Light Within

Not long ago, annual diaries along with calendars of the hanging variety, were all the rage with everyone clamoring for a set. Overtaken by the IT revolution and by the trimness of new gadgets, the once much sought diary has, like so many other things has gone obsolete it seems. Yet diaries are brought out every year, and pretty expensive ones at that, but mostly as giveaways by various corporate entities as part of their marketing and promotion plans. And it really is no big deal whether one receives a copy or not. It’s the latest i-pad that matters..

Still some commercial concerns go a long way to do a good job and instead of an ordinary diary produce a collectors' delight. One remarkable endeavor is the diary under review (a strange occurrence in itself, reviewing a diary) by the Pakistan Petroleum Limited’s (PPL). It is no ordinary book of days. To me it is not meant to scribble notes on, it is a veritable collector’s item. Much like a book, this book of days even has a title - Roads Less Travelled..

The PPL could produce this lovely and highly readable ‘diary’ because the company had a genuinely remarkable human resource to draw from. The author of eight books - The Apricot Road to Yarkand, Riders on the Wind, Between two Burrs on the Map, Prisoner on a Bus, Jhelum: City of the Vitasta, and Sea Monsters and the Sun God - and thousands of travel pieces that have appeared in most List A newspapers and magazines, Salman Rashid is a travel writers travel writer who shows another Pakistan through his work, the best in the country.

As a travel writer Salman Rashid stands out by a distance because his is no ordinary travel writing. Salman Rashid gives a substance that goes far beyond a travel piece, for he just doesn’t write about places of landscapes. Each of his pieces is a free flowing specimen, with most knowledgeable description of people, customs, history, legends and yes, anthropology woven into the story - and in language that is fluent and crisp, and also at places containing a fair dose of humor and sarcasm. The panorama that he presents turns most of his work into literary master piece.

Another aspect of Salman’s work is the accompaniment of his landscape photography, which is not merely a visual delight but also, as aptly described in the flap, “replicates, as lucidly, the spatial notations and ambiance he articulates in words”.

In Roads Less Travelled, Salman Rashid’s focus has been on Pakistan’s 12 passes, one each for every month of the year, starting from up north travelling down horizontally towards the south. Some are located in the icy regions, others on top of valleys most picturesque, and yet others surrounded by stark background. Titles that Salman has given eloquently describes each of the dozen passes: Khyber: of plunderers and pilgrims; Chappar: Rift in the Hill (150 km north of Sibi); Bolan: The Jangles of Bells; Moola: King’s Highway; Hisper: Fortress of Ice; West Muztagh: Balti Footprint; Mintaka: Pass of a Thousand Ibex Shandur: Playing Dice in Chitral; Babusar: Passage of the Pious: Khunjerab : Upstart Pass; Jhao : Portents of Peril : Shimshal: Riddle of the Kanjutis.

Each piece maps out a detailed itinerary for the interested traveler, in “ how to get there “ and back in one piece. Look at this on Moola : Kings’ Highway : “ can be accessed wither from Kalat in the west of Gandava and Jhal Magsi east of the Kirthars. From Quetta Kalat is reached in an easy two hours by car. There are a couple of rather Spartan hotels in town but the government rest houses are a much better option. Gandava is a tedious six hours from Quetta with no place to stay.