching of III-IV group compound materials. In this project his group has developed ECR plasma etching systems. Different gases with different pressure conditions were used for studying the etching of Gallium Arsenide wafers.He has also studied and developed diffusive cavities for solid-state lasers in one of the esteemed DRDO Project. Recently he has taken up a research project on “Studies of mechanism of new dye laser material and their organic hosts”, funded by DRDO. Here silica gel rod is being prepared by using different dyes, which can be eventually fabricated to laser rods. In addition, a major superconductivity project funded by UGC is continuing since 1989.Due to his contribution in the semiconductors, the scientific community unanimously elected him the Vice Chairman of Semiconductor Society of India for two consecutive terms (1999 to 2003). He is also holding various positions in different academic societies. In addition, he also held the office of the Vice-President of Indian Physical Society during the session 1990-92. At present he is the secretary of one of the prestigious society i.e. Society for Semiconductor Devices.He is also the winner of Young Scientist Award/Project of Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. He is also the winner of Young Scientist Best Paper Award-1991 from Muslim Association for Advancement of Science (MAAS), Aligarh. He has been awarded the Associate Membership of Third World Academy of Sciences, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste,, Italy to undertake the research work on the structural aspect of amorphous semiconductor.Furthermore, he has also delivered a number of invited talks in various International and national forums. In addition, a number of popular talks on All India Radio and National TV Channel (Doordarshan) have also been presented by him. Prof. Husain has also organized a number of National and International Conferences on various aspects of Physics of Materials. He has been Secretary/Joint Secretary of the steering committee of International Workshop on Physics of Semiconductor Devices (IWPSD) since 1997. He was “Organizing Secretary” of “6th International Workshop on Physics of Materials”, held at Jamia Millia Islamia in 1987. He has research collaborations both at National and International levels.He had been regularly visiting the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy to participate in various academic activities at the centre. Prof. Husain has also worked in High Temperature Superconductivity Laboratory at ICTP, Italy. His visits to University of Cambridge, University of Princeton, New Jersey, UNAM, Mexico, SIRIM, Malaysia, National University, Singapore, resulted in scientific collaborations. In 2005, he visited National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan for collaborative work on Nanotecnology/ Nanomaterials specially carbon nanotubes.Prof. Husain has about 100 research papers in reputed International Journals to his credit. He has also edited a book on “Advances in Physics of Materials.” Recently, he has published a review article on “Carbon Nanotubes and its Applications”Besides his scientific activities, he enjoys the Membership of the Board of Studies of different universities in India. He was the “Elected Member” of the “Academic Council”, Jamia Millia Islamia, from 2000 – 2003. He is the Member of “Board of Governors” of National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra University.Due to his vast teaching and research experience he has the honour of being Referee of various National /International journals. Among these, Physica B, X-ray Spectrometry and Central European Journal of Physics are worth mentioning.He has three children and lives in New Delhi.I don't want to laborate the answer.And please don't just pick out religion wise work as a whole there will be hell lot of development.Religion is just the barrier set by Britian and we can break it unitedly.

The most interesting story I never wrote is one about a hideous and shockingly realistic recurring nightmare I suffered while on vacation at a wilderness camp. The psychoemotional disturbing bad dream tormented me the entire fortnight. In this insidious nightmare I kept seeing a man who was found wandering naked along a stretch of remote highway that weaves it’s mordant path through the distant boreal forest of the haunted North Woods.The man was babbling incoherently, his identity was and remains completely unknown. Dental records, finger prints, questioning of owners of the few camps in the area where the mentally sick man was found - nothing whatsoever helped to shed light on the deranged man’s name or place of origin.He was taken by ambulance one hundred and fifty miles away to a psychiatric hospital. Treatments were ineffective. Doctors were baffled by the mysterious man’s mental condition. He spoke in a language unknown on Earth. He wrote strange symbols on the wall in his own blood.Every effort was made to prevent him harming himself. No sharp objects were permitted to be left in his room. A 24 hour suicide watch was ordered. One can easily imagine the anxious confusion that erupted when the unidentified man mysteriously vanished under such heavy guard. Authorities were at a complete loss as to how he managed to effect escape.The strange man was gone. That’s all there was to it.Yet, what was even stranger than his paranormal disappearance was the fact that under his mattress were discovered a stack of papers which had words of the English language thinly scrawled on their stained wrinkled surface. The barely legible writing was not made with pen or pencil. Scientific analysis of the medium revealed a chemical compound of unknown origin composed of elements which do not exist in the Periodic Table.The mysterious stranger who had vanished like a ghost from the psychiatric hospital had apparently been rendering a record of a bizarre story, but whether the tale was a schizophrenic hallucination or a literal account of actual events, no one has been able to verify to this very day.The unidentified mentally disturbed man seemed to be talking to some lurking personality named Sybil.I shall here present to you the official transcription of the writing found on what the press dubbed “The Mattress Papers” in the order in which hospital staff originally discovered them….the cryptic message left behind by the Man Whom No One Knew!"What do you want to know?""Well, to begin with, I'd like to know why we’re in a sewer.""This isn't a sewer, its an abandoned storm shelter""Whatever you say, Chief. How much farther before we get to....what'd you call it?""The Hall of Archives.""Oh yeah, the Hall of Archives. Now I remember. Well how much longer before we get there?""Not far now. We're almost to the real door. ""We just passed a door.""That was a mock door. It leads into a trap. A person who enters that door will never see daylight again, and no one will hear their screams.""What sort of sadist den is this? Trap doors? Are you serious?""We have to take such precautions to guard the Archives. Some of the information contained in these documents would cause mass hysteria if it ever became public knowledge. I remind you that you have signed a nondisclosure agreement. You are legally bound never to reveal the existence of this facility to anyone under any circumstances.""How can I reveal the location of this place when I don't even know where we are? Your goons blindfolded me at the motel, put me in an automobile, then drove for what had to be well over an hour before leading me, still blindfolded, into an elevator which judging by the way my equilibrium was spinning brought me, at an alarmingly rapid rate of descent, a long way down into the ground. I heard what sounded like the elevator doors opening as I was pushed a few feet forward. The blindfold was roughly yanked from my face whence I saw you standing in front of my eyes, which no doubt would have been squinting if it weren't for the curious fact that it is eerily dark down here."Boom! Boom! Boom! I can see their eyes! I can see their hideous red eyes! I always know when Sybil is coming because I can see their horrid red eyes glowing in the dark!I'm happy for you Sybil and honestly you have my sincere gratitude for your generosity toward me. You are really terrific, you're like an angel or a fairy godmother, you have a gift for making people feel appreciated. I realize you're probably tired from your journey and need to rest, so with your permission I'll maybe send you a little "hello how ya doin'" note sometime next week and please feel free to talk to me anytime you like about anything you like. I love to talk. I'm fleshing out the grim nature of the main character in another novel I'm writing.He's a loner who doesn't say much. There's this scene I'm writing where he's all alone on an interstate highway at night out west in the Plains States or perhaps the Oregon desert where towns are few and far between - only an occasional truck-stop or dive motel. The hour is late. He's traveling to a logging town in the Pacific Northwest to investigate horrifying reports of people vanishing under mysterious circumstances.The local gossip blames everything from Sasquatch to alien abductions, so this quiet loner is thinking over this disturbing information while he's driving all by himself in the middle of nowhere at night. A few miles back he thought he saw a woman walking on the side of the highway, but when he stopped and got out of his 4x4 to see if she needed help - a ride somewhere maybe - there was no woman to be seen. He looks all around and calls out, but the echo of his own voice is the only reply from the near total darkness of the remote wilderness that surrounds him.He gazes abstractedly for a moment at his blood red tail lights, then gets back in his Bronco and starts driving again. He feels an eerie chill, but the heater won't work. He turns on the radio to help calm his tightening nerves and another ghostly thing happens. Scanning the dial, all his radio picks up is static until, in desperation he switches to an old seldom-used AM bandwidth. Faintly, a coherent sound materializes through the speakers of his rumbling Bronco. There's only this one radio station that tunes in. No DJ, no announcer, no station identification, yet mysteriously the song I'm On Fire by Bruce Springsteen is playing. The haunting song is looped. It keeps playing over and over. The spooked traveler turns the knob but the bewitched radio won't go off! The song keeps playing. The lonely bewildered traveler keeps driving into the paranormal late dark night.Boom! Boom! Boom! The diabolical red eyes again! I admire you, Sybil, you really are an angel, a fairy godmother, Wonder Woman, Supergirl all in one! It is civilized and compassionate of you to encourage my writing the way you do. Your enthusiasm is dear to me, Sybil.Honestly and sincerely, your words are a treasure…. you are a treasure, Sybil. A million and one thank yous for giving me your gracious consent to reach out to you anytime. I like the way you say that “reach out”, because being a writer I can envision myself as a storm-tossed soul in a harrowing world of shadows with you as a guiding light - a lighthouse hailing me to safe harbor.Truly, Sybil, I honestly deeply appreciate your kindness toward me and I shall always extend every kindness and thoughtful consideration to you. I'm thrilled you're interested in the new novel I'm writing. The phrase "flesh a character out" or "fleshing out a story" I got from something Ernest Hemingway said in A Moveable Feast which is a book he wrote in later years about his youthful experiences with his first marriage in Paris. He tells the story of how he switched from writing journalism for the Toronto newspaper to being a full time novelist. The novel he was writing at that time was The Sun Also Rises.So then, in fleshing out this brooding loner in the new novel which you are so generously encouraging me about, dear Sybil, I realized that this reclusive fellow must have a reason, a driving force, a strong impetus for his lone wolf lifestyle and personality. If there's one thing I've figured out about writing it's that readers want believable; therefore, I have to make this strong-silent-type character realistic, so there's the question WHY is he like he is?This concept is an idea I got from one of the screenwriters of the original JAWS movie when he said that Quint needed a reason for being the way he was and that's how that haunting speech about the USS Indianapolis Quint tells that night aboard the Orca entered into that eerie scene of the film.Well, to flesh out this character believably with a sort of obsession that explains his radically eccentric behavior I think, Sybil, that you and I should start with a name for this guy. Yes, a name will be a tactically advantageous starting point. He must have a standout name, something out of the ordinary.I think you helped me generate an idea for his name. What I mean is that my memories of you from long ago high-school days, the distant sensation of memories from long ago, that mood that such sentiments induce, well, there are these islands in the far cold North Atlantic known as the Faroe Islands, it's a mystical place Sybil, like a medieval fantasy or something. It's like Alaska - it’s dark with no sun at all for the deepest coldest months of winter.The people on those remotely distant far north islands are of Scandinavian stock who settled those mysterious islands for the highly productive North Atlantic fishing waters.So then, our brooding loner in this new novel can be the son of some people who immigrated to Florida from the far away frigid Faroe Islands, and since he's of Scandinavian blood, his standout unique name can be Borkum Boone!Another driving passion of Boone’s has to be a woman - obviously, a woman for sure. The woman he thought he saw on the side of the lonely interstate highway at night has to be as important to the story as Borkum Boone, which means she needs a name as unique and poignant as his.I actually thought of using our names (Sybil and ****) yet for us the story needs to have that surreal mood which might require names to which you and I are not accustomed. I'll let you know as soon as I arrive at a name for the mystery woman who haunts Borkum Boone. I thank you with all my heart, Sybil, for being so good to me. You are an incredibly powerful inspiration to my writing and I thank you, Sybil, my darling Sybil. I sincerely thank you.Boom! Boom! Boom! The monstrous red eyes! Good evening, dear lovely Sybil. Our favorite late night hour has come upon us again and as I sit here at my writing desk thinking of you and this new novel, the story for which you are supplying the greatest inspiration, I'm having visions of that singular paranormal radio show broadcaster sitting alone in that low gray, block building beneath that tall red and white transmitter tower with that one blood-red light high at the apex, slowly flashing off and on with tangles of tumbleweed creeping along the dry, dusty ground while prairie wolves howl mournfully in the distant night. I was thinking just now about the mysterious woman who haunts Borkum Boone filling him with the angst of being afflicted with some indescribable need for her. We want a name for her. A uniquely unforgettable name, yet in order to remain mysterious she must be surrounded in mystery. Accordingly, the ghostly woman whose shadow lurks over Boone's shoulder following him wherever he goes must remain ghostly mysterious until the climax of the story!Boone knows the name of the woman for whom he is searching, but he's not sure if the ghost woman who seems to be following him is indeed the same woman whose name he knows. For this mystery woman's name, I think that instead of merely introducing her with her name already in place that it would be an experience of more profound moment for readers to participate in searching for the origin of the mystery woman's name. The mystery woman’s name would thus be a mystery in and of itself! This will draw readers deeper into our story, Sybil, so as to make it a living breathing adventure in the macabre, but in order to arrive at the mystery of the mysterious woman's name, we must first know a bit more of the history of Borkum Boone himself.Since we've already established that he is the son of Faroese immigrants, we can follow the course of his life from a traumatic and life-changing event that happened to Boone when he was very young. He was born in Florida and when he was in 3rd grade he was seriously injured in a terrible fall from the sliding board on the elementary school playground.As a result of the fall, young Boone was knocked unconscious. After being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, doctors determined based on X-rays of Boone's head that he had suffered a skull fracture resulting in an epidural hematoma. The surgeons had to drill into Boone's cranium to relieve the pressure building up on his brain!Boone was in a coma for two weeks and when he finally regained consciousness, doctor's were pleased to inform his very distraught parents that Boone was recovering beautifully and that he would not suffer permanent brain damage. Boone's recovery did seem complete and he eventually returned to school whence an eerie fact became evident. Boone was now afflicted with painful headaches which violently struck him without warning and were always accompanied by a loud buzzing noise in his ears!Boone was the only one who heard the buzzing though it was so loud in his ears that he couldn't understand how others weren't hearing thunderous buzz. Modern medicine has no cure for Boone's rare ailment and he refuses to become addicted to pain killers, so he endures the painful headache episodes as best he can, slowly building up a tolerance for the pain because it usually only lasts a few minutes.Over time Boone discovers that though other people don't hear the buzzing, animals - both domesticated & wild - do appear to be able to hear the roaring buzzing in Boone's ears as loudly as he does. This is a troubling mystery, but what is even more troubling is that immediately after the painful headaches and deafening buzzing, someone in Boone's immediate vicinity invariably meets with nightmarish horrifying tragic fate. At first, Boone thinks that he himself is at fault for the terrible and often fatal accidents that befall random individuals who happen to be near him when he is stricken by one of his convulsive head pain attacks, but as the years drag on, another life-altering twist of fate crosses Boone's path.While on a visit to Old Town amusement park, Boone and a couple of his counter-culture friends seek a reading with a psychic medium, Madame Lucinda. This gypsy fortuneteller suffers a seizure when she takes Boone's hand in hers. Madame Lucinda winds up unconscious on the floor. This terrifies Boone's friends, especially since they are in possession of illegal contraband. They think the old woman is dead so they run out leaving Boone alone with the gypsy who, after a few minutes, comes to her senses.Boone helps her up off the floor and there amid the candlelight, incense, human skulls, and croaking Raven, Madame Lucinda informs Boone that he has a mystical and very special gift stemming from the concussion he suffered on the playground which Madame Lucinda knew about without Boone telling her.After high-school graduation, Boone attends the police academy and after two years is hired by the Orange County Sheriff's Department, but during the first month of his mandatory 90 day probationary period, two deputies in charge of Boone's training are seriously wounded and though Internal Affairs can't find any actual physical proof that Boone is in any way responsible, the hopeful cadet’s employment with the sheriff's department is sadly terminated.After that, Boone - despondent that his dreams of a sterling career in law enforcement will never be realized, and under the shadow of local suspicion which makes him feel ostracized as an outcast - joins a traveling carnival where he discovers many tricks of the grifting trade from an alcoholic magician. Boone quickly gains national attention for his amazing skills as a Palm Reader. There are occasional tragedies which are vaguely associated with Boone, tragedies sometimes resulting in unexplained deaths, but the shady carnival operator is only interested in the growing profits the magic show is raking in as a result of Boone's uncanny psychic powers, so the owner of the carnival ignores the shadow looming over his prize act.When local authorities start asking too many questions, the carnival simply moves on to another town before the heat gets too heavy. In spite of a lurking stigma surrounding Boone's steadily rising cult stardom, his eerily accurate prophetic readings are a paranormal phenomenon that wins a very lucky break for Boone when criminal investigators in Washington, D.C. find out about his unique gift and summon him to the nation's capital to assist with solving a string of grizzly murders that are suspected to be linked to a Satanic Cult operating from an old Georgian architecture red brick mansion situated on the North Branch of the Potomac river.This is what leads to Boone's first grim encounter with the mystery woman who thereafter haunts his life. From that fateful night onward, her ominous shadow follows him everywhere he goes. This is how readers discover the eerie name of the witchy mystery woman. How do you like this novel so far, Sybil? Is it moving in a direction that pleases you?Boom! Boom! Boom! The diabolical red eyes! Hello, Sybil, my darling love. The flaming six-winged Seraph is coming for me soon, so I must rush to tell you what there is left to tell! Please forgive the unpolished wording. It goes like this….Back in the secret underground Chamber of Archives the curator pulls box off dusty shelf, removes lid, “Here are letters exchanged between Boone and his odd, highly dubious correspondents. These are maps drawn in his own hand, and here, yuck, I’m not touching those nasty things! are relics he collected from macabre far-off places where his investigations took him, and, ah yes, here we are, the Boone Diary! Some of it he speaks in the first person, other entries are third person omniscient as if he were writing a novel.”Visitor who signed nondisclosure agreement begins reading the coveted and eerily cryptic Boone Diary…. firearm glued to pale-skinned, pale-haired young woman’s hands. She’s screaming “Help me, Boone!” Boone begging Federal Agents not to shoot her because she’s a victim, the Satanists brought her to the old Georgian red brick mansion as a neophyte. The portentous phrase “Ah Satan” is written on the dank basement wall. She is shot by Federal Agents, gurgling choking blood from her pretty mouth! Boone gently holding her hand as paramedics carry her toward ambulance on gurney, “Tell me your name! I can heal you, I can save your life, I have powers, I can save you but only if I know your name! I must know your name!”She gurgled blood straining with weakening attempts to speak, her speech is garbled, Boone leans his ear close to her mouth but he cannot make out what she is saying, “Her blood pressure is dropping!” paramedics push him aside “Sir, please get out of the way! We’ve got to get her to the hospital!”Boone in tears, searches entire house, makes his way back down into basement, Ah Satan on basement wall, he can’t make any sense of it, next day Boone is summoned to FBI headquarters, friend agent in closed door session with superior, superior speaking sarcastically, “Borkum Boone….oh yeah, sure, I know all about you Boone. You have attacks of violent head pain accompanied by a loud buzzing noise in your ears. They call you Buzzy. Yeah, Buzzy Boone. You don’t like that, do you Boone? You don’t like it when people call you Buzzy? People have a way of meeting with tragedy soon after one of your noisy headaches”“He has a gift, Chief.”“Yeah, the gift of death! I can’t pin it on you Boone, at the moment, but when I do, believe me you’ll be facing the death penalty yourself!”Outside the office walking slowly down hall, friend agent speaking encouragement, “Don’t let that get to you, Boone. He’s just frustrated at the dead end this case is taking. He’s lashing out in frustration. You’re the most convenient target at the moment, being an outsider.”“Yeah, seems I’m always on the outside.”“You have a good working relationship with the Bureau. You’ll be called to help solve some other cases. Right now, the smoke from this has to clear. Get some rest. Take a vacation or something. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”“Get me back inside the mansion.”“Ah, Boone, that I cannot do. I wish I could, but the chief , he’s the ring leader on this case, if he says you’re to stay away from there, that’s what you damn well better do. Seriously, Boone, don’t screw this up. That’s just what he wants you to do. They teach psychological warfare tactics at the Academy. He’s pushing you in hope that you’ll hang yourself. Stay away from the mansion. Go someplace quiet for awhile. Then, when you come back, I’ll let you view all the evidence. Photos, witness statements, everything, but for right now, just let things cool off. Let the chief cool off. Don’t let him trip you up. You’re smarter than that. You’re smarter than he is.”“I appreciate the validity of everything you’re telling me, friend agent, but later will be too late. I’ve got to see everything now. I’ve got to get back in the mansion.”“It’s not a game, Boone. He’s got a tail on you, which I’m sure you know. Please, I don’t want to see you hurt. Please promise me you’ll stay away from the mansion. Promise me you’ll get out of town.”Boone nodded with a faint side-dressing of smile, then gloomily trudged away down the astringent sterile hall of the J. Edgar Hoover Building.Boone loses tail, crosses police tape line, sneaks back into mansion. Down in basement racking his brain over Ah Satan, mysteriously inscribed on old basement wall. He’s pressuring himself to figure it out, then remembering what the alcoholic magician said about Leonardo precepts, rummages about for something, car pulls up in driveway of mansion, agents get out, shadows cross in front of headlights, Boone in panicked search, finds cracked mirror, races back downstairs, front door bursts open federal agents with flashlights and guns! Boone holding mirror up to basement wall.The cryptic phrase Ah Satan becomes Natasha when reflected in mirror! Natasha! Light at top of basement stairs flicks on, agents stamping down stair steps, Boone climbs upon wooden crates to reach basement window as flashlights spot him, federal agents shouting grabbing at his feet, he barely kicks himself free, disappears down alley as another FBI car wheels rapidly into drivewayHe's sure it’s the same woman he saw! She's got the same long straight ghost white hair!We now rejoin our brooding loner Borkum Boone as he drives onward in disturbed bewilderment through the eerie paranormal darkness and soul-shriveling solitude of the Oregon high desert, his harried mind flashing images of ghastly explanations for why a woman would be walking alone on the side of a wilderness interstate highway in the dead of night, but where did she go?How had she disappeared when he stopped to offer assistance? Boone cross-examined himself mercilessly while fighting in vain against a threatening possibility that hovered like a sinister skulking gargoyle at the fringe of his subconscious - had he seen a ghost? Was the woman in the nocturnal wilderness a spirit of the dead? A premonition? A ghoulish omen of dire warning?With the haunting rockabilly ballad I'm on Fire broadcasting from an unseen phantom radio station, continuously playing through the old Ford Bronco's stereo speakers, Boone huddled around the steering wheel glad that he had remembered to bring his favorite long-sleeve quilted flannel shirt. The heater in the Bronco had worked fine before he saw the ghost-woman on the side of the highway….why would it not come on now?The bone-piercing chill deepened the sense of preternatural gloom. Hours later about the time he was crossing the state line into Washington, a faint suggestion of dawn began imperceptibly evolving on the eastern horizon. At this first hint of daylight, the radio mysteriously went dead. It was uncanny. Boone had somehow expected this.Amid a growing chain of eerie unexplained events, Boone kept driving northward until by noon of that chilly gray October day in the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest, he found himself falling asleep at the wheel. About 40 miles south of the Canadian border, he was compelled to pull into the gravel parking lot of a cheap motel for a hot shower and some much needed sleep.Boone didn’t realize how exhausted he was. The ragged lone traveler slept like a corpse all that afternoon and all that night, not stirring until daybreak of the following morning. With sore muscles that felt like they were made of wet sandbags, he raised himself to a sitting position on the side of the squeaky bed that reeked of cigarettes and stale booze.Like a zombie he dragged himself across the cold threadbare carpet to peep through the closed curtains for a glimpse of the weather that he would face in the grueling drive ahead. Boone jerked to rigid attention at what he saw. There beside the driver’s door of his old Bronco was the ghost woman he had seen on the side of the interstate highway! That had been hundreds of miles away the night before the one he just slept through in total oblivion. He was sure it was the same woman. Her back was to him just like on the interstate and her long straight snow-white hair looked exactly the same! It had to be her -- but how? How did she get here? Maybe she wasn’t a ghost after all? But who was she? And why was this enigmatic woman standing beside his 4x4?In spite of the fact that Boone was wearing only his long knit underwear he stepped to the motel room door and yanked it open ---- but other than his trusty old Bronco and two other cars, the motel parking lot was completely barren. The mysterious woman had vanished again!The frigid autumn air rushed into the room forcing him to close the creaking door. In maddening confusion, Boone hurriedly showered, checked out of the dirt-cheap motel and, following State Road 539, entered British Columbia at the Lynden-Aldergrove border crossing.It was another cold gray day with occasional misting rain and Boone drove silently - a lonely man imprisoned by his spiraling thoughts - for 250 miles north of Vancouver, finally arriving late in the afternoon at the remote logging town to which he had been summoned by a haunting phone call in the middle of the night one week hence.This town was little more than a remote outpost totally cut off and isolated by tens of thousands of square miles of Canadian Rockies wilderness. Boone immediately realized he had gotten way in over his head as a vexing sensation washed over his tired body with an icy wave of fear. His heart pounded with the ominous portent of stepping back 400 years in time to a village of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.The word ‘welcome’ wasn’t painted on the badly weathered sign that bluntly read - Damien’s Fork, population 313. The narrow out-of-date bridge Boone had to cross to enter the creepy settlement didn’t look sturdy enough to support the weight of the Bronco, but a rusty old pickup truck sitting in stone cold silence on the other side got there somehow.With tense nerves Boone eased his 4x4 onto the bridge, the aged timbers and cracked planks creaking under the slowly moving load. With the window rolled down to watch his tires for signs of danger, Boone could, even over the rumble of the Bronco's V8 engine, hear the thunderous roar of millions of gallons of tumultuous tumbling water rushing chaotically beneath in the dizzying deep gorge of Devil's Cradle Rapids, a gauntlet of nature feared by rafters and kayakers alike as the world's deadliest whitewater.Finally off the precarious bridge and safely on solid ground again, Boone shifted nervously in his seat as his disbelieving eyes took in the discouraging sight of the empty muddy street threading its way between two rows of dismal gray plain board and batten buildings. No neon signs, no brightly colored paint - everything drab and dreary. No one on the wooden sidewalks. The little town looked dead.Parking the Bronco beside a hitching post in front of the only building that appeared to have a light on, Boone slid out, locked his doors, and entered the old-time two story structure where he was immediately struck by the unexpected surprise of a strong disquieting odor. It’s not necessarily an unpleasant smell, though Boone can’t quite place it - something like cinnamon and cloves, but buried beneath the pungent Thanksgiving aroma is a darker scent that carries a lurking suggestion of danger. Boone wonders if he is walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.It appears to Boone that he has entered what must pass for an inn in this godforsaken part of the wilderness. Stepping up to the chest-high front desk he sees that instead of the low dome bell that one can slap with the palm of the hand, there is instead a silver bell like the ones Santa Clause rings for the Salvation Army, except that this bell is adorned with an exquisitely carved wooden handle. Boone is about to reach for the witchy-looking bell when a tall, gaunt woman materializes without sound or warning from behind a drawn curtain on the other side of the registration counter.The silent woman’s attire is as gray and drab as the town’s banal architecture. Boone can’t place the woman’s age. Being clad in a gray bonnet and starchy charcoal-gray linen dress that covers her entirely from her neck to her booted feet, she has the somber appearance of mid-life, but maybe that’s because she isn’t wearing any cosmetics or jewelry. Boone wonders if she’s Mennonite, Amish, Mormon, or what?She is a stern-faced woman and offers Boone no smile from her thin, closed lips. The ascetic woman simply stands silently on the other side of the registration desk staring blankly at Boone. Nervous at the self-incriminating silence of the unfamiliar social situation, Boone clears his throat to speak, “I need lodging for the night. Is this an Inn? Can I get a room here?”The stern-faced woman pushes a huge book toward Boone. The book is open at about its middle. The silent woman next slides a pen across the counter-top toward Boone, “Sign the guestbook please.” As Boone was signing the huge guestbook, he noticed another heavy tome nearby on the counter top. It was a leather-bound copy of Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World published in 1693 - the witch-hunt book!Boone signed the guestbook and returned the silent woman’s pen. The grim hostess spoke in flat monotone, “That will be fifty dollars for one night.”“Well,” Boone nervously replies, “I may be staying longer. Is it okay if I pay for a week in advance?” He opens his wallet so the austere woman can see that it is stuffed with hundred dollar bills.“Fifty dollars for one night.” is the reply from the tight, narrow lips of the stern-faced woman that faces Boone with an expression that is utterly devoid of any hint of the thoughts passing through her bonnet-covered head.Boone hands her a C-note, “Have you change for a hundred?”Without a word the cryptic woman takes the hundred dollar bill, places it in a drawer behind the chest-high registration counter, then removing another bill from the same drawer passes the fifty to Boone. “Your room is up the stairs. Room 13.”Boone attempts a little humor, “Thirteen, huh? I thought these houses of hospitality didn’t put the number thirteen on any of their room doors to protect against bad luck. You don’t like tourists here so you want to curse them so they won’t come back.” Boone followed his witty remark with a faint-hearted laugh. The stern-faced woman was silent, staring blankly at Boone. Feeling that his joke went over like a lead balloon, Boone asked, “Well, can I have the key to my room, please?”“We don’t have keys. Your room is open to you. The doors in our town do not have locks. We have no need for locks in Damien’s Fork.”After this macabre enigmatic statement, the eerie woman vanished again behind the floor-length drawn curtain. Boone couldn’t believe it. No locks on the doors? How bizarre and out of place in the twenty-first century. Boone shrugged his shoulders, oh well, this is the remote wilderness, everybody around here is most likely armed and dangerous, add to that the fact that they obviously don’t get many visitors. As far as Boone could tell, he was the only guest. Arriving on the landing at the top of the immaculately clean richly polished wooden stairs, Boone walked down the hall to room 13, turned the antique brass knob and sure enough, the door opened. The room was small, quaint, and as sterile clean as the narrow staircase. The weird odor was as strong in room 13 as in the lobby, but Boone was too tired from a week of driving to give the scent much thought at the moment.He went out to the Bronco, grabbed his suitcase, then returned to his room where he showered, made a few notes in his journal, then switched off the lights and crawled between the soft sumptuous blankets and quilts which he figured were hand-sewn by the wizened ladies of the local gossip circle. Boone eagerly awaited sleep but in the aching soreness of his fatigue, sleep alluded him. He tossed and turned until around midnight when just as he was finally dozing off, he could have sworn he heard the haunting melody of I’m on Fire playing somewhere in the distance. He couldn’t determine if the eerie music was coming from inside the inn or somewhere outside in the deepening witch-hour darkness. Then sleep took him. Grim nightmares from a time outside of time accosted his restless slumber. The cryptic word GAOL drifted across his subconscious mind’s eye. He witnessed a huge scarlet letter ‘A’ bursting into liquefying blood-red flames. Boom! Boom! Boom! The sadistic red eyes!