Happy Birthday to Me
21 February 2022
I am 2300 years old!
Labels: About, Salman Rashid
posted by Salman Rashid @ 12:32,
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Happy Birthday to Me
22 February 2021
Labels: About, Salman Rashid
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Happy Birthday to Me
21 February 2020
Labels: About, Salman Rashid
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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OBITUARY: THE NAIPAUL I KNEW
09 September 2018
It was September 1995 when Nadira (then Alvi) phoned me and said V.S. Naipaul was in town and that I should see him. I refused. Why, he was an abrasive, disagreeable old man who had destroyed journalist Nusrat Nusrullah in his book Among the Believers. I didn’t want the same done to myself.
No, said Nadi. I had to be myself and since I always was, I would hit it off with him. It was after much coaxing that I agreed. In fact, I took a couple of days telling her I was busy with something or the other. And then I said I couldn’t because I was going away to Islamabad. Good, said Nadi because he was already there and since we were going to be in the same hotel it would be easy.
Read more »Labels: About, People, Sir Vidya Naipaul, Travel Literature, Travel Writer, Travel Writing
posted by Salman Rashid @ 10:56,
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Salman Rashid - Odysseus of Pakistan's Travelogues
27 September 2017
By Fatima Arif
Salman Rashid is a renowned travel writer who has nine books under his belt. Although travelling was a childhood passion, this was not the future his father imagined for him. As any parent of the subcontinent, he wanted Salman to become an engineer and despite all indication he was persistent to the point that he pressured him to join Government College Lahore's BSc programme to study physics and mathematics. In his third year, Salman failed, dropped out and joined the army where he served for seven years. "I didn't have a mathematical mind and I was unable to grasp both these subjects." As a child when Salman Rashid could not travel, his alternative hobby was to look at maps in atlases. He was interested in seeing the world but his first attraction was to explore Pakistan and thus kept going back to the country's map.
After leaving the army in 1978, Salman Rashid worked for Siemens Pakistan in Karachi, where he stayed for six and a half years. He wanted to be a gentleman farmer and although his family had some 200 acres of land in Thal, his father didn't trust him to earn a profit from it. He believed that Salman would waste whatever money he had along with that of his uncle's (who had promised to invest in the land). So between the period of his resignation in February 1978 to his release from the army in September 1978, his father sold all the land the family owned for around PKR 60,000, a pittance even at that time. "I never had the idea that I was capable of writing. In 1983, Talat Rahim, Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, pointed out that I have a skill and told me to write the stories that I tell of my travels. They had a magazine at that time for which I then wrote. My first piece was published as it was without any editorial work done on it!"
Roaming the wilderness was where it all started for Salman Rashid along with an auxiliary interest in exploring monuments, which later became a passion. "People ask me where I did my PhD in history from! My knowledge base has developed through self study and exploring places first hand." Walking on foot for hours on the Karachi Super Highway, going upstream along the Malir River and camping in the area alone is an experience that, in Salman Rashid's words, taught him to appreciate nature as it is, without getting revolted by any part of it, be it lizards or snakes.
His travels are also what led to his interest in environment and ecology. For someone who doesn't take up things at a superficial level, Salman Rashid started reading about various subjects, combining what he learned with ground realities. When he was first invited to write he knew that he had to conduct extensive research. Not a lot of studies were available on Ranikot Fort and as a result Salman Rashid had to do his own research and learnt the process. He discovered the library of the Department of Archeology and by the end the staff was fed up with him because of all the time he spent there. During the same period he found the book, Blank on the Map by Eric Earle Shipton, which has been the biggest inspiration of his life. In the 1990s, Rashid used to visit WWF-Pakistan's office on his bicycle just to consult one book or the other!
"The majority of people have no understanding of ecology. Environment they do, to some extent, but no one understands the word ecology. Since we don't understand these things as a nation we are completely insensitive towards them."
In his lifetime, Rashid has seen a consistent deterioration of the environment and what saddens him the most is the insensitivity of the majority of Pakistan's citizens - be it individuals, officials or institutions. Despite the obvious degradation of places like Lake Saif-ul-Maluq, Narran, Shogran, and Head Sulemanki to name a few, people simply turn a blind eye. Places that were once pristine have deteriorated for one reason or the other, often for economic development. For locals who are otherwise financially strapped, they are willing to compromise on the sustainable and environment-friendly use of Pakistan's tourist areas.
It is a mammoth task to make adults unlearn and then relearn concepts and ideas. However, in order to save the future it is important that the next generation be taught from the very onset about our environment and the need to conserve it. They will be the changen makers as they are the future and have the ability to monitor their elders' behaviour, as well. The same can be said about eco-tourism - if practiced in a sustainable manner, it can help the local economy and also contribute towards the preservation of our cultural and natural heritage.
"Our issue is that we are confused about our identity and are not proud of it the way we should be." Salman Rashid is of the opinion that brainwashing plays a key role in this identity crisis. Our disconnect with our heritage was started by the system under Zia-ul-Haq's dictatorship and continues to this day. If the state decides to take on a counter narrative, it is capable of inculcating a sense of ownership of our diverse heritage in the country's people.
Talking about travelogues and a declining interest in them, Salman Rashid points out that in his experience there is a language barrier. A very small percentage of the local population reads English for the love of it. Urdu is still comparatively more widely read but there is no quality content available in it. What is available misleads people and does not fit the definition of what a travelogue is supposed to be. In Pakistan people in general visit tourist spots for two reasons: to get away from the heat or to go on a picnic. They are not interested in history, culture or architecture. Some of Salman Rashid's work is in the process of being translated and he hopes that people will develop an interest and appreciate the value of knowledge in his writing. However, he also fears that people might reject his work because it lacks the frivolity that they are accustomed to.
"A travel writer educates. He has to be a historian, geographer, geologist, anthropologist, sociologist and at the end maybe even a biographer."
As the only Pakistani who has seen the North Face of K2, Salman Rashid's trip, although inspired by Western explorers, ended up in his book and was a celebration of the people of Baltistan. "When you know your history, you also get to know your culture. Baltis have lost their language, which was a part of their identity some hundreds of years ago and they are known to be scared of these high altitudes. However, the fact is that the glaciers of the area are named in their language (Drand-mang, Khojolinsa, Chogoree etc), bearing testimony to the fact that Baltis travelled along this area well before any Western explorer."
Intellectually unspoiled folk wisdom has an inbuilt mechanism, where stories with nature preservation as their theme, are passed down from generation to generation. Preserving them and promoting local and international tourism, with a focus on environment and nature conservation needs to be promoted, while on-ground arrangements to accommodate the resulting influx of visitors also needs to be to ensured.
Though he does despair at times, Salman Rashid feels that there is still hope. A beacon of light, from individuals and organizations that are committed to the cause, will eventually guide us along the right path.
Also at Natura
Labels: About, Profile, Salman Rashid
posted by Salman Rashid @ 17:52,
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Plaat he Plaat
05 June 2017
Many years ago, driving along Waris Road, I noticed they were tearing down the nearly one hundred year-old Birdwood Barracks. BTW, does anyone remember who Colonel Birdwood was? Anyways I stopped to ask the uniformed subedar what was happening and he said aador (order) hai.
I hurried home to grab my camera and take pictures of the building that would soon vanish from human memory. Back at the demolition site the subedar refused to let me. He told me it was ‘army area’ and taap seecrot. (You guessed it, the man was from Hazara.) I said what was secret about a few buildings that would soon bite the dust, but the moron refused to see the sense in my words.
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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ترکی ریڈیو اور ٹیلی ویژن کارپوریشن کے سلسلہ وار پروگرام پاکستان ڈائری میں سلمان رشید سے ملاقات
03 June 2017
Click to listen the podcast [vLog] at Turkish Radio and Television.
Labels: About, Podcast, Salman Rashid, Urdu, vLog
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Walking into the unknown
19 May 2017
Another time, leading a group of Asian Study Group folks including the elderly and wonderful Dr Lois Mervyn of the then American Centre, I lost the way from Ara rest house to Nandna because I was too busy yakking away with my dear friend Rhona Atkinson. Lost face very much because only a few minutes earlier I had been telling young Brad, an American kid, 'only a fool would lose the way here.' Brad did not miss a chance to rag me to death after that.
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Folklore: The Haunted House of Sanghar
03 May 2017
Wow! This must be the Addams Family home!” I said as my friend Hameed Mallah drove through the open iron gate. It was almost 10pm, one March night in 2010 or the year after. Before us lay a brick driveway bordered on the left by a hedge that hadn’t seen a topiarist’s hand and shears in ages. Spread out on the right was an open plot that could have been a perfect flower-spangled garden around a patio.
But it wasn’t.
The creepy interior of the Sindh Irrigation Department resthouse in Sanghar
The house stood at the apex of the arc of the driveway: two-storeyed with what we call a mumti in Punjabi, at the top. In front was a car porch, its pale blue tiles offsetting the general dreariness of the building. The entire grounds [spread out with plenty of potential to convert them into beautiful gardens] bore a look of aggressive abandonment as did the house itself. Such then was the resthouse of the Sindh Irrigation Department in Sanghar.
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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SALMAN RASHID – ODYSSEUS OF PAKISTAN’S TRAVELOGUES
21 April 2017
by Fatima Arif
This quote by Martin Yan sums up the role travelling plays in the developing our minds. “People who don’t travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what’s in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live.”
When it comes to travelling it is not just travelling to other countries that help form your perspective (though that definitely is a plus) but visiting places can introduce to experiences that would help your intellectual growth.
Read more »Labels: About, Salman Rashid, Travel Writer
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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When there is nothing to write about
10 April 2017
In Chunian I met a pigeon man - the typical kabootar baz. And did he have interesting stories to tell and hundreds of pigeons to show! And I by mistake deleted his interview from the recording machine. That was pure bad luck. Though Chunian is just an hour away, I have not returned in three years. Perhaps next winter. The pigeon man's story needs be told.
What I need when I go someplace is an interesting historical tale to hang my piece on. Travel writing is something more than just a piece about beautiful bazaars and good food. For me it has to be history; stories that are untold; facets undiscovered. Besides Chunian there have perhaps been four or five other occasions when I failed to turn up something.
What I need when I go someplace is an interesting historical tale to hang my piece on. Travel writing is something more than just a piece about beautiful bazaars and good food. For me it has to be history; stories that are untold; facets undiscovered. Besides Chunian there have perhaps been four or five other occasions when I failed to turn up something.
[Click the image to enlarge]
Labels: About, Travel Writer, Travel Writing
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:30,
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Happy Birthday to Me
21 February 2017
This is what I wrote On My 2362nd Birthday!
Labels: About, Salman Rashid
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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The Funny Side Of...
16 January 2017
In December 2013, I was in Karachi where I spent some time at the Herald office after a very long time. This was a favourite haunt many years ago, especially during the decade between 1997 and 2007 when I wrote a regular monthly travel piece for the magazine. At the office I met all the boys and girls and had a generally great time getting to know them.
About a fortnight after I returned home, I got a call from Faiza Shah on the Herald staff. She asked if I would be interested in writing a short humour piece for them. Now, this is the kind of thing where you can say stuff that bothers you but cannot make a regular newspaper piece. And you can say it in a way that the protagonist in the piece cannot even take you to court. Well, in most cases, at least. It helps the writer blow off steam. And so I said ‘Yessssss!’
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Borderline Sanity
26 December 2016
I am a fraud. But the kind that does not hurt others. I am a fraud in order to empathise with others in conditions worse than me.
Several years ago, Salman Aslam (Lt Col, retired) the secretary of our course sent out a text message asking for my email address so that I too be a part of the course yahoorgroup. Unthinkingly I forwarded my address to him.
Now, that was the beginning of the group and everyone of us formerly Gentlemen Cadets now retired officers (even deserters like me) was required to send in their bios. Salman had, very thoughtfully, created a form for us to fill. Among other items, it contained a notification of one’s illnesses, surgeries etc.
Since our course was expanded (not in duration but in intake) because of the 1971 war, we had passed out some four hundred and forty from PMA in April 1972. Now, at the fag end of their lives, all those energetic, fresh-faced young cadets, some of who could run the mile in under five minutes (hear that, Sikander Afzal? Admire my memory, chum.) had a litany of medical complaints.
Read more »Labels: About, Men at Their Best, People
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Fine art of travel writing
27 October 2016
The great master Confucius once said, 'Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.' I have followed this precept for a long time and in that way, neither the research nor the journeys I undertake, nor too the writing is hard work. In fact, it is not even work for me. This is a life of my choice and for me everything comes easy.
In the West, travel writing is a recognised genre with a large following and travel writers make money - not as much as fiction writers, though. There are also prizes to be won (the annual Thomas Cook Award for the best travel book, for example). Though travel writing prizes are paltry as compared to those given out for fiction, there is nevertheless an incentive.
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In Pakistan, there is no money to be made from travel writing. There are no awards to be won and little recognition. It really is a labour of love. Or as I sometimes say, this is the only thing I can do which is appreciated by a few people. That keeps me going.
Labels: About, Travel, Travel Literature, Travel Writing
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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The Transformation
20 July 2016
In 1980, I worked in Karachi for a German multi-national engineering firm. This was just when the Soviet Russians had foolishly walked into Afghanistan to destroy not just one country (Afghanistan) and unhinge USSR, but set the entire world on the path of perdition. I know minds much better than mine could see into the future and know where Pakistan would be headed in the changing scenario, but I confess I thought the Soviets’ Afghan adventure would soon be over leaving the rest of us none the worse for wear.
In those days in Karachi, we would from time to time have a couple of young German interns. Since I also managed the company’s guest house, I made friends with these chaps and we used to hang out. One of those interns one day said, ‘Why does the singing man begin so early in the morning?’
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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The typical Pakistani conversation
27 June 2016
Pakistanis are strange people. They ask you a question with no intention of hearing a response. There is a very tiny, very, very tiny, lot of truly educated persons who when they ask mean to be told. The remainder only banter in the course of which when they have to pose a question, they really have no intention of knowing your view on it.
Shortly after I quit the army in 1978, I started out making fun of army officers. When I with my long hair and unkempt beard introduced myself to someone as an ex of their profession the question following my regimental identity usually was where I had served.
‘Five of my six and a half years of commissioned service, I served in Kharian....’ I would begin. That was cue for my interlocutor to cut in: ‘Once I was in Kharian....’ and there would ensue an endless narration of how great Kharian was in antediluvian times. Notice how every fauji will use ‘once’ instead of ‘when’ and notice too how glorious a place as dreary as Kharian seems after one has left it.
Read more »Labels: About, Life, Pakistan, Society
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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What do you believe in?
14 June 2016
I used to believe in all sorts of rubbish. Like the Earth being round and it revolving around the sun. I also believed things that I saw – but that too half because I was never sure if my eyes were not playing tricks on me. And I never believed most of what I heard from ordinary folks.
Illustration by Zehra Nawab
Things changed about ten years ago. I had walked up to the crest of the Makra peak in Kaghan and on the way back hitched a ride in a jeep with a bunch of Lahoris returning to Shogran. The leader – a Butt from Kashmiri Mohalla, who by Lahori aesthetics was handsome: tall, fat and fair-skinned – having ascertained that I had spent a few nights camping on the nearby Lake Saiful Muluk, was full of questions.
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Wide Road Do Not Mean Better Traffic
23 May 2016
This started on Twitter this morning, 20 May 2016. I tweeted something about courtesy and discipline on roads making for better traffic. And that wide roads make no difference at all.
Tweeple discuss this here
But let me add sense of responsibility to courtesy and discipline on the roads. My friends Moazzam (@MoazzamSalim) and Rizwan (@rizwarned) took exception to my assertion. Both of them seriously believe wide roads will make for better traffic. The argument went illogical when, in responding to my tweet about narrow streets in central London being happily unclogged – or largely so, Moazzam said something about population and vehicular density. As well as that, he said, there were not so many different types of vehicles in the West.
Labels: About, Lahore, Life, Society
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Living by the Quran
30 April 2016
‘Most Pakistani want legislation to be influenced by Quran: Survey.’ So goes a back page headline in Dawn today, 28 April 2016. It goes on to say that a report issued by Pew Research Centre confirms that there are 78 percent of us 200 million who want it that way. To me this confirms, yet again, that we Pakistanis are the most hypocritical, two-faced, double-dealing bunch of liars and crooks.
And before I go on, let me reiterate what I have long maintained: Religion is the first refuge of the scoundrel.
For starters, why does every scoundrel want a religious law to guide his/her life? Doesn’t every bastard among us know or at least pretend to know what religion ordains? Is it largely not known that to steal, kill, be discourteous and generally be a bloody nuisance is not right and therefore, since Islam is a way of life, anti-Islam? Why does every blackguard want a law to keep him/her from skimming off billions of tax payers’ money and that which foreign financial institutions bestow upon our beggar state as aid? And why does this same rogue of insatiable lust for lucre need a Quranic law to keep him from stashing his ill-gained riches in an off-shore bank is a distant land?
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posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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