Taj Mahal Might
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Labels: Why Travel
posted @ 1:14 PM,
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Profile of a Porter
Thursday, July 16, 2009
I had lived some of my life in the base camps of majestic mountains in Northern Pakistan; with mountaineers, explorers and adventurers from all over the world and porters from Pakistan. During my to-ing and fro-ing in mountain areas, I have befriended many local porters. Some are still on my contact list but I have had the fortune to know Pinion Shah, best in his trade a little better.
Pinion Shah is sturdy and knows the mountains inside out. His forefathers migrated to Baltistan over six hundred years ago. Originally Buddhist, they along with other Balti people converted to Islam during the Moghul period in the sixteenth century. While some of the Baltis adapted to a trading economy, many are still largely pastoralists.
I first met Pinion Shah during my assignment as a facilitator with multinational climbing expedition to Nanga Parbat from Rupal side in 1993. That is when our friendship started by chance. I was to accompany the expedition only up to forward base camp. The hike to base camp and extended stay there brought every kind of weather imaginable -- scorching sun, blinding sandstorms, white-out blizzards.
Although I was not one of the climbers, the weather in the base camp left me physically emaciated and emotionally wasted. With great good fortune, on the way back, I was invited by Pinion Shah to his village, situated at the edge of the Rupal Valley, to recuperate. There I was nursed back to health with a combination of goat's milk, apricots and warm hospitality. I and Pinion Shah have always been in contact ever since.
While in the village, my eyes opened to the realities of the Balti way of life. Life there is hard, graceful and independent. Living conditions are harsh and devoid of modern day civic amenities we in urban centres take for granted. The Baltis live in isolated, remote valleys subsisting on pastoral grazing and marginal crops of barley and wheat. The climate is severe due to the high altitude. Villagers rely on their ingenuity to bring glacier melt water to their fields and homes. Medical care is almost nonexistent. Broken bones and burns often go untreated, and diseases due to malnutrition are a common fact of village life. Chronic infections often lead to blindness and deafness. Infant mortality rate under age one caused primarily by diarrhea-induced dehydration is alarmingly high. In winter, villagers crawl into tiny basement dugouts and spend months huddled together, barely kept warm by smoky fires.
Despite this abject poverty, I saw that the Baltis not only accept their destiny, but embrace the hardship as well as the beauty of their lives, keeping their humanity undimmed and even enhancing it. Facing an existence of privation and adversity, Pinion Shah and his family generously took in me and cared for like their own.
The traditional Balti ways of life are no doubt is about to change. Centuries old self-sustainable methodologies are being lost in the pursuit of the cash that expedition and trekking jobs bring. The inflow of money, material goods, and growing numbers of foreign travellers are impacting the Balti culture. In return for sharing their spectacular mountain surroundings with outsiders and for providing the strong back on which many expeditions reached their goals and many westerners realized their adventures, these Balti people deserve a decent future in which they have a voice.
Pinion Shah had nine years of schooling. He is familiar with oral English and is qualified in mountain hygiene and sanitation, first aid, and crevasse rescue. Pinion Shah told, “I leave villages for months at a time to seek elusive jobs as porters. I remain busy for the trekking season and earn enough to sustain our family through winters.”
“Serious mountaineering starts in the forward base camps,” narrated Pinion Shah, “I have seen climbers going back from the base camps even without attempting and team leader failing to pursue them to go ahead.” Though the travel to Pakistan has declined, but adventure travel has boomed in last few years. This year is being celebrated as a Golden Jubilee of conquering K 2 by an Italian expedition. “I am expecting more business in the areas this year,” he wrote me.
Pinion Shah is aging now. He was known to carry maximum load when he was young literally moving the mountains of luggage and equipment on the most difficult hikes. As a person, Pinion Shah always inspires me. He remains proud, happy and ready to share despite all their hardships. There is no fast lane in his life. He has no worries, alienation or fears. He is very contended with life and what ever comes his way.
Labels: Porter, Profile, Travel
posted @ 9:24 AM,
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Get Satellite TV
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
At Nationwide Satellite TV Service, users can see Satellite TV by State and Town and make a choice to get more from their TV dollars. Satellite TV is not only a better choice but also cost effective. What is more, they are offering great discount now. See what Nationwide Satellite TV Service is offering and how. Better still ask any questions; read through why Satellite TV beats cable and also go through their information rich Related Satellite Info section and get Satellite TV.
posted @ 8:40 PM,
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Fans Club
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
During the last fifty two years, sadly, the destruction of historic buildings, urban cultural property and distortion of historic signs have occurred at an unprecedented scale. Due to the pursuit of quick profits and inordinately large returns by a few and through the indiscriminate use of valuable urban spaces and structures, many humanizing features of our cities have been irrevocably lost.
In the garb of modernization, through the use of the dreaded bulldozer, many a valuable historic and much loved buildings have been atomised by one more anonymous multi-storey structure, our city districts, once conducive to human interaction and civilizing influence, have been converted into unfriendly, concrete jungles. A fraction of the blame for the violence, increasing brutalisation of society and diminishing respect for human values and human life -- witnessed in the last couple of decades -- must be laid at the door of today's harsh and anonymous environment of our cities. An example of the "misuse" of city space: once upon a time there were eight mango orchards within the municipal limits of Multan. Today, there is none.
But the spanking new look of the old building of Multan Services Club is one of the finest example of the heritage conservation, technical expertise of the architects and devotion of the users to keep the symbol of our past in its original shape.
The Services Club, standing in wide and lush green lawns, looks straight out of the storybook. The building is a strange combination of horizontal emphasis and curvatures: surprisingly original in style. Four sizes of domes have been used. One in the centre of the plan being the largest and the ones set between the cluster of five domes the smallest. Two domes set on the corners of front are larger than the smallest ones but smaller than the other two sizes. The domes seem to have been influenced by Buddhist stupas. Largest dome has lantern like kiosk, painted in red, in place of a pinnacle.
Amir of Bahawalpur got this edifice built in late nineteenth century as a symbol of his entry into the city of Multan. The structure originally was a classic baradari. In the well-lit and airy interior, at least two successive Amirs of Bahawalpur would have spent their time: getting the glimpse of Multan through its windows while contemplating their strategic move to consolidate their gains.
Early in the 1920s, one of the well-established Multani family owned the building before it was acquired by the British army for use as Officers Club for the new founded Multan Cantonment, the role that the building is serving till today. Only the passing years kept changing the face of this gem in the history of Multan. The British officers, oblivious of the heritage of one of the oldest living city of the world, added an ungraceful hall on one side of the building to serve as a dance chamber and bar. Moreover, repairs that took place in those days were of the makeshift type, without any attention to the conservation of the structure. Cracks were merely hidden, and dampness coated with whitewash.
In the past few decades, ground water began eating at the foundations of this splendid building. This was compounded by cracks in the domes that started collecting rainwater. Owing to these cracks, the outer walls also began to slant outward, splitting the roof of the verandahs.
After deliberate planning (series of presentations and briefings), the task of conservation was given to Mr. and Mrs. Qurashi; Lahore based architects who were then completing their assignment of Multan Arts Council. They did a fine job using original material of the building and keeping it in its actual shape as far as possible. The architects have certainly added years to the life of this historic building, which is serving as a very restful facility.
One sincerely wishes, that the Auqaf Department, Archaeology Department, city development agencies and modern developers all over the country start appreciating the importance of national heritage. Only then they can plan to conserve bits and pieces of our history we are poised to loose forever. All is not lost still. Though, this has not started happening yet.
posted @ 9:24 AM,
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Thatta Kedona Slide Show
Monday, July 13, 2009
posted @ 9:46 AM,
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Me Need, You Need
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Maintaining a home is fine art. Choosing the right products, whether for a new house project, a renovation or even a concrete garage, you need to know how it will look while in place and who can do it the best way. It is cumbersome to find affordable remodeling contractors, plumbers, electricians, roofers, landscapers, painters, and or anyone else required for home maintenance and or improvement jobs.
Thanks to MiNeeds (very aptly named) that they have made it simple. Explore MiNeeds.com and see what they are offering nation wide in USA and how. Seattle Contractors & Landscape Services or find what you need in your own area.
Better still, describe the service you and wait. You will get local home contractors bids sitting home. Compare the offers, research about the bidders and select what suits you. Best part is that MiNeeds service is completely free.
posted @ 10:23 AM,
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Koi Karachi
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Karachi is famous as "land of opportunities" in Pakistan. During my period of initial orientation - tea used to be served for four annas per quarter cup then - and continuous visits later; I have found Karachi is constantly reinventing itself. It is a land of superlatives: Pakistan's biggest and one of the most prosperous cosmopolitan cities, home to universities and colleges, historic, cultural, and commercial centre. It has been a land of plenty since centuries.
The history of Karachi, until its occupation by the Talpurs during late eightieth century (1795), is lost in the haze of past. At the time of its annexation by the Talpurs, Karachi was a little more than a fishing village and the dominant tribes of fishermen were the Kulachis, hence the name.
History has it that Karachi was ceded by the Kalhora rules to the Khan of Kalat in 1785 as a compensation for the death of Khan of Kalat's brother-in-law. The Talpurs took back Karachi in 1795 after having overthrown the Kalhoras. In 1797, fort was built by Fateh Ali Talpur at Manora. In order to gain a foothold, the British established a factory on the banks of the Lyari River in 1799 near the present day site. However, the Mir grew suspicious of the British and expelled them the following year and the factory had to close down. Karachi was taken over by the British in 1839, four years before the annexation of Sindh.
A contemporary British account of the invasion reads, "Our occupation of Kurrachee (as it was called then) resulted from the military operations in connection with the Afghan War of 1838. During Lord Auckland's Administration it was resolved to oppose Dost Muhammad, the Talpurs, who were then in power, showed themselves so extremely inimical to us and so incapable of maintaining an orderly government,that Sir John Keane, the Commander in Chief, received instructions tosend a force into the country. His first step was to seize upon Kurrachee."
Upon the annexation of Sindh in 1843, Napier shifted the capital from Hyderabad to Karachi. As a first step the British established the present cantonments at that time outside the town limits. Municipal limits were extended to 74 square miles to allow for expansion although the town was only 4 square miles. Napier had earlier started a water supply to the city from Malir and established a basic police and judicial level. The population of Karachi grew slowly, but steadily, throughout the nineteenth century. By the beginning of the twentieth century it had crossed one hundred thousand, of which 55 percent was Muslim and 41 percent was Hindu.
Endowed with a natural harbour, fair weather, and plenty of space, Karachi always had the potential to become a great metropolis. It has every thing for those take their chances to this place.
More than two thousand yeas ago, Alexander, who stayed here for 27 days on his way back to Macedonia (he had come from the north), recognized the enormous potential in terms of commerce and trade of the immediate hinterland of Karachi and called this place "the bridge between east and west," It still is. Since the days of Alexander, the port of Karachi continues to enjoy a strategic importance. It is through this way that Muslim general Muhammad bin Qasim entered what is now Pakistan and brought divine religion Islam here. Arab historians had also recounted the importance of Karachi. Once again the city began to assume prime importance towards the end of the eighteenth century. A new deep sea port Gawadar is being developed there near Karachi.
Except for the 15 years of "One Unit" from 1955 to 1970, Karachi has been the capital of Sindh province ever since 1937. It was also the first capital of Pakistan. As the port and commercial capital of the country, the role of Karachi in the country is more than that of a mere provincial capital. During the Second World War, Karachi assumed strategic importance as it became the air gateway to the Subcontinent. But it was still a quiet town with an efficient municipality. The population of the city was relatively stable until the coming of independence.
The face of the city changed after the Independence in 1947. No other city took the brunt of the migration as much as Karachi because every one wanted to be in capital and urban areas. After the emigration of the partition ceased, a second wave of exodus started from the rest of the country to Karachi: in search of better opportunities. It continues!
What a city of unique colonial architectural curiosities, wide sunny beaches, deep sea fishing, yachting needs is an introduction to what it can offer to travellers and site seers. It has every thing else.
Labels: Travel
posted @ 11:56 PM,
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Zenni Optical on TV
posted @ 8:36 PM,
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Wish You Were Here With Me!
Alesa told us that "Baikal is one of the most beautiful and fourth highest lake in the world. The panorama is such that fairies come and dance there and meet those who visit Baikal." She also told about the fairy of love and taught the language in the process.
Lake Baikal is a picturesque, tranquil and pollution free place shrouded in romantic legend. It is a miracle on land with endless green forests all around. All you see is blue, blue and more blue. It is like a coast-less entity, with frozen blue skin of the lake rippling into crests of broken crystal as it approaches the pebbled coast.
Even in winter the mighty tide of the sleeping lake challenges its icy restraints, crushing against the shoreline with the force of a glacier. A smooth sheath of white flows uninterrupted up to the horizon, where the faint outline of a majestic mountain range floats mysteriously on the hazy skyline.
There are the alpine meadows, the springs, and the flowers, but there is nothing like Baikal Lake itself. What is peculiar is its sudden change of mood. It could be blue, quiet and calm one moment, and then immediately the wind rises and huge waves appear. It is like an old man mumbling. It is difficult to exaggerate Lake Baikal's beauty or size.
Baikal is very deep. Plunging more than a mile deep in the middle, Baikal holds more water than any other lake on Earth. It is fed by more than 300 torrents, but none comes out of it. In its depths thrive between 1,500 to 1,800 animal species - most of them peculiar to Baikal. It is home to the world's only freshwater seal.
Lake Baikal shoreline is home to growing human activities, including controversial industrial concerns, camping grounds, and grazing fields. Environmentalists claim the growing human activities are unreliable, and disturb this heaven on earth. However, the biggest threat to Baikal comes from poachers and careless humans who visit there.
What is the most distinct feature of Baikal? It is a fairies land full of romantic legend. I have heard many stories and this one particularly touched me. Local lore has it that there was a fairy of love. Her job was to distribute love among those who needed that in life. (Who does not need it?) She wanted love to prevail the world over. She also protected Baikal's natural surroundings and used to be on the shores of Baikal every night.
One night she met a man who just appeared on the shore of Baikal out of the blue. The man's name too was Baikal: mortal, deprived, lonely, and it looked from his face that he needed some love in life. The fairy saw him and fell head over heals, taking it as a test case. Led over the waves of sympathy and challenge, they instantly crossed all the distances usually not possible in a short time. They together wove hopes for the future.
Their love came to a tragic end. Baikal thought he was no match to the fairy. He was afraid of himself for being human. And one day, he disappeared all of a sudden without any explanation, without warning. The fairy kept looking for him, found him and cut off his feet, making him unable to move. Who will decide about this love affair?
There are two other lakes that remind me of Baikal: one is the world's highest, Lake Toba in Simatra (Singapore) and the other lake is Saif ul Muluk in northern Pakistan. Besides similar environments, the romantic legends are also attached with both lakes. A man named Samosir once caught a fish in Toba Lake that transformed into a beautiful woman. She married Samosir and started living happily with him, bore him children. Their love too came to a tragic end when Samosir told someone the secret that her wife was a fish. Gods sent relentless rain, flooding the valley. Samosir drowned and an island grew from his body.
And the Lake Saiful Muluk we are more familiar; the Crown Prince of Persia hears about the beauty of the fairy Princess Badar Jamal - the daughter of king of Caucasus - and falls in love. The prince, after wandering and hardships, succeeds in winning the heart of Badar Jamal. The lake becomes the rendezvous where the lovers meet: contemplating matters of heart and their future together, hence the name. The Jinn guard of the queen of Parbat becomes jealous of their love and one day breaches the bank of the Lake to drown them. But the lovers escape and find shelter in a nearby cave, which still exists.
Off the beaten track, up in the upper Hunza Valley, is Lake Sheosar. This place offers beautiful views of distant peaks and a panoramic view of Deosai Plains. At Bara Pani, one may spend hours in a hope to watch a bear or enjoy fishing in the cold waters of Barwai Stream. From here, you can travel back via Skardu and Gilgit to enjoy the most thrilling drive along the Indus River, or continue to glacier areas if you have to. Or just sit there and think about Adam Khan and Durkhane's love lore. And if you hear intently, you hear Adam Khan playing his Ik Tara.
I keep thinking of the lovers and fairies that come to the lakes to swim and dance in moonlit nights. I tend to believe such legends. The first impact that I get after setting eyes on any alpine lake is simply romantic. You do not get tired seeing the play of sun and shade. When you devote enough time to look at lakes - Baikal, Saiful Muluk or any other - it becomes a bit magical - clouding over, changing colors, and cliffs of surrounding hills turn convex and concave according to the slant of light. These seem places where one can forget the stress of today's fast lane life. The legends keep haunting me, though.
Labels: Travel
posted @ 9:41 AM,
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Great Blue Heron
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
In the last three decades the Blackstone has shrugged off centuries of pollution and begun to clean itself up.and begun to clean itself up.
Labels: Images
posted @ 3:53 PM,
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What is Doodh Patti?
Tea is taken in Pakistan more than any other drink. You get a cup of tea made by boiling tealeaf (patti) in water and mixed with lots of milk (doodh) and sugar anywhere. Those who prefer more milk boil tea leafs in milk instead of water.
Doodhpatti is taken so frequently that even foreigners traveling to Pakistan know this and its taste (and ask for it). Hence the name of this blog that is showcase for some of my travel articles.
This is my cup of tea.
Pakistan
Pakistan is one of the best travel destinations in the world – desert expanses in Thar and Cholistan, Lush green plains in Punjab, mighty mountains in Northern Pakistan and Chitral, and many just to yourself places, what else. Start of the world history can still be traced down to Pakistan – Indus Civilization. Pakistan has a lot to offer to every one; not only to travelers, hard core adventurers, mountaineers, rural tourists, and vacationers but also to anthropologists, archeologists, and researchers?
