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Most people raised an eyebrow and gave me a quizzical look tinged with fear when I said I would be travelling to Pakistan. "Pakistan? Why Pakistan?"
July 11th: Arrival in Pakistan
Esilbert2006-01-19 13:30:32
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Most people raised an eyebrow and gave me a quizzical look tinged with fear when I said I would be travelling to Pakistan. "Pakistan? Why Pakistan?"
The easy answer was because I studied Indian history and until 1947, Pakistan was a part of that. I was also thinking of doing trekking in the incredibly scenic north. But the real reason was because I wanted to experience life in a country born solely for the purpose of being a Muslim state.
My mother was terrified I would be abducted by Pakistani terrorists and killed. I tried to explain to her that the media's perception of Pakistan, their slant, was skewed and that she had nothing to fear for, since I wouldn't be hanging out with the rebels in Kashmir or anything. I decided I would stay with families in Lahore, contacted through the international peace organization to which I belong. That way I would be, in a way, protected. My mother was still terrified but satisfied I had at least one eye out for my own safety.
When I walked over the line that demarcates the border between India and Pakistan I felt nothing but slightly giggly, since I had just spent an hour at a sodawalla joint drinking Mirinda and staring at the Niagara Fun World sign, where the Canadian and US flags intertwined underneath the sign's title. Here I was at the Indo-Pak border, where during partition it is estimated that the largest mass migration ever took place. Around 10 million people moved their lives somewhere else. And it was not peaceful. And here the Indians were pretending the border was the Canadian-American one. I didn't see any duty-free shops or Madam Tussaud's wax museum anywhere... the only difference between India and Pakistan, that I could see, was that on one side the majority of the men were wearing turbans, and on the other, white Punjabi suits and Muslim prayer caps.
When I arrived in Lahore, I found it to be quite similar to
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See photographs from:
Pakistan Gallery
