tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post8103718225009384661..comments2024-03-07T14:43:21.888-08:00Comments on Whatever I want to write about: The Perils of (Pauline) PakistanSriram Khéhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907731254833435446noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-33875690869128541462013-08-30T21:52:31.025-07:002013-08-30T21:52:31.025-07:00" its not so bad as that"????? boy are ..." its not so bad as that"????? boy are your glasses tinted with dark shade of rose!!!!!!<br /><br />A few years ago? Ahem, all one needs is a year and Pakistan becomes unrecognizable ... Remember the transformation, for the worse, it went through in a year under Zia? and that was 35 years ago! that was merely one such transfomation ...<br /><br />I shall stick to my bottom-line here: it will be a long, long time before international cricket matches are consistently hosted there ... there is no better barometer of the chaos in Pakistan.<br /><br />It is an awful shame that Pakistan is in such shambles ... the rest of what you write I agree with--all the Pakistanis I have met, interacted with, had coffee with, had home-cooked food with, were no different from you and me and the billion Indians ... In fact, I had to consciously remind myself that I was interacting with a Pakistani and not an Indian ... <br /><br />Both the countries could have fared so much better ... what a wasted set of decades and lives :(Sriram Khéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06724218458246880137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-22028878554667653002013-08-30T19:01:21.143-07:002013-08-30T19:01:21.143-07:00Oh - its not so bad as that. A few years ago, I ha...Oh - its not so bad as that. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Pakistan. A huge experience for an Indian. More than ever, I believe firmly that if the two countries threw open the borders and encouraged traveling, the India Pakistan problem would be solved !<br /><br />Pakistan is very much like India, but perhaps 10-20 years behind. There is a lot of wealth being created indeed - jobs are more, more people, at least in cities can find employment, much more economic activity, etc. They have also largely eradicated famine. The educated urban Pakistani is no different from an Indian. Even the violence is "restricted" - there are pockets of violence whereas in the rest of the city or district, life goes on pretty much normally - I was reminded very much of Bihar of some 20 years ago which was in the same situation.<br /><br />The urban vs rural divide in Pakistan is even more sharper than India. Karachi is no different from an Indian city. The economic boom hat Indian villages have seen, hasn't been that marked in Pakistan.<br /><br />If they can somehow diffuse religious fundamentalism, Pakistan will prosper.<br /><br />Rameshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11782192840421019943noreply@blogger.com