LOGGING REFLECTIONS: Selected Writings on Life, Faith, Memory, Politics, and the Search for Meaning
What does a life look like when it is honestly examined - not curated for social media, not packaged for approval, but genuinely reflected upon over fifteen years?
Logging Reflections is the answer one man arrived at.
Rashid Siddiqui - known to family and old friends as Newton - was born in Darbhanga, Bihar, and went on to build a career and a family across Delhi, Sri Lanka, and Sydney. For over a decade, he kept a public blog where he wrote about whatever refused to leave his mind: childhood memories, professional dilemmas, the experience of being a Muslim navigating complex geopolitics, the philosophy hidden inside a high school mathematics class, and the grief of losing a father on the first night of Ramadan.
This book collects the best of those writings, organized into two thematic sections.
Memories & Personal Life takes readers deep into a vanishing world - the Darbhanga of the 1980s and 1990s, with its summer chess games, ice-block bicycle rides, Doordarshan serials, and the particular social fabric of a middle-class Muslim household in Bihar. Here you will find portraits of unforgettable teachers, beloved uncles, school friendships, and the slow unfolding of a young man finding his footing - through AMU, Jamia Millia Islamia, IBM, and eventually the world beyond India's borders. At the heart of this section is a deeply moving account of the author's father, Shamsul Islam Siddiqui, whose final weeks and last phone call form one of the most tender passages in the book.
Reflections on Life & Society shifts the lens outward. These essays take on hypocrisy, corporate culture, the nature of meaningful communication, the psychology of self-centeredness, and the spiritual obligations that modern life tends to crowd out. They are direct and sometimes blunt, drawing on thinkers from Stephen Covey to Viktor Frankl, and always returning to the Quranic principles that anchor the author's worldview.
Together, these pieces form something rare: an authentic record of an examined life, written not for posterity, but because silence was not an option.
This book is for you if:
- You grew up in India and carry a nostalgia for a world that is slowly disappearing
- You are interested in the inner life of a Muslim professional navigating faith, family, and modernity
- You believe that ordinary lives contain extraordinary meaning - and are looking for writing that proves it
Logging Reflections does not offer easy answers. It offers honest questions, vivid memories, and the quiet conviction that reflection itself is an act of courage.
About the Author: Rashid Siddiqui is an Information Security Professional, AI educator, and writer based in Sydney, Australia. He holds certifications including CISSP, AAISM and CCSP, and has spent his career at the intersection of technology, teaching, and lifelong learning.
