latest publication

March 2025
Vishnu Krishnan (Writer, actor, producer – vishnu://vimeo.com; and info@-telenta.eu).

 A story from the halls of Oxford with richness and depth befitting its history

I read this book with great interest to understand the author’s (Rafi) story and his relationship with his friend Rolf at Oxford. Stepping back a little, the story felt like an adventure and almost a character study of Rolf from the perspective of Rafi. Getting to understand Rafi was just as intriguing as the subject material itself surrounding Rolf. The book is a deeply personal account of the experiences Rafi had during his time at Oxford. It offers explorations that left deep impressions on him during his time there, including moving accounts from Rolf that give the book its beating heart. Post reading the book I really wanted to know more about Rafi and to truly understand the transformative impact this experience had on him. Everyone has unique experiences that leave marks on them consciously or otherwise but this one felt almost karmic in nature and is therefore to me a must read – a snapshot in time from the rich halls of Oxford – helping us contextualize the meaning of our lives. 

February 2022
Charles Lewis; (B A .Oxon), 

Extraordinarily different literature

The author calls his work a’ docufiction’. So from the outset he is challenging us in the nicest way to differentiate the documentary part from the fictional. My guess is that it is all true except for the character of Rolf, a middle-aged German friend, who is not part of the University (Oxford) and who hides (at least to the near end of the book) an impossibly painful history and what may or may not be a persecution complex. He is also extremely selfish, and it is only the generous nature of the author that keeps the relationship going — until, inevitably, its ending comes, with the added ingredient of an unsolved mystery.
I can vouch for the authenticity of the university background as I am myself an alumnus of Oriel College from just a year or two before the author. For example, I, too, ate at the Taj Mahal curry restaurant. We used to joke shamelessly about the ridiculous rumour going around that it fed you cat (one can be very silly at that age!). But what shamed me somewhat was the very little intercourse the author and his Indian (if I may use the term loosely) friends had with the white undergraduates. It made me realise that I could have done more in my time in that regard. I trust the situation is a great deal more inclusive nowadays. And I note with regret that, as far as I can see, the attempts of the author and his friends to build a relationship with white people at the university, — girls particularly — of their own age seem to have ended each time unhappily.
I would just add, as a last note to this very entertaining book, that there may perhaps have been a character the author knew at Oxford who provided the template for the creation of the character of Rolf, but under a different name one would hope, as the fictional elements of that character are not very edifying!

July 2020;
Dr Ketaki Kushari Dyson (Lit.Oxon) – Internationally award wining author;

Dear Rafi

I have at last managed to read your book, ‘Oxford Revisited’ on screen, and yes, you have drawn a very credible portrait of Rolf kosterlitz. I can recognize him. He was a great eccentric and an entertaining story teller. He wanted to go to Indonesia to study Balinese dancing. You have used  good novelistic techniques to build the story, including the suspense. I think you could have put a little more colour on the character of the narrator (yourself), but Rolf himself is quite vivid.

It would be very difficult to verify the details of his life under the Nazis. But his terrible experience could explain his belief in the conspiracy theory. My husband remembers that Rolf had a paranois about being persecuted by a secret society.

There is a footnote on Rolf in a V S Lewes’s letter-says Rolf Kosterlitz (1906 – 1989) was born in Berlin and took his MD examination there. He ‘matriculated’ an New College, Oxford, in 1941, but never took a degree there. He spent most of his life as a psychotherapist in Oxford.

Rolf did come to have dinner with us, and we visited him several times too, in his flat crammed with art objects. We had some common friends – a couple. When they divorced, we lost touch with Rolf. The man in that couple was an English scientist and the woman was oriental – Chinese or Malayan or Indonesian, perhaps mixed. She was a biologist or geneticist, interested in dance too.

Why did you not visit him until 1989? That’s when he seems to have dies. A set of art objects from his collection was auctioned by Mallams of Oxford that year.

You have written a fascinating account of a complex man. Congratulations. The locations are so familiar to us too. Robert and I often ate at the Dil Dunia as students.

With best wishes, Ketaki -di

Wonderful book

Rafi has done a great service to those, like me who were at Oxford in the late 60’s. He has brought memories back from that amazing time. Like him, I came up from Pakistan in 1965 to read law at St. Peter’s College and spent the next 4 years in that city of dreaming spires. I can relate to so much Rafi has recalled. This book is described as a docufiction. It’s hard to separate the two genders, the story is beautifully mixed. His life as a student is well described. I wonder if Rolf is a fictional character but the story around him is very interesting.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how life was in the sixties and particularly university life for students from the Indian sub-continent. We lived in turbulent times, Vietnam war, assertive socialism, Bertrand Russell, Tariq Ali and Enoch Powell!

Oxford Revisited will take you back to those times. It is a personal recall but well worth sharing, even for generations that followed us. The book is a page turner.

A wonderful chronicle of the time and a beautiful tale of the writer’s student life

It will be a long time before I forget this book. I find it hard to put this book into one category. It is more like five different types of books wisely blended into one. This is a wonderful chronicle of the time and a beautiful tale of the writer’s student life intertwined with that of the Rolf. It is evident throughout this book that the writer is very observant, hugely intelligent and more importantly terrifyingly honest.
As soon as I started reading this book, I had an intense feeling that this book was to put a permanent mark on my mind. This consciousness solidified within me mainly because I could relate pages after pages of observations regarding many things that a new arrival would face in England. At the same time, I am happily prepared to study part of the book over and over again to be able to decide for myself the truth about ‘Humanity’ and the ‘Origin of Consciousness’.
If you are a ‘book-reading person’ read this book for something different and enlightening. If you are not a ‘book-reading person’, read this book to see what you are missing out on.

Oriel Alumni – E-magazine (Sept. 2019)

Orielensis, Dr Sheikh Rafi Ahmad (DPhil Physical Sciences, Oxford University Alumni #8-10027999) has recently published a docufiction entitled Oxford Revisited, based on bewitching tales from one of Rafi’s friends, and capturing the zeitgeist of time and social anthropological account of student-life at Oxford when Rafi was at Oriel during 1967-1971.

Extraordinarily different literature

I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Oxford Revisited’ and I consider this one of the most fascinating books I have read. I truly thank the author for writing this story and for executing it with such brilliance. The story got my attention from the beginning as the narrator takes the readers to a very interesting period, 1960s Oxford as a young foreign student from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
The way he described his experiences is marvelous as we see the world around him which is new and interesting but is also cold and harsh at times, especially his experience with the new culture and people especially, Mrs. Capper, his first landlord. How he gets accustomed to his new surroundings and learns to survive makes it a very compelling and interesting narrative.
The way he introduces us to the main character, Rolf is very well thought out and carefully crafted. I can say the same for the other characters which are all real and it takes a great mastery and skills to be able to fictionalize real people while remaining truthful to the facts.
Rolf, a German Jew, is definitely very interesting and enigmatic with his keen interest in fine arts and music and young women, but he is also deep which we learn through the development of their friendship when Rolf talks about his past and many interesting theories about modern man and how it uses primitive instincts…about cults and cave drawings as it relates to man and mankind. Quite thought provoking.
There is a great sense of humor to the author’s story telling style and fine ability in character building but what was really impressive way the dramatic arc was maintained until the final act where we learn about the real truth behind the man, Rolf, who is he and why he had befriended a foreign student from South East Asia. Why he was able to open up to him and share some of the most intimate secrets and purge years of guilt and shame.
I also liked the pace as the story moved from one chapter to the next.
I would definitely recommend this book.