My Pakistan Diary: Roots! A Spiritual Journey

Stuka and dost-mittar:

I read your posts and I pretty much subscribe to what Stuka said w.r.t. security and stability and what dost said w.r.t. Indians based tourism in Pakistan. I say this because I get to meet with lots of NWFP based tour operators and they are badly hit by events of Talibanization in Afghanistan, 9/11 and afterwards.

I wanted to seek your opinion so as to convey them to the Karta Dhertas of affairs in Pakistan and to advise my tour operator friends to sit tight for quite some time in the future, unfortunately.

Dost-mitter,

Sometimes in your responses (for eg: to urstruly) you speak the truth. Otherwise
you pretend a lot and obfuscate the truth by trying to create all kinds of equivalencies
between the Pakis and Indians etc.
That part of trying to be ``nice`` may be because of your lack of self confidence and
nehruvian education. You end being a dhimmi.

Being truthful and upfront is much more useful in the long run to build relationships.

Something that you should consider.

Regards,

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Dear roohi:

Welcome back!
Hum tau soch rahe thay key aap shayad naraaz ho kay chali gayeen. Hope the kids are grown up some and are spending some time at the nursery.

ahmadzai#61:
I agree in general with stuka`s observations wrt tourism. Kashmir is one of the most, if not the most attractive tourist destination in India. Yet, it was deserted by all tourists - domestic and foreign- as long it was not peaceful. Pakistan will need to be at peace with itself, if not with its neighbours, before it can attract any tourists. And even when this happens, tourist facilities in Pakistan are almost non-existent. Of course, it is also a chicken-and-egg problem.

But there is an exception. I think that tourists from Panjab will like to visit Pakistan if it was open to them. The potential from the rest of India is limited, except maybe some muslim indians from the north who, in most cases, will be staying with their relatives and contribute not a whole lot to tourism.

hamidm2#79
You and urstruly make strange bedfellows in insisting that there is no common ground between the hindus and muslims. Well, it all depends upon whether you think that religion is a permanent fault line for human relations. I do not happen to think so.
I may come across as a sentimental old fool sometimes but I do know the deep scars caused by the centuries of muslim domination and hindu humiliation and the more recent hindu economic domination during the British period. I have aslo lived through the holocaust of the partition. But I have noticed that the children of ex-pats hindus and muslims do not hate each other. Indeed, my guess would be that your children are more likely to have an hindu Indian friend than an african or arab muslim.
I have no desire for India and Pakistan to reunite. Whatever happened, happened and it`s time to move forward. But we cannot pass the legacy of hatred to our children, as it was passed down to us. I think that the current thaw has provided a window of opportunity for a historical reconciliation, but it is only a window, and will close anytime if sustained efforts are not made to keep it open even further. In the language of `lafangas`,
Raah mein un-ko lay aaye to hain baaton mein
Aur khul jaayen-ge do-chaar mulaqaaton mein!

nooralain #70
If you say so :). I thought that was a nicely-done website too.

yes still here - where am I going to go ... ? just have too much going on to get sucked into cyberspace like you timepass chokras (just kidding :) wish I had more time) good you had the akal to visit boston before the DNC madness descends on us ...

38
Just from memory, it`s swargaadapi varjate.
Dost-mittar, I thought it was going to be another hai mera lahore article, but thankfully not!

#82 by rsridhar

You should be listening to the lady here:
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/june-2004/15/EDITOR/opinion.ASP

this question of commonality, shared culture etc will never be settled. It all depends on how you look at it.

By making a song and dance about such things - you are making pakis nervous. They don`t want no shared cultural sh!t. so why bother? As it is - the whole nation is freakin paranoid - on top of that folks like dost-mitter, the hindu goes around telling them how similar pakis are to hinuds. Naturally pakis see red - they see it as negation of dear old TNT - that hinuds are going take over land of pure.

So let it go. You are making it worse. Leave the pakis alone - may be a miracle will happen and pakis will decide to leave in peace. Chances are less - no matter how many lovy-dovy travelogues you write.

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Roohi:

Whassup!! Long time no see...still in Boston? I just got back from there, had an awesome trip.

Dear Dost-Mittar,

Thanks for this great travelogue series. It was wonderful to read it and share the experience of your travels. I think you are really very lucky to have in your wife a companion who shares your interests. That you are taking the time at this stage in your life to travel together and discover both your roots and reflect on your personal histories is really so sweet !! I learnt a lot from reading about your impressions of this trip. Hope this material gets published elsewhere as well so other people can read it too!

``Do keep in mind that I don`t have Vereesh`s skills of observing people for a few hours and imediately knowing everything about them.....:-). So some of my observations will be off-target....... ``

HAHAHA...TOUCHE!

Ahmadzai:

``do you think that Pakistani tourism stood a competitive chance in todays world, if promoted? I am referring to cultural, archaeological, historical and natural resources based tourism. ``

Not a chance. I work for Marriott at the hq here in DC. We have a Marriott in Karachi and Islamabad. We usually get stats for all properties on inbound travel and India gets a fraction of say Thailand which is so much smaller then India and Pakistan gets a fraction of India.

Besides, the hotel in Karachi has been a target multiple times for no other reason but the fact that the brand is American though it is owned by a Pakistani company and all the employees are Pakistani.

Tourism needs more then beautiful places. It needs an atmosphere of serenity and relaxation. It means evoking a spirit of friendliness and bonhomie. Think Dubai and you will know what I mean.

Ahmadzai:

``I am sure that if Pushtoons become net friendly and start interacting with Indians on the net, they will turn anti-Indians quickly. ``

HAHA...quite true.

#69 -- oh brother , here we go again --

veeresh ji: ``sirji, I do not claim to know everyhting about a people after meeting them for a few minutes or a day...`` -- oh but u do jee veeresh jee, u do

#70 -- nooralain -- finally we agree on something -- well this is a true story -- not what veeresh ji will tell you -- when i went to india in 2002, i had to go to the indian embassy -- since i was invited to a conference and i was a journalist they allowed me inside while the passport was being stamped -- the visa chief came and met me, a very polite and thoroughly decent gentleman who told me that he was from somewhere near gujranwala, as in his parents were -- generally people in any embassy`s visa section are the intelligence people, so that i had heard -- this guy was also expelled a few months later by pakistan along with 3 others on charges of espionage -- india had done the same too -- now checking some indian sites a couple of weeks ago, i read news stories in all mainstream indian papers that this same guy had died in a freak accident -- this happened as a lift in a govt of india building inexplicably collapsed all of a sudden -- as it turns out the lift was situated in the Research and Analysis Wing`s headquarters -- the indian papers identified the building as such -- and the guy was identified as a director in the agency, originally from the revenue side of the civil service but later co-opted into RAW for his competency -- go figure --