Do Travel Writers Go to Hell
Monday, June 30, 2008
Hi, Carl Parkes , I am calling you. Answer me from hell.
posted @ 7:21 PM,
, links to this post
Yadeen
Friday, June 27, 2008
In villages, people still live without assessable roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet, even the electricity is the recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent first twenty year of my life savouring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe inspiring -- pollution free and quiet. Different shades and colours of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is singing of birds, ringing of cowbells and sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around. To me the place feels like a paradise.
My roots are in the village where no body seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbours and my family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village I bring everything, and more than every thing I bring lot of love.
"I help my neighbours and my neighbours help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work and humour are few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daras (community centres where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generation. The learning that passed on to me in Dara turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (Oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by ever one at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmark, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hookka (Hubbell-bubble), water and food. Cooing crows are still considered as a symbol for the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of seven students used to go to nearby town for attending school (and then college). Ghulam Muhammad was my buddy in the group. After completing the education, my dreams become out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Ghulam Muhammad, equipped with degree from Faisalabd Agricultural University, started progressive farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and ambitious. Ghulam Mohammed's father soon started getting proposals for the marriage of his son from many wealthy landlord families of the area. But, my friend married his cousin: uneducated daughter of one of his poorest uncles and is living happily ever since. Village society is still simple, cohesive and based on similarities.
This time when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbours - came to see me off as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), palsies, atta (floor), and husked rice and even live chickens. Every body was advising me to consume every thing back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated - of 'the village boy' I once was stay with me. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish the memories of my village. Which is why I want to settle and spend my future in the village?
posted @ 3:10 PM,
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Norberto Diaz
Teaching is one of the noblest professions. It is very fulfilling for students to have an inspiring teacher and very enriching for a teacher to shape young students into nice human and successful citizens of the society.
I always have a great respect for teachers. Which is one of the reasons that I liked Norberto Diaz – a performer, teacher, administrator and principal - when I read about him.
Norberto Diaz has earned a reputation among parents and students as a principal who is totally dedicated to the success of his students. A former music teacher and a talented performer, Norberto Diaz loves his students and does everything possible for their success. Explore this site and read his interesting blog to know more about his dynamic personality.
posted @ 2:59 PM,
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Best Direct Marketing
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Approach DCMG, speak to an experienced direct marketing expert and ask for telemarketing list or direct mailing list you need. They will offer only the best.
posted @ 11:21 AM,
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The Real Story
Thursday, June 19, 2008
People want to know about sildenafil, and many are interested in trying it, whether or not they think they have a problem.
Sildenafil quickly tapped into a set of wishful fantasies that mirrored our culture's hunger for certainty and the quick fix. Supported by stories that described elderly men restored to such sexual vitality by sildenafil that they abandoned their wives in favor of younger women, a conventional wisdom arose that sildenafil was a fountain of youth, a sure cure, the real deal. Baby boomers could now look forward to fabulous sex well into their nineties.
Magical Viagra is a wonder drug or so we have come to believe. But does the reality live up to the myth? Is it really that good? Can users truly solve their problems? What about relationship issues? What's the real story? Recover your virility and manhood with Viagra and share your views here.
posted @ 1:05 PM,
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The Auto Rickshaw
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Over the years I have conducted detailed engineering and social analysis of a rickshaw design and following is my final report.
History
The motor- (sometimes auto-) rickshaw was invented by the Reverend Jonathan Scobie, an American Baptist minister living in Yokohama, Japan. The first model was built in 1869 in order to transport his handicapped wife. Today it remains as one of the most important modes of transportation in Pakistan where it was first seen on August 14, 1947. Before that it was not possible to see it in Pakistan.
Three Wheel Desgin
The three-wheel-design of a rickshaw provides it a better road grip than a bicycle. It also provides gasoline savings when compared with a 4-wheeler taxi and green salad saving when compared with a 4-legged horse. When in need of repairs, the three-wheel structure also helps in lifting it from any side. When a side is lifted, it conveniently sits down on the other two while a mechanic goes looking for underbelly mechanical faults.
Pilot Seat
A rickshaw is a perfect example of a compact automobile design. The driver practically sits on a bench seat which is strategically placed on top of the engine. This causes inductive heat transfer between man and machine and keeps the engine cool. The same however, cannot be said for the driver’s butt. The presence of a hot engine underneath, keeps a driver cozy during winters and boiling during summers. It is literally one heck of a hot seat to sit on. The advantage of a bench seat is manifold. A driver uses it to his own advantage to slide from one corner to the other depending on whichever side gives him a better view.
Ergonomics
A rickshaw is immaculately designed to keep a driver relaxed during long hours. This has been accomplished by limiting the driving controls to both hands and a leg only. This keeps one leg of the driver free which he can dangle around when tired. Many of us must’ve seen the common practice where a tired driver lifts one of his legs and conveniently places it on top of the dash-board while still driving the rickshaw.
Starting Mechanism
The height of automotive engineering is the design of rod (danda) start mechanism of the rickshaw engine. A 3 feet long lever is put on the floor of the rickshaw. To start the engine, a driver bends down to the side and lifts one end of this ‘danda’ in a quick swift motion. If everything else is right then the engine starts. Otherwise the whole exercise of ‘danda’ lifting
is repeated as many times as needed.
Passengers' Foot-hold
While a rickshaw floor’s mean height above sea level is less than 2 feet, a one-step foot hold is nonetheless provided on the passenger side of the cabin. I’ve never seen anyone using it but it is a detail important enough not to be missed out in this analysis. Most of the passengers bypass this one-step climbing assistance and put their first step directly inside the passenger cabin.
Head Lamp
Rickshaw comes with a single headlamp. The light emanating from this headlamp is usually just enough that other people can see that something is on-coming but a rickshaw driver doesn’t see anything. Its luminescence makes one constantly reminded of Elton John’s song ‘candle in the wind’.
Laws of Reflection
A rickshaw driver usually adorns his rickshaw with a multiple array of reflective mirrors. If a ray of light enters a rickshaw once, it gets trapped and it takes a while for it to get out after being internally reflected many times. These mirrors are placed by the driver to his own strategic advantage. If a passenger is to his liking then these mirrors help the driver to keep an eye on the passenger from many different angles.
Small is Big
I have never seen a group of people denied a rickshaw ride just because of their numbers. It can fit them all including luggage. Many times one can see a family chilling out in the passenger cabin while their younger ones sharing driver’s cabin with the driver. If a rickshaw picks up passengers from a railway station, luggage is easily placed in driver’s cabin.
Flat Tire Replacement
In case of a flat tire adversity, a rickshaw comes fully equipped with a mechanical jack. This jack is in the shape of a rectangular sheet-metal of roughly 12”x 24” dimension. The simplicity of design here beats all modern hydraulic and geared jack designs. A rickshaw driver simply tilts his rickshaw on a side, inserts this sheet metal plate for support and changes the tire. The whole process of tilting a rickshaw and inserting the jack takes less than 10 seconds.
The Rickshaw Driver Culture
Over the years certain etiquettes have evolved among rickshaw drivers. A passenger cannot just walk into an empty rickshaw and sit. He/She has to take drivers’ permission first. The magic question to ask is ‘Is rickshaw empty’ (rickshaw khali hai?). This question must be asked even if a rickshaw is visibly empty because depending on his mood a driver at anytime may declare a visibly empty rickshaw as occupied. Then there is no question of arguing. Rickshaw drivers have also mastered the sign language. If a rickshaw is empty then instead of saying ‘yes’ a driver usually moves his neck towards the passenger cabin in a long swooshing motion. This means rickshaw is empty. Please get in.
Mirror of Society
Rickshaws are also a mirror of our society. Rickshaw drivers use back of the rickshaw as their scrap book. It displays their favorite poetry, puzzling questions, messages to other drivers, etc. I don’t remember seeing any rickshaw ever without anything written on its back side. Some of these comments are a running commentary on our society’s social and economic fabric. Take a look at 10 sample rickshaw messages:
1.
meiN baRa ho kar Corolla banooN ga
(I will become Toyota Corolla after growing up)
2.
malik ki gaaRi, driver ka paseena
chalti hai road par ban ke haseena
3.
kabhi aao na Karachi, khashbo laga ke
(come visit Karachi sometimes, after wearing perfume)
4.
Daalar ki talaash
(searching for dollars$$$)
5.
uff baji, rickshaw gayee
(Oh Sister, you just missed the rickshaw)
6.
allah allah baRa zor hai meray deewanay mai
kal hi zamaanat karwaai thi aaj phir se thaanay meiN
PORT pe rehtay haiN, SOHRAB GOTH meiN sotay haiN
jab teri yaad aati hai jee bhar kar rotay haiN
7.
neem ka peR chandan se kam nahiN
hamara shehar karachi,london se kam nahiN
8.
aai samajh?
(Got it?)
9.
Ba-kamaal log, la-jawaab service
(miraculous people, one of a kind service) - this is actually the motto of Pakistan International a
Airlines.
10.
aakhri goli
(The Last Bullet)
My personal album of 46 rickshaw photographs from Pakistan is available for viewing here (all pictures here are from this collection). The more serious rickshaw connoisseur is referred to iFaqeer's full fledged blog dedicated to Rickshaw.
Tags: Public Transport, Society, Owais Mughal
posted @ 7:19 PM,
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Naulakha Pavilion
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Fort was extensively refurbished, extended and upgraded during the Mughal era. This is why it is rightly attributed as one of the gems of the Mughal civilization. Emperor Jalal ud Did Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb all added to it. During the period of Sikh occupation, Ranjit Singh added several pavilions on the upper ramparts. Some modifications to the Fort were made during the British period beginning in 1846 for housing facilities for colonial functions. Those modifications have been reverted and efforts made to bring the Fort back in its pre 1846 appearance.
Minar-e-Pakistan, 60 meters tall and a relatively new landmark in Lahore is on the one side of the Fort and the Badshahi (Imperial) Mosque and deMontmorency – oldest Dental Collage in Pakistan -- are across the courtyard from Alamgir Gate of the Fort. History and heritage are kept alive in the Lahore Fort, a protected national monument on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites, in the form of Masti Gate, Diwan-i-Am, Moti Masjid, Lal Burg, Naulakha Pavilion and Shish Mahal. The Fort contains marble palaces decorated with mosaics and gilt. The elegance of the splendid monument is matchless.
The massive fortification walls, built by Emperor Akbar in the 1560s, tower over the older part of Lahore. The huge rectangle they define, 380 by 330 meters (1,250 by 1,080 feet), is filled with buildings from a variety of periods. The main gates are located alongside the centre of the western and eastern walls. A tour of the Fort in one go is like eating an elephant in one gulp, so it merits to be seen slowly like a child looks at a huge mural.
Enter the Fort through Alamgiri Gate and you find yourself in a Maktab Khana (Clerks' House). It is a small cloistered court surrounded by arcades in which clerks use to sit, recording the names of visitors. The inscription outside tells that King Jahangir built Maktab Khana in 1618. Another gateway is the Masti gate - a corruption of Masjid Gate - named after the mosque, which still stands outside the Gate. Built in 1566, the Gate only assumed its present name after the construction of the nearby Mosque in 1641 by Empress Maryam Zamani, mother of King Jahangir.
Inside, the Diwan-e-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is an open pavilion with 40 pillars built in 1631-32 by Emperor Shah Jahan, in order to shelter his subjects when they appeared before him. Originally, Akbar had built the marble pavilion and red sandstone balcony that is at the back of the Diwan-e-Am. Here the emperor appeared daily before the public who, in his days, used to gather under a canvas canopy. The serpentine sandstone brackets are typical of Akbar's commissions, with the depiction of animals showing Hindu influence. His two-stored Diwan-e-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), built in 1566, is behind the balcony and is reached by stairs on the right. The Khwabgah-e-Jahangir (Jahangir's Room of Dreams) is the main building running the length of the north side of Jahangir's Quadrangle and is typical of Jahangir's period in its austerity. It is now a museum, containing some excellent illustrated manuscripts (including the Akbar Nama - the daily chronicle of Akbar's reign), some beautiful calligraphy, good miniature paintings and a collection of Mughal coins.
Moti Masjid was built in the Shah Jahan era about 1645 A.D., and is one of the of three Moti (Pearl) Mosques built in the Mughal period, the others being the one at Agra Fort and another at Delhi built by Aurangzeb. The Moti Masjid was used as a treasury during the Sikh period.
The Lal Burj, an octagonal tower, was constructed in 1617-31. Intended as a summer pavilion, it is decorated on the outside with mosaic and filigree while the interior is filled with paintings from the Sikh period. The lower two stories were built during Jahangir and Shah Jahan's reign, while the upper story is a Sikh addition.
The Bungla, popularly called the Naulakha pavilion - edifice, which was built at the cost of nine lakhs (900,000 was a lot of money then), is a unique marble pavilion with a curved roof. It was constructed during Shah Jahan's reign in 1631-32 A.D. for the Empress when she resided at Lahore. It is often considered one of the finest buildings in Pakistan. The Shish Mahal is a multi-storied structure north of the Bungla. It is also part of the royal residence constructed by Shah Jahan in 1631-1632. The mirror work has been renovated lately.
No ordinary coldness of phrasing can express the surprise and delight with which one makes acquaintance while seeing the built heritage and sensing history and accumulated memories spread all around the Fort. The first impact that the Fort gives is an emotional one. It also has architectural and documentary values. The perspective of the Fort gives the visitors a wonderful sense of being there. In fact, that is my recommendation: be there.
posted @ 9:34 AM,
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Other Side of Mountaineering
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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.
posted @ 3:32 PM,
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Jalalpur Sharif
Friday, June 6, 2008
For those who take their first chance to the area, the landscape all along the Salt Range is rock-strewn, lacking in softness and loveliness. In many parts, it becomes barren and uninviting. But, in truth the range is dotted with historical wonders, romantic legends, archaeological remains, and varying geological formations. Surroundings are very quiet. Urial is also found in the range though facing extinction. A journey along the range is exiting as well as informative.
After crossing river Jhelum from Rasul Barrage, one passes through 'Rasul Barrage Wildlife Sanctuary'. After monsoon, environs are green and this wetland is full lotus. Flocks of Siberians Cranes and Strokes and local black winged Stilts are the common winter sights in the area. Though at the dawn of a hot August day, I was able to see only few Tobas perching over their morning catch or a few flocks of Murghabis (wild ducks).
Turn west along the range from Mishri Mor bus stop in the beautiful 'bela' of River Jhelum and the road will take you to the town of Jalalpur. One could come on this road from Jhelum side but these days the Jhelum-Pind Dadan Khan Road is closed due to want of bridges on the torrents coming down the range to join River Jhelum so you can only come through Rasul Barrage. The River Jhelum used to flow full to the capacity but now it remains mostly dry. Water of the River Jhelum is transferred from Rasul Barrage to the River Chenab for strategic water management in the country.
Jalalpur Sharif, as the town is called, is opposite village Mong where the conflict between Alexander and Porus took place. Mong used to be the garrison of King Porus who had assembled 30,000 men, 2000 cavalry, and 200 elephant to fight against the Macedonians.
Right on the Jhelum-Pind Dadan Khan Road, tucked inside the Salt Range, is ancient Jalalpur that was built by Alexander in the memory of his general who was killed in the battle with Porus. Coins found among the ruins date back to the period of Graeco-Bactrian kings. Remains of the ancient walls are still there at the summit of the hill, which rise 1000 feet above the present-day Jalalpur.
It is at Jalalpur that in the absence of any route marking or sign posting, we started asking for the monument that is being made in the memory of the great conqueror. Few people did not know any thing about the monument; few others did not understand what we were looking for. Ultimately once we were about to give up, an old driver came to help and gave us some directions to go onto a road leading to village Wagh inside the range where we were to find the unfinished monument structure.The structure of the monument stands on the bank of a torrent, which flows during rainy seasons. The huge pedestal is graceful and on the platform stands a room. On the roof of the wide room, and flanked by Grecian style arches, is painted a map of Alexander's empire from Greece to South Asia showing the route he took in this part of the world with arrows (Hund - Taxila - Jalalpur - Beas - back to Jalalpur and to the Arabian sea along River Jhelum).
There is no doubt that this scenic place could be turned into a lucrative and busy tourist attraction and may be a research facility. Presently, the construction work has stopped and thorny bushes are placed on the stairs to stop any one going up on the roof to see the map. The colours of the map are already peeling. The pits all around the monument suggest that some trees were also planted but only a couple of them have survived. On the wall facing road, names of the donors have been written in different colours (along with the legend for the colour code). There was no one, not even a janitor, who could tell us about the current state of affairs or why the construction work has been stopped. Why? Lack of funds, lack of interest, or both!?
Alexander was undoubtedly a man of great substance: "He was an illustrious soldier who always followed the rules of war. He brought disciplines of medicine (Tibb-e-Yunani) and philosophy to what is now Pakistan. More than two thousand yeas ago he recognized the enormous potential in terms of commerce and trade of the immediate hinterland of Karachi. He called this place the bridge between east and west," reads a current report of Wildlife and Environment Quarterly. Not always. Travel writer and researcher Salman Rashid says Alexander did not only get away with murdering 7,000 soldiers from the central subcontinent who had joined the Pakhtoons in an attempt to defend the Masaga fort, he gives him a lenient title of a daghabaaz (at its most mundane a fraud, at worst a cheat). And, "We all by now know that it takes a general more than this to conquer the world," adds Ashaar Rahman.
People with time and will to explore are constantly looking for quiet and new destinations. Locally, if nothing else, this monument could give a boast to rural tourism and economy.
posted @ 3:20 PM,
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What Are the Porters Made Of?
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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.
Tag: Mountains, Porters, Travel, Pakistan
posted @ 1:17 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?
