Today I met a family originally from the Kailash Valley in Northern Pakistan. They were so kind, and one girl even donned some traditional tribal dress for a photograph.  These people are descended from the soldiers of Alexander the Great, who, after waging war through much of Central Asia, reached the Kailash Valley many hundreds…

As two of Pakistan’s neighbouring countries, India and Afghanistan undergo general elections it is interesting to reflect on developments in one country affect the wider region.  Both countries are geo-political heavyweights (due to a booming economy and the presence of NATO forces respectively) and as such the government ministers in Islamabad will be watching closely.…

I was invited by a family to lunch today, and I had a wonderful time.  They made ‘peeka’ food in my honour.  ‘peeka’ means ‘tasteless’ and is used by Pakistanis to refer to food that doesn’t have any spices in it! I really enjoyed the food; I just hope they didn’t mind it too much.…

I have been thinking that you can tell a lot about a culture by looking at the way people queue (or don’t as the case may be!). I was in the bank today to take out some of my penultimate scholarship instalment, and everyone waiting to be served was standing in little groups around each…

I visited the house of a friend this evening, and whilst I was there one or two other visits came and went. In an off-the-cuff way I commented that the house seemed to have quite a few visitors that evening. They looked at me strangely at first, afterwards explaining that tonight is unusually quiet, it…

Today I thought about the menagerie of sounds that one hears on an average day in Pakistan. There is the ice-cream cart that plays an electronic version of ‘fur-de-lise’ on repeat, I wonder how it doesn’t drive the poor man bonkers. There are the cats and dogs. Nobody owns them (indeed, the average Pakistani is…

Today has been a fairly relaxing day. The weather is changing here, slowly but surely the temperature is rising. Although fortunately the mosquitoes have launched a full-scale invasion as yet, and the ceiling fan has not been needed as yet. Every day the citizens of this country go without electricity for between 3 and 10…

A visit to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, is always rather interesting, and this time to see the life and works of Dries Van Noten, especially after his recent défilé, was great. There was an obvious progression from his first collection to his most recent, notably thanks to more advanced technology becoming available. It…