Train to Pakistan 2004 - Heading Back

While I never went to Karachi, Peshawar, or Quetta, I saw enough of Islamabad/Pindi and Lahore to know that India is a much better place to live than Pakistan. There is so much corruption there that in comparison India looks like the inside of a bank vault. People slaughter animals almost anywhere they feel like and then they leave the remains right there on the street. Another thing is their love of alcohol. While it is ``officially banned,`` the rich and influential people obtain scotch, gin, vodka, and other delights from foreign embassy people. My dad made a lot of Paki ``friends`` by providing this luxury to so many of them. They have a lot of private parties in the posh houses of the rich. Military officers get rich by selling their allotments to the common people at terribly inflated prices. These plots of land are in ``defence societies`` that of course receive all the amenities controlled by the military, so their prices shoot upwards. This allows military men to become very rich at the common Paki`s expense. Our jawans lead a much more spartan life style in comparison to the Paki military - they are kings in that country.

On mumbaichick: The way of writing indicates this aint no chick. No chick would write such shi!t. This is either a man or one of those weird man-woman types from India - a big toe wali chappal-wearing, prune faced sexless little monkey from mumbai. The 10 millionth such specimen who has come to chowk to assure us of the wonders of India and to vent his spleen at us Pakistanis when in fact he/she sees the problem every time he/she looks at the mirror and sees a prune looking back at him.

veeresh

nice read..although i would say it was not as insightful this time. maybe you just wanted to finish off writing about the pakistan tour and move to other things!

do the intelligence guys really snoop around this much...? from what you say , large portions of profits that pakistan booked in the cricket series might have been squandered in following the visitors from india.

Great stuff! Would love to read all your other episodes as well. Thanks ! it was all very well balanced and very realistic as well.

#9 by veeresh

“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.”

You are really naïve!
Do you know how many villages are in Pakistan? Anyway, who gives a flying F about BDs. There are about ½ mill BDs in Karachi and you know what; they have roofs over their heads.

#14 by gujju1

We all know that India is the fourth richest country in world. No stats are needed your word is good enough.
What I am wondering why jamshedpur a major industrial town in India has highway like this?
Or why a major Indian national highway looks like this.

#35 by Soulat

The roads are bad at some places but they were worse just a few years ago. They are improving every year, and some of the new highways are just world-class. You couldn`t imagine seeing such roads even 5 years ago. That more than speaks for the rapid development of India`s infrastructure. And this has been made possible only because of the Indian economy`s superb performance over the last few years.

#9 by veeresh on August 1, 2004 8:29pm PT
*** 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. ***

Sir, though you have written so several times, please don’t mind, there is no truth at all in your observation/understanding or information. Rather, I am eager to know that how have you figured out this? I mean it is your own conclusion, read somewhere or have been told like this by some well-informed source.
Rest assured, Pakistanis are very much free to move wherever they feel like whenever they feel like. There are almost no restrictions at all, at least on the basis of financial muscles.

I think, except bashing Islam and to some extent Mr Jinnah Pakistanis are almost totally free/wild to do as they deem fit.

tahmed32,

I remember discussing the virtues of using decent language in posts on another board. But, it is difficult to keep away from natural instincts

We would like to see how our hunk tahmed looks like! I can bet you are a stinking, bearded black mochi in coloured lungi and checkered under-shirt, hiding his baldness by wearing a skull-cap and trying to pass it off as religiosity.

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gujju khotay...
abay you say 25% indians live in abject poverty..that is about 300 million people, twice the entire population of pakistan.. think about that and vaise bhi statistics prove that ajit agarkar has the best strike rate in the world for the first 50 wickets in ODI...;)

[tobateksingh/18 - from what I was told, by Pakistani friends who should know, and Karachi was mentioned as a specific exemption, the ``authorities`` in Pakistan clamp down really hard on migrant rural poor in the larger cities of Pakistan, and keep them moving, no slums/shanties/sleeping on pavement.]

...for a brilliant and imaginative writer, you sound like an idiot quoting ``friends in the know`` telling you that crap and you swallowing it hook line and sinker...can`t
you accept the fact that pakistanis do not sleep on the footpath... YET ...but they are moving quickly in that direction what with booming population and falling economy...but they donot sleep on footpaths nor the government stops them moving to cities...

tahmed,
I am sorry that I got you upset. I was only sharing my own observations after living in Pakistan for a few years. Maybe things have improved since then. Please don`t descend to personal insults. Just stay on the topic and get a hold of your emotions. I am quite content with who I am.
Cheers :-)

#44

Don`t talk nonsense dude. Your post proves that India is greater then Pakistan in all respects. How dare you compare Pakistan with a country whose population of Bhikaris is more then your entire population.

#35 by Soulat
look mr soulat, we in india have democracy, and have found dual use for highways. you can use the highway sides as potty toll-free. its srtictly a BYOL system though (bring your own lota). Now when you match such dual used on your fancy mororways, we can talk. till then please .. (over to gujju1 for fdi comparisons etc).

I can vouch for taxi drivers in mumbai. in good old days of dodge and ambassador taxies, a typical taxiwala was a sirdar. then it was a purbhaiyya. now the purbhaiyyas have sold the buffalo farms to suburban development, and now taxi guys are all BDs pretending to be beharis.

no change in natinalities of hijras though. veeresh, like in mumbai, do hijras come to your car-auto begging for money? or there are none around?

mumbaichick: Since you have apologized and offered to smoke the peace pipe, I shall accept that. The reason I was upset was that I cant imagine living in any place in the world and finding nothing but nasty stuff to write about it. Of course there is widespread poverty in Pakistan - as there is in India. And of course where there is poverty you will find filth - as you will in Pakistan and as you do in India (and yes, I have been to India even though briefly and have seen some pretty disgusting scenes - but I wont delve on those). But there is no shortage of beauty and things to wonder about either. Even among the poor I have seen beauty and dignity that the desi rich can never attain no matter how expensive their clothes. It is all a question of your own attitude and how you choose to look at things. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I would rather look for things to enjoy when I go anywhere (including India) rather than things to put down. Veeresh and Dost Mittar before him and the thousands of Indian fans who visited Pakistan this year are examples of people who choose to look for things to appreciate.