Epictober 2011: Experiencing Pakistan - Post 1 of 8
Today I toasted my mug of chocolate milk to discovery. I appreciated the fact that I have been given a foothold to climb one step closer to a dream. At this point, it would be a shot amiss to discuss the dream but it would make sense to talk about a certain goal. It has been hard to understand and truly learn about Pakistan from my natural vantage point, i.e., a nice, comfortable, apartment in a safe and cosy district of the cosmopolitan city of Karachi; and surrounded by my Playstation 3, laptop and smartphone. One can only learn so much through books, television and newspaper stories. We have to see only as far as Karachi to realize how many misconceptions people hold about the level of safety in the city. Yes, it did get quite messy recently but generally, life continues like it would in any other over-populated, sprawling, third world city.
Moving on to the main point here, the goal is to shun a few more stereotypes and arrive at more concrete conclusions about how life really is in Pakistan. This month of October for me will be a time when I shall be traveling to many cities and smaller towns in Pakistan, and also probably be the first time when I won't be living as a tourist in my own country. This opportunity promises to be one where I can sharpen the outlines and add more color to my descriptions of this lively painting. In a country which loves gossip, tall tales and enjoys bliss in its ignorance, it is challenging to write or talk about it in meaningfully accurate ways.
A first hand tour promises to be an experience where one can exercise some good balanced judgements on these stereotypes. From my easy chair in Karachi, I see Lahore as a forsaken city, blanketed in a plague so intense that it can go into apocalypse mode. People of Gujranwala just seem like jolly, good natured Punjabis who love food and kites. The "Peshawar Portrait" in my head exhibits RPGs and turbans in a game of hide and seek. I hope to discover things more cheerful, well defined and hopeful, respectively when I travel inland.
In an official sense, the purpose of this trip is to work on the execution of a national project and gather a more thorough understanding of consumer markets. This cannot be compared in magnitude to my study of the retail environment of Dubai in June, a plastic city with no original culture and exhibited by a self-consuming essence of capitalism. In many ways, that trip was a tourist retreat with many days spent in modern shopping malls and fast food restaurants. A forced melting pot of many cultures, it effectively masked Dubai's own. But the kind of trip I am currently about to undertake will break me away from the more liberal constructs of society, and put me in a relatively more unknown playing field. Aside from a deeper understanding of the core of Pakistani society, culture and history, I find this as a golden opportunity for myself to gain first hand experience of the challenging and complex environments of emerging markets such as Pakistan, and to navigate my way around it.
Discovery of new frontiers is the goal for me this October, in dimensions which are professional, cultural, historical, and traditional in ways that I have never attempted before. Currently, I'm relishing the challenge and hope I come out in November as someone who has discovered more in himself than the places he's been to. Hope to share some stuff when I get to the other side in November, or perhaps in between if a window of opportunity opens.
Today I toasted my mug of chocolate milk to discovery. I appreciated the fact that I have been given a foothold to climb one step closer to a dream. At this point, it would be a shot amiss to discuss the dream but it would make sense to talk about a certain goal. It has been hard to understand and truly learn about Pakistan from my natural vantage point, i.e., a nice, comfortable, apartment in a safe and cosy district of the cosmopolitan city of Karachi; and surrounded by my Playstation 3, laptop and smartphone. One can only learn so much through books, television and newspaper stories. We have to see only as far as Karachi to realize how many misconceptions people hold about the level of safety in the city. Yes, it did get quite messy recently but generally, life continues like it would in any other over-populated, sprawling, third world city.
Moving on to the main point here, the goal is to shun a few more stereotypes and arrive at more concrete conclusions about how life really is in Pakistan. This month of October for me will be a time when I shall be traveling to many cities and smaller towns in Pakistan, and also probably be the first time when I won't be living as a tourist in my own country. This opportunity promises to be one where I can sharpen the outlines and add more color to my descriptions of this lively painting. In a country which loves gossip, tall tales and enjoys bliss in its ignorance, it is challenging to write or talk about it in meaningfully accurate ways.
A first hand tour promises to be an experience where one can exercise some good balanced judgements on these stereotypes. From my easy chair in Karachi, I see Lahore as a forsaken city, blanketed in a plague so intense that it can go into apocalypse mode. People of Gujranwala just seem like jolly, good natured Punjabis who love food and kites. The "Peshawar Portrait" in my head exhibits RPGs and turbans in a game of hide and seek. I hope to discover things more cheerful, well defined and hopeful, respectively when I travel inland.
In an official sense, the purpose of this trip is to work on the execution of a national project and gather a more thorough understanding of consumer markets. This cannot be compared in magnitude to my study of the retail environment of Dubai in June, a plastic city with no original culture and exhibited by a self-consuming essence of capitalism. In many ways, that trip was a tourist retreat with many days spent in modern shopping malls and fast food restaurants. A forced melting pot of many cultures, it effectively masked Dubai's own. But the kind of trip I am currently about to undertake will break me away from the more liberal constructs of society, and put me in a relatively more unknown playing field. Aside from a deeper understanding of the core of Pakistani society, culture and history, I find this as a golden opportunity for myself to gain first hand experience of the challenging and complex environments of emerging markets such as Pakistan, and to navigate my way around it.
Discovery of new frontiers is the goal for me this October, in dimensions which are professional, cultural, historical, and traditional in ways that I have never attempted before. Currently, I'm relishing the challenge and hope I come out in November as someone who has discovered more in himself than the places he's been to. Hope to share some stuff when I get to the other side in November, or perhaps in between if a window of opportunity opens.
when are you leaving??
ReplyDeletewe're going on a dairy farm trip on sunday. be fun to view the rural "portrait" as you call it though the main concern right now seems to be appropriate footwear for a romp in the wild :P
I left yesterday... Landed in Faisalabad, then went by road to Sargodha where I currently am at the moment. It's a simple, small city with nice, hospitable people.
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