The p2p contact

No, not napster or kazaa again-we've had enough of that already. I talk about a much rarer fish, the people to people contact that indians and pakistanis are currently obsessed with. And what better oppurtunity that to come down to lahore for the matches? The press circus tell us more about each other and ourselves than one would imagine at a cursory glance.. It a funny thing, India and Pakistan.. the similarities between them are considerable, from the language (no one has been able yet give me a convincing case to how urdu and hindi actually differ-i talk about the original Hindi of course, and not the sanskritised version that the BJP and there elk employ) to a common history, people and even for that matter-the same problems. On the face of it-a true case of Shylock?s famous 'if you prick us..' speech. But are we really that similar? Having spent the last couple of months absorbing India?s main media outlets, i made a couple of observations that i found telling, if nothing else. The indian media (and so i assume the people too), are fixated on pakistan. It can not be described as anything less of a full blown fetish. Keeping with our analogy, most indian newspapers are a orgy of news and views from across the border. Now had the situation been the other way around, it still would have been slightly more explainable. And yet, the indian media remain committed to giving front page coverage to even the most mundane newsbyte from there western neighbour. Now factor the fact that in terms of the overall game-pakistan's size is almost inconsequential in comparison to the behemoth that india is and you have a most bizarre situation! Do you question my veracity? Read the India times and the Hindustan times and i assure you the first page will carry stories that even dawn didn?t bother printing. "benazir has third facelift", is a case in point. Speaking of facelifts, the media and bizarre stories-i recently read an article in the south asian tribune that was to give me a very unique insight into the workings of the indian media machinery, and exactly how it manages to get the inside scoop into ground breaking stories like BB's relationship with her plastic surgeon. Around two weeks ago, the SAtribune, an online internet newspaper released a rather story on the doings of Dawood Ibrahim (apparently aka Amir Sahib), and claimed that he was currently in Islamabad to have dramatic plastic surgery. This certainly wasn?t the most startling part. The author then went on to weave a spy story par excellence, which included all of the requisite ingredients. Secret meetings in an Kathmandu children's playground, 'luxury' Honda cars and even a 'face/off' inspired plot [this is india after all-there has to be SOME 'inspiration']. And that was just the tip of the iceberg-he went on to unveil the details of an exceptionally nasty plan hatched by the pakistani government, the ISI and Amir sahab. According to his highly placed sources in indian counter-espionage, pakistan had succeeded in a dastardly plan to place 'matrimonial fighting units' all along the border with nepal. The implementation of the 'project shaadi' asked for ISI officials to be married to local nepalese girls-placed strategically all across the border. It wasn?t immediately clear if this also included a longer term plan to indigenize the production of pakistanis with a view to raise in army in the next 4 to 5 decades..but you can bet that this is a nuance that will not be lost on Mr. Arun Rajnath. Also completely understandable was how Mr. Dawood came to be recognized in Islamabad in the first place. According to deep-undercover officials within the indian intelligence community, Mr. dawood procured 'three luxury honda cars'(oxymoron anybody?), that attracted attention towards his activities in Islamabad. Notwithstanding the fact that the Indus motor company has been churning out Hondas by the thousands in pakistan over the last 15yrs..the sighting of a Civic is still considered a highly unusual occurance-something that the adept and alert RAW officials banked on. It's made me look anew towards my own honda civic! The fact that Arun has a fertile mind is obviously undebatable. Also patent is that he does not allow himself to be overly circumscribed by small details like reality. His ground breaking expose of the shameful ways of the ISI are a guiding light to even the most seasoned of government propagandists. He was single-handedly responsible for a spy saga that even the anti-communist disinformation units, in there many years of operations were unable to pen. As far as i know, they never got to the point where they were alleging that the commies had russian officers marring women all along the eastern seaboard. Latest news suggest that Mr. Rajnath has sold the movie rights to a top bollywood producer under the title "shaadi-the baarbaadi", he is also currently engaged in researching the ISI connections to a seismic fault line in india. We can be sure that another piece of investigative reporting cannot be far. And we haven?t even come to the exciting part! The fact is that this evidently fictitious conspiracy theory was actually taken up by a number of indian newspapers, including the india times and the hindu! I got a bit carried away there, with those stories.. but nevertheless an entertaining titbit. So, as the indians rained down on Lahore and to a lesser extent Karachi-there is apparently lots of love being dished out. Indeed, the internet forwards have started, full of emails of Indians surprised by the hospitality and love that was shown to them during there days in Pakistan. I haven?t yet come across an account that even hinted that the hop over the border was anything less than better than there wildest imaginations. The most common theme, apart from the hospitality bit was the surprise they showed at the liberated pakistani woman and the overall moderate and progressive society that we live in. They had come expecting burqa clad women scurrying along lanes-shunned by society, and forced to remain in there homes, disallowed to work or contribute in any way, shape or form. What they saw was the in fact, pakistan is a far cry from the stagnated, and claustrophobic societies that are, unfortunately so common in so many arab countries. Not only are places like kuwait and especially Saudi one of the worst places to visit and live in-there is a feeling that the social fabric is somehow skewed. And its not too surprising that it turns out that way. As these self styled overzealous guardians of everybody's faith try and impose there own understanding of 'islamic law'- one that is carried to a ridiculous extreme. All the while, pause not to consider the morality, let alone religious acceptance of there own convoluted lives. For example, the Kuwaiti Sheikh, was recently caught on tape having sexual intercourse with a number of different animals-the poor guy who was blamed for releasing the tape was tortured almost to death. [run a search on the al-adsani case, for more information]. I guess we are to infer from these learned people then, that homosexual intercourse is banned, unless your partner is of another species, in which case-its perfectly acceptable! It all makes sense now. Getting back to good old pakistan, where (atleast for the moment), we sleep assured that our leaders are not praying on domesticated animals. It couldnt have taken them [the indies] too long to realise that the reality was fundamentally different from what the pictures of extremism painted by the india times and others. Especially since security at the matches was provided, in part by pretty fearsome female police commandos equipped with the kind of kit usually worn by the army's special service group (SSG). And perhaps it wasn?t all that unexpected that they did enjoy lahore so much. It really has a special charm to it, lahore does. What with the food streets, the culture and a gobs of punjabi vitality and hospitality-all set against the backdrop of a city that traces it's history back atleast a millennia. And the lahore newspapers were flush with reports from the social butterflys, as they got to meet the very eclectic mix of people clambering across the borders. Everyone was unanimously in agreement that that Gayatri Devi was the coolest of all. Another inconclusive post, withering away at the end-i was always told i never learnt how to finish my essays properly.. they just tend to loose steam until they just come to halt at an arbitrary point. like this one.