Revise your expectations

Great travel writing can be put in two categories. In the first, the author visits exotic places and meets interesting people. William Dalrymple's In Xanadu and The City of Djinns, and Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindukush, are good examples of this kind of writing.

Then there are writers who may not be all that adventurous but their sheer observation and writing skills make for compulsive reading. VS Naipaul (An Area of Darkness, Among the Believers etcetera) falls in this category. Bill Bryson, though I feel he is at his best when writing short pieces, could also be clubbed here.

Ethan Casey's book attempts to be a little bit of both. Alive and Well in Pakistan is about the days Casey, a journalist, spent in Kashmir and Pakistan in the last few years.

Casey, it is evident right at the beginning of the book, is hugely impressed with Naipaul's writing on the subcontinent. He does not search out leaders and terrorists and tells his story through his interactions with common people.

Much of the romance of the Raj was in areas that now lie in Pakistan "" the gateway to the Kingdoms of the North where the Great Game was carried out. The luxurious life of the ruling elite is still more or less intact there. All credit to Casey for competently describing the languid pace of life in Pakistan.

But that, perhaps, is also the failing of the book. Things have really moved at a blistering pace, especially in Pakistan, over the last few years. The whole world has seen the modern and moderate face of the country emerge. Who can tell it better than us Indians. A vast majority of the people of Pakistan, especially the young, have got out of the "us versus them" syndrome.

This is a path-breaking trend in the recent history of the subcontinent. Unfortunately, Casey has not been able to capture it very well. A grocer close to my home has started stocking some Pakistani spices and has prominently displayed the Pakistani flag on his window.

A few years ago, his shop would have been burnt down and its owner lynched. Not any longer. Any book that comes out on Pakistan needs to capture this trend. Madrassas, Pathans, honour killings and arms bazaars have all become passe.

Ever since the 9/11 incidents, a string of journalists has come out with books on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most of them have tried to track the growth of hardliners in Pakistan and the nexus between jehadis and the madrassas dotting the countryside.

The terrorist attacks had created an appetite amongst readers outside the Islamic world for material on the way terrorists function. These books were targeted at this readership.

The problem is, the world has moved on. The rational voice of moderates has started carrying a lot of weight in Pakistan. There is change taking place, and for the better. Hopefully, somebody will write about it soon.

One cannot talk of Pakistan without talking of India "" each occupies so much mind space of the other. But Casey's references to India are sketchy and also a little off the mark. He compares the state of Muslims in India to that of the Blacks in the US. This might not be entirely true. The richest man in India, the country's president and the most successful Bollywood star "" all happen to be Muslims.

There is another incident that he mentions that would rankle most Indians. A political leader in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or "Azad Kashmir" met some Gurkha soldiers during one of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought over Kashmir. In sharp contrast to their awesome reputation, he found them dispirited and uninspired. Fighting for India was not a good enough cause for them, they told him.

True, Nepal has not been at war with any external power for almost two hundred years now. Still, the people of that country continue to excel at war. Not just for India but also for the British. That Casey cared to mention the incident in the book puts a question mark on his understanding of the subcontinent.

ALIVE AND WELL IN PAKISTAN

Ethan Casey
Penguin Books
Price: Rs 275; Pages: 269