Wednesday 7 October 2009

Old Versus New

Islamabad is a modern city. Apart from the power cuts, of which I don't feel the pain due to the generator, one tends to feel that life here is of a modern age. Urban planning has been well thought out, and when driving along the roads armoured jeeps and other new cars imported from Japan are common sights. There is not so much to see out of the window that will tell you that you are in South Asia.

The town of Islamabad has an older sister called Rawalpindi that is what I would consider as much more authentic, only a few kilometres away. Going there is forbidden for us and this makes us even more curious to visit but sometimes we do get to see the traffic headed in that direction from the Margalla hills.

Tonight on our way home, we passed a donkey driven cart doing just that. With a family of seven on the cart travelling somewhere with what looked like almost all of their wordly possessions, it made me aware of where I was. A small but pleasant reminder that I am in South Asia after all and that not everything has been lost to modernism!

2 comments:

  1. Never forget where you are and always do as you are told!
    Guess who?

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  2. I'm glad to hear there's some of the Asia style culture that you love- you can tell a lot about a country from the way people travel around and the way they treat the animals!

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