This post has been a result of me sitting mostly free during my internship. I have lately been to many corners of the internet, so many that I can prove it to be round...lol... I have learnt crap about many things crap and have spent like a zillion hours exploring anything on google.
I don't know how but I stumbled upon the topic of POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). I read about its history and geography and about the Karakoram Highway which was nicknamed as the 8th wonder of the world due to the shear challenge of making a road around 50 odd 7000+ m peaks. It was basically a strategic move by Pakistan with help of China to gain dominance in Kashmir. Leaving it here, all the politics and controversies and huge defence budgets, both the governments should realise the amount of lives being lost and above that the amount of natural beauty being lost. You would have heard these lines a million times before this, but mostly its from the perspective of Jammu and Kashmir that we Indians know; but here we are talking about the whole Himalayan (once a royal) state.
What has astounded me the most is the Karakoram region, maybe which has been preserved only due to the conflict, a region which has been totally isolated and brought situations of a fairytale to life. "the Paradise on Earth". Like any other Indian I think we have full right over this area. Other people may think otherwise but in this name-blame-lame game we are loosing the best of the best.
Following are a collection of pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awara/sets/72057594137465620/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awara/sets/72057594137465620/
And if this wasn't enough to leave you speechless, there is a legendary story about the golden paradise, why is it golden after all :
