Thanks to my friend Temporal, I had a chance to read this account of contemporary Pakistan – The diary of a border crosser – authored by Rehan Ansari published by DNA. This piece highlights the recent developments in Pakistan and the major shifts underway.
My stints in Pakistan should have made me a believer in the coming revolution, instead I developed a knee jerk teary-eyedness when listening to revolutionary Faiz.
Admittedly, the article is woolly and rambles, but it does present an upbeat picture of contemporary Pakistan. It ends with advice to the Indians to change their visa policy and help the ones struggling for democracy in Pakistan.
Welcome, you and your pals come and go as you like,’ – should be India’s birthday gift to these Pakistanis. Happy Birthday, we acknowledge that you have arrived.
Great advice but here is what I had to say on the article that:
..competently presented the changing contours of Pakistani society and its inherent dynamism – a free media and rising middle class are accelerating the emergence of a “new” Pakistan.
Hope someone is paying attention to this in India, not least the media that still has to shed its acquiescence to the bureaucratized worldview of the Indian establishment, and global constructs of Jihad, burqas and terror sold as journalism.
