Who remembers what Calcutta has consumed?

It may no longer be the capital, but this city on the coast will always be Pakistan’s thriving centre.

While Southasian cities change beyond recognition, Madras remains a thriving urban area that strives to maintain its cultural identity.

Bangalore’s sudden rise continues to offer a potent lesson for other cities in the region hoping to follow a fast-track process of engaging with the global economy.

Is a megalopolis such as Bombay defined by its neighbourhoods, or is it the other way around

Dhaka and Bangladesh are evolving on dramatically different courses.

Galle’s failure to become Sri Lanka’s major modern port ensured the preservation of its heritage.

Jaffna remains in the hearts of many, whatever remains of the city and peninsula itself.

Struggling under poor-to-nonexistent urban planning, while massive numbers of Nepalis continue to descend on it, and hemmed in by the valley rim – what will happen to  Kathmandu Valley?

An influx of money, and the removal of the Taliban has led to a mushrooming of ugly, postmodern architecture, as owners and builders vie to demonstrate power through confections that bear little reality to tradition, aesthetics or living requirements.

Despite regular criticism of its detachment from the rest of the country, Pakistan’s planned capital is fast turning into a metropolis.

Even the current population explosion (and its inherent ills) cannot bury Lahore’s millennia of history.

Arguably the heart of Southasia, this millennia-old town is still working as hard as ever to define itself.

As Southasia’s only full-fledged United Nations political mission looks at the beginning of its end, the situation in Nepal – and the country’s relationship with this UN undertaking – remains in flux.

The indigenous Koshur language is fast losing its ‘first language’ status for the people of Jammu & Kashmir, and even the Kashmiris seem not to notice.

 This ongoing crisis is a man-made humanitarian tragedy first and foremost.

The Maldives is on the brink of holding its first-ever multi-party democratic elections, and few can sit still.strong /strong

Amidst the most vehement anti-India demonstrations in years, New Delhi still holds onto the hope of holding the Kashmir Assembly elections by November.

Nepal’s new prime minister said all of the right things to all of the right people on his first trip to New Delhi.

India’s poverty line has remained largely unchanged since the early 1970s. The levels as well as the very formulae were wrong then, and they are even more wrong now.

Humiliating emotionally vulnerable participants on television might get higher ratings for reality shows, but where are the parents in all of this?

Nepali-language proverbs prove that patriarchy is alive and well in the hills of the central Himalaya.

Against the backdrop of World War II, as the British Army pulls out of Burma, local communities are forced to flee ahead of advancing Japanese forces. Of some 300,000 refugees that tried to reach India, around 30,000 are thought to have perished along what has become known as ‘The Trek’.

Excerpts from India-Pakistan Media Retreat in Barcelona, 23-24 August 2008.

Over 30 years, it is incridible how the Pakistani people and the Iranian people have been so generous to this population. Whatever the politics, the human element of this has been quite exemplary.