Many Indians see Pakistan and Pakistanis as irredeemably hostile. Of the rest, while some argue that, despite Partition, we’re still the same people, others don’t really know any better to have an opinion. Veteran journalist Kesava Menon offers a unique and personal perspective that pulls the third category of Indians out of their indifference and pokes holes in the black-and-white outlook of the first and the glib optimism of the second.Menon has been a long-time commentator on Pakistani politics, ever since his stint as The Hindu's correspondent in Pakistan in the early 1990s, a crucial period in that country’s recent history. The Islamic hardliner and dictator Zia-ul-Haq had died in an air crash, and the future of the nation’s new experiment with democracy was at best uncertain—with Nawaz Sharif coming to the office after Benazir Bhutto’s brief first run as prime minister. People were free enough to breathe easy, but yet too feeble to speak up to power.