Mohammed Hanif on his homecoming to Pakistan
Many thought he was crazy to swap London for one of the most dangerous countries in the world. But he's happy to be home
A journalist colleague pointed out recently that we, the people of Karachi, would much rather live with secular chaos than the Taliban. And every recent election has proved this. Every few days we hear warnings that the Taliban are coming, but Karachi has seen off its share of militant mullahs in the past and doesn't seem bothered. In fact one of the local parties spearheading the protests against the Taliban, or Talibanisation as they like to call it in Karachi, is Sunni Tehrik. With their regulation beards and fiery rhetoric, outsiders wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the Taliban. Their leaders have titles such as Naked Sword and go around the city with Kalashnikov-carrying bodyguards. But they hate the Taliban as much as the next fashionista.
Even our local liquor shop (which is supposed to sell to non-Muslims only, but runs its business on secular lines) put up a poster recently: Beware of Talibanisation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/07/mohammed-hanif-pakistan-homecoming
and again, the guardian:
a British major's life teaching in the Hindu Kush
He's lived in Pakistan for more than 60 years – for the last 20 running one of its top schools. But he still swears by Quaker Oats and Lipton's tea for breakfast . . .
Some things, however, never change. Every morning the retired major, who turns 92 in a few months, rises at dawn in his cottage in Chitral, in the upper reaches of the Hindu Kush mountains in Pakistan's North West Frontier province. He puts on a blazer, tie and polished shoes. Then he sits down to breakfast served by his loyal servant, Sufi. It is always the same: porridge ("Quaker Oats, of course"), a poached egg (the poacher bought from Selfridges) and two cups of Lipton tea. He leafs through a newspaper, which has arrived via the valley's irregular plane service and is a few days old. Then it is out of the door, through the gate and up a winding hill to the school he founded and to which he has dedicated the last 20 years of his life.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/10/geoffrey-langlands-pakistan-school
Europe eurail train tickets in pakistan