DESPARDES — Charles Dickens final novels: A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend — for what each of the title means in common sense, tell the story of the situation two neighbors Pakistan and India face — the global village (Internet and social media) is the multiplex cinema screening them.
While the world community wakes up to find Pakistan crossing the Rubicon from terrorism to tourism and diversity, they also watch one of world’s largest neighborhood losing its democracy, diversity and pluralism sheen on their watch.
The image (above) of latest front page of one of India’s largest English daily newspaper is telling — even though the report and the picture may have been sanitized for local public consumption and international perception.
In the fringe media, and the global village, the situation is worse — it’s dotted with news, views, videoclips and infographics like a hot spot on the map. Meanwhile, Pakistan is emerging as a hot spot for travels and tourism: Kartarpur to name one bringing turbaned Sikhs to their religious site across the border from India and worldwide.
- So it’s a tale of two
citiescountries. - Great expectations have risen in Pakistan, while great
expectationsapprehensions have dampened communities in India on Modi’s watch. - Ironically, both neighbors have a mutual friend: The US government with Donald Trump as President and bidding for a re-run in 2020.
“And that’s the way it is” — to characterize the developing situation in India and Pakistan, using Walter Cronkite’s daily nightly ending catchphrase on CBS Evening News in the 60s and 70s.
