Train to Pakistan 2004 - Heading Back

Veeresh Malik/mog,

Bhagwan has blessed you will exceptional abilities. You know a lot more about Pakistan after a week`s visit than most of us know after living there for a lifetime.

Its a pity and a sad loss to humanity that you are a second rate journalist. If you were say a physician, given your abilities, you would have diagnosed colo-rectal cancer just by looking at your patient`s ass.

#1 by ali_1

Your colo-rectal cancer stinks to high heaven mian - the whole world knows that pakistan has some serious disease. So don`t shoot the doctor for telling you the way it is.

Nice article...was looking forward to it and enjoyed reading it...the visas specifying that it is not valid for the cantt areas is I think, quite pointless and stupid...many cities have grown around the cantt areas because they are the best maintained...case in point being Bangalore and Lahore...even Pakistanis who visit India face the same problem...imagine a Pakistani who visits Bangalore...he had better hole up in the airport...because ring road is military property and so is much of Indira Nagar...heck, even the airport is used by the air force...almost all the tourist areas are in the `military zone`...when I visited Lahore, I HAD to pass through cantt areas to go to Faisal Town...and the house parties are mostly in Defence...another interesting similarity between Bangalore and Lahore is the location of their old airports...(Bangalore is all set to get a new one)...both are bang in the middle of the city...regards

Kabuli

Veersh Malik can smell the exhaust of a Hino truck and tell you that the pistons and cams are Made in India....

Clairvoyance, I say.

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He just can’t get off from comparing the two countries… Since homeless and people sleeping on the pavements, is a staple of Indian cities, this guy assumes that poor in Pakistan do the same. People sleeping on the pavements, is not a common site in Pakistan.
I heard that an Indian actor drove over a pavement and killed four people and injured many. Was that a pavement or a dorm? Chances of something like that happening in Pakistan …almost Zero.
Did somebody look at the Gosaba Island pictures in the Gallery from the same person?

Look at this and see for yourself … This is how the fourth largest GDP PPP or whatever country looks like.

Veeresh,

this is your best yet.

I have found out firsthand myself how it feels to be staring

at the barrel of an AK-47 in Karachi on my last visit.

That was my last appearance at the neighborhood tandoor.

It was a sheer pleasure to read this.

Ras

Veeresh Ji

Very detailed & information-laden.

You just seem to be a little too concious of security aspect - which tend to make your travelouge read like a thriller - in the style of the film ``The Great Escape``.

It is the same feeling that one now gets at the US entry points as a Pakistani.

Good one.

NHK

Ali_1/1 - here is a special short travel report for you:- Hello! I went to Pakistan, while India departure was the usual mess, once we crossed into Pakistan Airspace, the ozone content improved, the flight crew were able to navigate so much better, the cabin crew started looking lovelier, the airport formalities at Lahore/Karachi/Islamabad were better than at Changi, I hopped from aircon car to aircon hotel lobby to aircon homes where I got totally smashed every 7 tasty meals of the day, never observed anything other than Ladonia-Utopia while there and only rode Daimlers, people were all so goraa-handsome-pretty, rock bands were playing on every street corner, secular Mullahs were extolling the virtues of a peaceful co-existence and as for Kashmir, it was milk and honey, and in cricket they are Mashaa! Then I came back to the usual mess that is terrible Al-Hind.

Kabuli/4, I know, but this whole visa thing is bi-lateral reciprocal, the only good this is that it still costs only 15/-. The cantt clause is like a chain around our mutual necks, ready to be pulled at any stage.

Soulat/7, the poor in Pakistan, from what I understand, are simply not allowed to migrate and stay in the urban areas. They need to get back to their own rural areas, and live there in bondage if it comes to that. Unlike in India, where the poor, from India as well as neighbouring countries, do have an option to escape rural bondage, calamity, flood/drought, hunger etc. . . and thus tend to congregate visibly in urban areas. That comparision is stark and vivid. And when I tell you that the rural poor in Delhi from neighbouring countries now includes not just B`Desh but also Pakistan, then please appreciate that I have just returned after spending an hour talking with one of my oldest freinds at Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya`s basti a few minutes ago.

Ras/8, none of my security/intelligence episodes in Pakistan were terrifying or scary. But then, I grew up to gunfire and armed conflict in a variety of countries and continents.

NHK/9, thank you. I think the cricket visas were the first time in a few decades that middle-class Indians were allowed to go walkabout in Pakistan. (NOT from the well connected or famly visa categories). Those who got smart and opted for 8-day test match visas were especially covered, since many took the opportunity to quietly go to other parts of Pakistan. I am still wondering whether I should write about what I did en route Pindi to Lahore . . . I guess I shall, properly shielding identities.

Nice. Veeresh-bhai, you have the feel of a seasoned travel writer (pardon my ignorance if you ARE in fact one!)

Liked the narrative about the Intelligence officer`s change of heart best. Keep writing!

Ali1, travel writing is not really for natives. I don`t mean that in a condescnding way, it`s a simple fact. It usually strikes a chord with those on the outside looking in but leaves the ones on the inside feeling strangely frustrated, unable to put a finger on what exactly is wrong with it but sure that it is!

``Ali_1/1 - here is a special short travel report for you:- Hello! I went to Pakistan, while India departure was the usual mess, once we crossed into Pakistan Airspace, the ozone content improved, the flight crew were able to navigate so much better, the cabin crew started looking lovelier, the airport formalities at Lahore/Karachi/Islamabad were better than at Changi, I hopped from aircon car to aircon hotel lobby to aircon homes where I got totally smashed every 7 tasty meals of the day, never observed anything other than Ladonia-Utopia while there and only rode Daimlers, people were all so goraa-handsome-pretty, rock bands were playing on every street corner, secular Mullahs were extolling the virtues of a peaceful co-existence and as for Kashmir, it was milk and honey, and in cricket they are Mashaa! Then I came back to the usual mess that is terrible Al-Hind. ``

LOL!!

The kind of prejudice, derision, and contempt this man harbors for Pakistan and Muslims is just mind boggling

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Urstruly

Post # 12

Quote:

The kind of prejudice, derision, and contempt this man harbors for Pakistan and Muslims is just mind boggling

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As I recall, not that long ago, on this very Chowk, some people had expressed completely opposite/different opinion to what has been said above. So much so that to prove that he is not what he was being taken/labeled as, he had to say, his father (or could be some other relation of his) had worn boots (have served with Indian armed forces). So which is what/correct... :)

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Questions for the author:
1. About rural poor: I don`t understand what you mean by the poor not being allowed to migrate to rural areas? What/who holds them back? And aren`t the katchi abadian in Karachi counter-evidence that there is a real rural exodus going on?
2. Which year did your father join Baluch? My nani`s brother was in the same regiment and it meant a lot to him for some reason that I, a hip anti-war kid, never understood. He passed away recently and I`d like to tell his sons about you and your visit.

Urstruly/12: what prejudice or derision or contempt????
woah! best get some practice reading travel writing... for example, try Evelyn Waugh on the Mediterranean (Labels: A Mediterranean Journal) to see what eccentricity or mean-spirited-ness can be like... this guy is about as fair as one can get. quit carping. would love to see what you write about India. I`d say he`s been more generous than I am about Pakistan.