Satellite television is reaching out, but the target audience is still Indians.
It´s 11:30 on a lazy Sunday morning, India time, and if you want to look over the wall for a friendly neighbourhood chat, this is probably your best bet. Stop surfing the tv channels and select Star Plus where anchor Aamir Qureshi overcomes all visa and travel restrictions and takes you to Pakistan for half an hour in Postcards from Pakistan.
Within seconds you are transported to Lahore, the city the anchor describes as dilwalo ka shahar (where the large-hearted live). And what do people with large hearts do: keep outsized pets, naturally. The camera zooms in on two brothers Chand and Khalid as they walk their pet lions through the streets of Lahore. The brothers are pahalwans (wrestlers) (they better be if they want to keep lions!) and the camera treats y ou to some cuddly moments as Chand and Khalid play with their fearsome pets as though they were mere cats. The Lahori lions are between four to eight years old and drink many litres of milk and consume many kilos of meat daily; their meals are incomplete without dessert, and they equally favour ice cream or kulfi.
Lahore is Pakistan´s most happening and eventful place, and the Dastaan Theatre Company is staging a performance. We have some of Lahore´s actors and directors talking about new experiments in theatre that are shaping contemporary Pakistani stage. There is talk of carrying the art to other destinations as well. Actress Nadia Faisal says she wants to take her plays across the border to India and later on to UK. Ali Hassan, another stage artiste, says that young talent in Lahore is just dying to burst out. Stage veteran Shoiab Ahmed says that he has infinite faith in the young people, and hopes that theatre will hold its own against film.