Few months back I got a chance to interview Shahid Afridi. A day before the interview I went to the Regal Electronic Market of Karachi to purchase an audio recording device. While looking for the recorder, we passed through the city’s largest cell phone market. It was almost 9 p.m. but still very noisy and crowded there. Many people were infusing their cell-phones with ring-tones, some were trying to fill the bellies of their handsets with cheap songs and some were selling used sets to buy newer ones. At one shop, as I was peeking at different things and colorful gadgets, I saw some pornographic material in a cell phone. I was shocked to see something like that in a public place. As I noticed things more closely I saw that every other shop was busy in transferring such material into the sets. Cell phones, which are usually used in the civilized world as tools of communication, have been transformed into micro-cinema houses in Pakistan which run adult stuff at very low costs. I noticed that most of the customers in those shops were very young people, mostly in their teens.
When I wrote the post on Ashoka’s Rock Edicts I had made a suggestion at the end of the post to the department concerned, which was to put up a proper and readable translation of the edicts at the site — both in English and Urdu.
To my pleasant surprise, I discovered the other day, when I stopped by at the site while traveling on the Karakoram Highway, that a new signboard had been installed alongside the old signboard displaying a gist of the edicts both in English and Urdu. (See pictures.) One would like to think that the new signboard was the result of suggestions and comments made on the ATP post, but the fact is that the Archaeology Department had done it on their own much before the ATP post appeared. (And I doubt if anyone in the Archaeology Department reads ATP.)
Last year ATP had brought you a post on Chinese Characters on Pakistani Transport.
Today we are bringing you a brand new piece on Titanic sightings around the country. There are 5 such documented sightings. So don’t forget to go to the next page to see more.
(1) At The Banks of River Kabul:
The photo below is from NWFP, Pakistan. It shows mighty ‘Titanic’ (or a lifeboat of it) tamed as an amusement park ride on the banks of River Kabul.
Photo Credits: Umar Marwat at trekearth.com
