Iran-Pakistan

27 February 2009, Friday

I asked a Shiite in Peshawar if they still have problems with the Sunnis, and he said - "We don't kill each other anymore because now there is a dialog between us," but perhaps by a habit part of the dialogue is still conducted with bombs. As an outsider it seemed to me that there is at least a small civil war smouldering on a slow fire, but now I wonder if this is not just a normal way of life for Pakistanis. After another week I saw all the mausoleums in Multan and Lahore - perhaps the most beautiful city in the Indian subcontinent, and at the end I inevitably call to mind once again the mind-boggling beauty of Karakorum - where each (mountain) dream came true raised to the tenth power, so it seemed sinister and monstrous, as a symbol of this wild and beautiful country called Pakistan.

Published at 12:26