Salman Rashid

Travel writer, Fellow of Royal Geographical Society

Finds of Empire
29 July 2013

It is a great thing to be engaged for the sixth consecutive year by Pakistan Petroleum Limited to produce their diary and table calendar. It all began in 2009 with the theme Tales Less Told. Twelve legends were explored to connect them with reality. The diary, produced by PPL’s Public Relations Department, was a great success and I was much gratified to hear that recipients had kept it as a souvenir.

There followed Sites Less Seen (less known historical buildings/sites) and then in 2011 Roads Less Travelled covering twelve passes that had seen history unfolding. Saquib Hanif who heads the PR Department then came up with the idea of Empire legacy. And so, for 2012, we did one called Wheels of Empire, briefly chronicling railway history. This year is Stones of Empire, twelve beautiful buildings either from engineers and architects of the Raj or from our local stone masons who were inspired by foreign building craft.

For 2014 PPL and I are working on Finds of Empire. This is the story of archeology in Pakistan. I have been to Harappa where, incidentally, Mohammad Hassan, the curator of the museum, was surprised when I told him I had never ever been to Harappa in my whole life. Soon it will be Taxila and then a couple of sites in Swat before Mardan. Last of all, I will be going south to Sindh to photograph some history there.

However, for the time being this has to suffice. I cannot let on what all will be included in the diary for 2014.

Labels: Archeology, Book of Days 2014, Discoveries of Empire, History

posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,

3 Comments:

At 29 July 2013 at 11:56, Anonymous said...: Would sure like to have this one. I know there will be much more in addition to commonly known places (Harrapa, Mohenjo Daro, Some Buddhist relics from Taxila.

Jamshed
At 29 July 2013 at 16:37, Saima Ashraf said...: Harappa reminds me of the civilization that is no more but still has footprints on our history. Statues and utensils,elegant life style, sewerage system from the bygone ages tell us of the glory of the civilization. History speaks out there!
At 29 July 2013 at 21:02, Lahoremassagist said...: I have seen one of your old diaries. Will look for more stuff on next year diary.