Revathy Gopal: RIP May she rest in peace, and may God bless her soul.

My heartfelt condolences to her family. May God bless them with courage and strength to carry on.

Ameen.

Ally
xxx

Thar Desert Festival puts Tourism Ministry to Shame Its also Visit Malaysia year... as you can see if you ever watch CNN...

#2 has a good point... govt is shit at everything... PIA is banned from Europe now, not a very good impression to Euro people if the country is promitng itself (very badly) and then its airline gets banned for crap planes!!!

Why Have This Train At All? whats Jinahabad?

Why Have This Train At All? maybe this is what they are pissed off about

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 02 20 story_20-2-2007_pg5_15

Pak-India trade rose by 129% in April-Oct 06-07

NEW DELHI: There has been a phenomenal increase of 129% in India`s trade with Pakistan in April- October 2006-07. The two-way trade has reached record figure of $977.03 million.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 02 20 story_20-2-2007_pg5_14

Pak-India trade may rise to $9b in 5 years: WB MD

MUMBAI: World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler said on Sunday that India-Pakistan trade has the potential to cross $9 billion in the next five years from the current $1 billion, if barriers relating to policies, infrastructure, corruption and red tape are addressed.

``Everyday we see obstacles, protective policies, poor infrastructure, corruption and red-tape. Trade between India and Pakistan is about $1 billion a year. Without barriers, it could be $9 billion within five years,” Wheeler said at the SAARC business leader’s conclave here.

Citing geography and its young population as the two major weapons to fight poverty, he said South Asian nations needed to integrate for the economic betterment of the region. Pointing out that severe infrastructure bottlenecks impede the region`s growth, he urged countries to share energy and water resources.

“Trade integration is a major opportunity. But regional cooperation in energy and water could produce even bigger returns. India, one of the most energy-hungry nations in the world, sits next to three energy-surplus countries namely Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Yet, except for Bhutan, energy trade between them is miniscule,” Wheeler observed.

He said that for South and East Asia to be the growth hubs of global economy, countries in the region should transfer their dynamism in services sector to manufacturing.

Why Have This Train At All? maybe its time both India and Pak invested in a decent Euro star like train to run between Lahore and Delhi, non-stop, clearing customs etc in Lahore and Delhi only, as happens in Paris and London. There is also airport style security on the Euro Star, but not for normal national services. This is something we should consider, also the Euro Star platform is totally seperate from the national rail services.

This is so sad... the fact that Bharat ke sar zameen pe itne Pakistani halak hue! There are so many lessons to be learned from this, i hope Kasuri and whoever he talks to India spur things on to improve them, otherwise these sort of incidents are going to continue...

Pakistanis should realise that terrorists see us as legitimate targets now, as the bomb in Quetta the other day has shown, we must increaso our securtiy arrangements throughout our country... next thing these people will attack more Pakistani people in Pakistan!

Education Reform: Signs of Hope Azizum Urstruly Sahib,

I have wanted to reply to your post for a couple of days however, due to work and time restraints have been unable to.

I agree with you whole hearted that the majority of Pakistan is Muslim and our state religion is Islam. Our children should be educated about the basics of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. However it would not be beneficial if the education is too biased to Islam, as that is unhealthy, plus being Pakistan we have every kind and more types/sects of Islam, as well as millions of Non-Muslims.

I have just come back from spending a couple of months in Istanbul. It was such a refreshing take on Islam. All the Muslims, Alevis (Shias), Sunnis, and Sufis as well as non-Muslims live harmoniously together, there is no religious violence, either between the Muslim sects or the other religions, unlike what we have in Pakistan. You are free to be as Muslim as you like without any state interference, something I liked very much, to my surprise the mosques are fill to bursting on Fridays, and even the Hocas of the Great Sultan Ahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) and the smaller one next to it co-ordinate their azans (sounds fab!).

I actually went to the mosque when I felt like it, instead of going cause my mum or massi had been on my back. Their constant hassling actually made me rebel and go the other way of totally not doing anything religious at all. After having stayed in Turkey I found a new respect and connection with my faith, because I was allowed in my own good time. Many of my younger cousins in Pakistan resent the constant shoving of Islam down their throats.

Pakistan does have a history, it goes back almost 10,000 years. Islam in our part of the world is relatively recent compared to our overall history. Our children should learn about who and what we were before and what we are now, they should be taught to appreciate it. Its only when we educate our kids in an unbiased manner that we will rid our nation of this collective schizophrenia that we are suffering from. This not knowing if we should be more Indic or Middle Eastern. Just as Turkey is a bridge between Christian Europe and the Middle East we too are a bridge between majority Hindu and Buddhist Asia and the Middle East. This is what sets us apart form the rest of the Muslim world. This is our Pakistaniyet. Once we are comfortable with it we can move forward as a united and strong nation, comfortable in our identity, our history, our present and with hope for the future.

The negative reference to India and Hindus being removed are common sense and go without saying. In the future it will be India who will become our biggest trading partner and investor, our children should be prepared to deal with Indians on a respectful, unbiased, neutral, equal and professional manner.

Islam is a very important part of our culture and identity but not the only one, to become a whole people we have to teach our children our whole past, our whole identity without bias and prejudice.

Peace and respect
Ally

Punjab: The Land of Five Rivers the reason why guys from Pak have gonoe to India is to see the various temples and study how the deities and temples are arranged so as to have a similar sort of layout... as you can imagine there are not that many big Hindu temples in Pak!

Punjab: The Land of Five Rivers article seems like something out of a cheap Paki promo mag that you see lying round some travel agents in PK...

Punjab is nice in the spring when you see green fields and orange orchards in full bloom... all other times of year it is horrible to be in... winter is too cold and summer is too hot... only say cause i have been there then and know the score... khair fer vi Punjab is pretty...

jindey ravo

PS

Its stupid to say one religion`s women followers are pretty... if you have three Punjabi Jutt women, one a Sikh one a Muslim, and one a Hindu, how can you say one is prettier than the other cause she is Muslim/Sikh/Hindu when in fact they are the same race who happen to follow a different religion!!!

the sooner we get rid of these myths the better!!!!

How Not to get Irritated with Hindi Is Luknowi Hindi not Urdu? Excuse my ignorance i`m not from India so i dont know, but i thought Luknow was famous for its Urdu, is it also famous for Hindi?

Gopalakrishnan Sahib, i think you should make a trip to Pakistan. You would be pleasantly surprised. Most people dont talk to strangers or elders using the `tum` pronoun or any of its verb forms. I am also dissapointed to hear that that is the case in Mumbai.

Vaisey (not just because i am Pakistani) but i have always found Urdu to be much more flowing and more refined than Hindi. All you have to do is see the Hindi news on Star and then see the Urdu news on Geo. (Tho my fav Hindi speaker is Vajpayee - he speaks pure, and perfect Hindi)

The fact that many Hindi speakers (not becasue they cant, but cause they choose to) pronounce kh as a k and gh a g, makes them sound uneducated and unrefined in their speech.

Prime example Aishwarya in Umrao Jaan `kabar ayii hai` she ruined it by saying it like that, all it would have took was a little bit of exercise to get it correct and so much more credence would have been lent to the role she played.

From what little i know, in devanagri if you add a little dot under the letters kh and gh you get the required sounds for saying khabar and ghareeb correctly, so why don`t you guys use it?

Visiting Khuzdar a bit long, but interesting... B`stan seems nice but not quite my cup of tea just yet!

The Great Wrong Clarification:

Ally = He not a She!

Mr Khans

OK, Punjabis don`t hate anyone per se, but just as we are the butt of your jokes you guys are the butt of ours.

What does upset us is the fact that all the other provices continue to attack us and your Politicians use us an escape goat and you guys believe it!

The reason why there are so many Punjabi people in govt. armed forces, etc. is because there are so many Punjabi ppl. As compared to the other provinces we have a much larger population.

The Punjabi ppl have given up a lot for Pakistan as have the other ethnicities that make it up, but we have also had our language supressed for Urdu while you guys have not. Punjabi ppl are beginning to feel while Sindhis, Sarhadis, Balochis have had their languages developed and culture encouraged by the state we have not, remember in the 60`s and 70`s when several Punjabi publications were shut down! Now Punjabi is beginning to make a small come back. Before Punjabi wasn`t really encouraged and was seen as the poor illiterate person`s language, and Urdu the language of the elite/rich/educated persons, however this is beginning to change. People don`t diss Punjabi the way they used to.

Regards cultural closeness, ultimately Punjabi ppl feel the closest to other Punjabi ppl across in India, and many have roots there. In Pakistan, i would personally feel closer to Kashmiris, Seraikis and Sindhis, as their languages and cultures are more understandable to me than Balochi or Pushto which i cant make heads or tails of. These are also the cultures that flow along the River Indus, in its fertile basin, whereas Balochis and Pathans are closer to Afghanistan and Iran culturally/linguistically than to us.

There is nothing wrong with this and as you guys said below, the differences should be celebrated, and its these diferences that make Pakistan. But if you want to divide one province along ethnic lines, then the others should also be.

The fact that a split along ethnic lines is required to remove hatred and prejudice is itself not a nice thing to have to do and is actually quite sad for a nation, for it shows there has been failed integration.

Regards me being Punjabi first, as one of the posters has said, well, the fact is that every one has multiple identities, of being Pakistani, of being Muslim/Hindu/Sikh/Christian, of being Punjabi/Balochi/Sindhi/Pathan of being a mother/father/sister/brother etc. Each of these identities make up a person and all need to be balanced, and at various times in ones life, these different identites are called upon. When one group supresses the right of anothers not to be one of their identities then sooner or later there are going to be problems, and that identity comes back much stronger.

I once went to Quetta for a day to see my cousin before he and his family went back to Rawalpindi, i had never left Punjab before except in my childhood to visit family in Karachi who all returned to Lahore due to Karachi`s continued sectarian violence. However, in Quetta i felt as if i was in a different country. The people looked different (Like the Afghanis you see on TV) they spoke a different language and everyone seemed to have a gun. Even tho the Pakistani flag was flying at the airport and it was PIA that bought me there, can you imagine the culture shock that i would have experienced there coming from Lahore! My Bhabhi told me how the Balochis don`t like Punjabi ppl and the that she felt quite uncomfortable there and was dying to go back to Punjab. The fact is that other ethnicities within Pakistan display some kind of hostility towards Punjabi ppl, and we have picked up on this. The fact is if you display hostility towards a particular ethnicity then don`t expect unending love in return.

At the end of the day if we want the Federation of Pakistan to survive then we have to rise above this pettiness which i myself have been part of. If it is in the best interest of Pakistan that Punjab be divided, then so be it, but if it not then i don`t think it should be done, as well as cause more animosity and tension, it will just increase the amount of freeloaders that Islamabad is full of already.

The Great Wrong I dont understand one thing, why is this seen as an insult by some Punjabis? I mean it would still be Pakistan wont it? No body is talking about cutting off a chunk and creating another Bangladesh. So whats the big deal?

The big deal is that you guys blame the Punjabi people for all your failures, when that is not true. Most Punjabi ppl would probably be fine with the split if its in our benefit, but would totally oppose it if it were seen to be done for appeasing the other provinces especially if it was done to appease the Pathans (whom Punjabi ppl despise as much as you guys despise us - Pathans are the butt of all of our jokes)

What Punjabi ppl are getting fed up with is the fact that the rest of Pakistan seems to blame us for their cr*p which we`re not going to take anymore and will oppose and at every given opportunity, if you guys are poor or messed up thats your fault not ours, and we will remind you of that fact every time you try to blame us!

The Great Wrong Sure, go on, divide Punjab, let the saraikis get their province and the jhelumis thiers... so Pakistan gets two new provinces and extra expenses!

Wow wee, whoopey doo... so how is that gonna make life better for you guys in Sindh and B`stan and Sarhad? You will just have less money to take from. If it makes you feel better, that Punjab is divided now they cant take any money from us, then thats fine, but remember its just gonna cost you guys extra monies!!!

Its more your perception about Punjab. As thats what you`re good for nothing Sardars, Vaderas and Navabs have told you, cause in reality they are screwing you guys over left right and centre!

The average Punjabi is not any better off than the average Balochi or Pathan or Sindhi.

Other than KHI how much revenue is generated by the other provinces? I dont know maybe someone can tell me! But its people of Punjab who are the most industrious, hard working and producing the country`s food.

B`stan has so much gas, why is it not developed even a little? What did Bugti and Akber and all those ppl do with all that money, Punjab didn`t take your gas for free, you sold it to us, but your sardar was the one who ate it all, and lives in his fortified palace.

Maybe for Punjabs admin, it might be better to split it on linguistic lines, but not just to appease the smaller provinces. If its going to help Pakistan as a whole prosper then thats fine. But also split Balochistan into the Pakhtun and Baloch areas then, split Sarhad up and am not sure if there is any linguistic division in Sindh.

But what next for your sardars, who will they blame next? Islamabad! then what will you want, to be totally seperate?

Think thru fully before making these sort of demands. If you dont mind your own province being broken up either. What if the Serakis demand a bit of Sindh as well? There are so many other issues that can come out of this.


Where millions are squandered over the beautification of Lahore but nothing is spared for the dirt tracks that connect Quetta to its district headquarters.

Khan Saheb, It is the Lahoris who pay for their city to be decorated, Lahori people have a bit of pride in their city, the money for it doesn`t come from your mullahfied do takke ka Peshawar in Pakhtonkhamkha. How much money does Quetta generate? And the money that is allocated for Quetta where does it go? You make out as if we are bleeding you dry, doing you out of money and spending it all on us. Wake up and smell the coffee mate, we have given you guys MORE than your fair share of money, at OUR EXPENSE yet you are still ungrateful. Its your own leaders that are screwing you over, just as the Punjabi leaders are screwing the Punjabis over.

The poster below was right, Why don`t you demand schools and education and health care from your provinces instead of blaming Punjab for it, WHY DONT YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR OWN ISSUES, TAKE IT UP WITH YOUR LOYA JIRGA OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT. We have enuff of our own problems to deal with we don`t need to be blamed for the corruption of Mullahs Halva Khao Khan, Bacho ki Bund Maar Khan et all and their tribes who are in power in Peshawar or Vadera Ghareebo Ko Sangli Mei Rakh Sayee from Sukkur.

In all of Pakistan the disparity between the poor and the rich is most evident in both Sindh and Baluchistan. The Bugtis and Bhuttos are all foreign educated, yet look how those jahils have kept their local people! Is that the fault of Punjab too????

Its time Punjabi people gave a monh tor javab to these people in other provinces. For centuries these jahil khans and pathans have been doing hit and run chori excursions into Punjab killing all and sundry not caring if they are Muslim or not. Its time to tell them all to back off.

Educate Because You Can as your article displays its the attitude towards education that needs to be changed... this will take time and serious govt. `propaganda` to make a cultural change within our society.

Hence why so many areas are so backward, but slowly people are realizing the value of education, teach one woman in the village and she can go back and teach others.

Indian Muslims Indian Muslims didn`t come from anywhere, they were originally Hindus before, who then converted, they still reatain same castes etc... they are totally Indian/Indic people, just of a diff faith...

Vanishing temples of Thar and Nagar Parkar Alas... There are so many Temples in Pak decaying... but as Dost Mittar has said, there isn`t anyone left to patron them... our govt. is sh*t at looking after anything but its fat behind... even mosques and other more Muslim style things are strewn across Pak in dis-repair... best go see Pak now before its fallen to bits...