Kanak Mani Dixit in Southasia Beat wonders why there are no airlinks between Indian cities and its neighbours ('The sky is the limit', #292). The answer is quite simple. Even though it is fashionable to talk about the subcontinent as one shared culture the reality is different. As a south Indian I have zero in common with someone from Lahore. I have religion in common with Nepal and Sri Lanka but that is about it. I am really tired of this nonstop talk about a common culture. As if India is just Punjab and Lucknow. So, yes, a small number of Indians share language Punjabi and 13 percent share Islam with Pakistan and while you might think Hindi and Urdu are the same (they are if the extent of your conversation is limited to "Hi, how are you, pass me the salt"). For a large number of Indians, Pakistan is another country not a sister culture...so despite all the spin about shared culture the reality is different. Do I want to visit Lahore, not really. Dhaka? Not really. But I do want to visit Singapore not because we share a culture but because there are things in Singapore I want to do that attract me. Ditto Bangkok and Dubai and guess what there are flights on the hour to some of these destinations. So there will be more flights between Pune and Lahore the day Lahore becomes a tourist or business attraction. But there certainly won't be more flights on the false notion that it is a shared culture.

D Damerla,
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