Why Doesn’t the World Care?

faisaluno:

please don`t mind sridhar/bundy, keep digging.

Your articles keeps reminding us that we have miles and miles to go before we sleep.

Re: # 192

apollo hospitals are also good. have heard a lot about them.

Re: # 196

sridhar:

``PL-480s``

whats that??

Re: # 199

To Salim and rsridhar

Why let the opinions of others change you? I `ve followed up on the responses of this article because I wrote it and was at times quite disappointed by the anti-Pakistan sentiment expressed by many writes. Should this affect my friendship with my Indian friends? NO.

Also, Salim, what exactly is the `Pakistani elite` that you and some others have referred to and how has it turned you off?

I meet a lot of `once Pakistani fervents` who hold a bitter grudge against Pakistan and other Pakistanis and instead of lifting ourselves up we just try to put India, the West, and others down. It saddens me to see that we`ve thrown in the towel so easily and wandered off in a self destructive path. We are brutally honest in self criticism and we do quite well at it. But our jingoistic DNA comes in play when someone from across the border tells us the same thing. If we cant handle this heat lets talk about the weather instead. I`m sure there are a number of problems in India (poverty, political corruption, etc) but quite honestly I need to focus my energies in fixing Pakistan - not criticising India.

For whatever it is worth, I do admire the job Indians do at `nation building`. They stick for one another, esp. outside of India. We, Pakistanis, on the other hand complaint about our leaders, politicians, `elite`. They did not come from another planet. They are us and we are them.

#199 by Salim_Chauhan

barachota was great :-(
i liked him..especially his posts about travel by indian railways in UP

re:#182 by Ranger
Your patriotism is touching but misplaced.
There is no comparison between India and US.
I visited Bangalore some months ago. The place made me feel like running away. Roads were choked with traffic. No order anywhere. Is this the face of new India?
Bangalore may soon lose out if the politiicians have their way:
http://www.sulekha.com/news/nhc.aspx?cid=437708
Sridhar

re:#174 by Ranger
So, u tried and tried but could not get into IIT and your papa bought u a seat in a local college. Good.
Now, go and study. At your age, u should be studying. The illgotten money never lasts.
Sridhar

HP #181

`` 5 bedrooms on 3k sq.ft...is that a house or chaal?

How do you fit 5 bedrooms on a 3K sq. ft. house?… That is really small if you ask me...that’s your dream house?
You guys are poor…
Rooms must be good to keep chickens in them... ``

Which planet do you live on ?

3000 square foot of house space is a large home. I wouldn`t want to have a house greater than 2500 square foot under any circumstance. It is a pain to keep it clean.

Most houses in California are of the same size. I am sure Japanese families have it worse.

re:#135 by Faruk
It is that mindset that some of us are trying to understand. Why is it O.K for Pakis to have choppers from US, have NATO forces land in their midst but not have similar aid from India. Mushy showed that he may be a good strategist but is not a statesman.
sridhar

re:#125 by Ajeya
To add to your post, India and China today have a booming trade and are trying to find solution to the vexed border problem in a peaceful manner. May be Pak should take a leaf out of this.
Sridhar

#195, rsridhar {``The real reason why i came to chowk in the first place was because my best friend in New York (where i was doing my residency) was a Pakistani colleague. We were like brothers. When i heard that there was this Ind-Pak forum, i jumped at it. I had no malice towards any Paki at that time. Look what this forum has done to me! ``}

Sridhar,
Look what Chowk has done to me. I used to be ``Barachota,`` a fervent Paki nationalist, a liberal Democrat, and a supporter of equal rights for all. I did not have many Paki friends in real life and now I don`t have too many on Chowk either. I ran right into Paki intolerance, Paki prejudice, and Paki obsession with honor - even at the expense of other Pakis` lives. Don`t worry, Pakistan would be a great nation if it were not for the Paki ``elites.``

one more reason i can think of is people are scared to give to islamic charities. They have been under heavy investigation lately in US. Unless the govt gives them clean chit, it is better to be safe than sorry. What do we know about how the money is going to be used- some of it maybe diverted by some bad guy and you may end up being liable. This issue is also central to the theme of this article. How did pakistan end up here that we well intentioned people can not even send money to the needy.

#149 by faisaluno

faisaluno saheb, can you please stand at the Indo-Pak border and show the article that you cut-pasted here to all the Pakistani Parents who are bringing their kids to India for surgery?

Baby returns home after heart surgery in India

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_7-8-2004_pg7_45


Staff Report

MULTAN: A 55-day-old Pakistani baby returned home on Friday after undergoing a successful heart surgery in Bangalore, India.

Ans Javed was born on June 19, 2004 in Mamun Kanjan. His veins were not connected to his heart properly, due to which his blood circulation system was affected. Pakistani doctors advised the baby’s parents to take him to India and have his arteries replaced. Ans was taken to Bangalore in July where Dr Rajesh Verma and Dr Devi Sethi operated on him for nine hours. The doctors said that his survival was a “miracle”. “Ans Javed is the first baby to be born with his arteries improperly connected to the heart,” said Nabeela Javed, the baby’s mother. “It is a miracle that he survived for 55 days with wrongly connected arteries.” She said that if they had had the operation in America or UK, it would have cost over Rs 1 million.

“Getting the operation done in India cost us only Rs 142,000 including travel, boarding and lodging expenses,” said Mrs Javed. “Medicines in India are so much cheaper than Pakistan.” She said that another four children from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sialkot and Lahore were also operated in India last week. “Having these operations done would have been quite difficult had India and Pakistan not moved towards peace and friendship,” Mrs Javed said.

re:#116 by Netizen
India has come a long way from being a aid-recepient nation to a donor nation. It still takes aid from multilateral agencies but these are for big projects and on soft terms.
Gone are the days of mass starvation, PL-480s etc etc. This is a big difference and Indians need to celebrate this though one has to keep in mind the fact that there are still 300 million people living on 1 dollar a day and their plight cannot be ignored.
Sridhar

re:#111 by ahi441313
You bring back some old memories. The real reason why i came to chowk in the first place was because my best friend in New York (where i was doing my residency) was a Pakistani colleague. We were like brothers. When i heard that there was this Ind-Pak forum, i jumped at it. I had no malice towards any Paki at that time. Look what this forum has done to me!
My own personal experience has been that Pakis try to defend things that seem indefensible to us. They perhaps think that their H and D is at stake or they do not want to concede anything to an enemy. This is what i find so quixotic. Indians also try to prove they are up there somewhere, forgetting that India is still a very poor country. I have criticised both sides whenever the occasion suited though i concede being an NRI, i do have a soft spot for India.
Perhaps the reason why i hit it off so well with my Paki friend in those days was we carefully avoided talking about religion and politics. We talked a lot about movies.
Sridhar

re:#103 by masanamuthu
Those cricket matches were carefully planned by the dictator. A media frenzy was created that some breakthrough in Kashmir was on the cards (the dictator then acutually believed so). He could be magnanimous when he wants to. This is feudal style. They will treat to well but they will not hestiate to decapitate u if u interfere in their business (eg Daniel Pearl).
Now, the K dream has vanished and dictator is showing his true colors. So are his subjects (eg can be seen right here on chowk).
Sridhar