Necessity makes Kalash youth computer literate

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CHITRAL, Nov 3: Kalash youth are fast becoming computer and internet literate out of a sheer necessity to connect with their friends abroad, seeking jobs and visits to foreign countries, especially Europe, says Luke Rahmat, a Kalash youth.
computerTalking to this correspondent while busy in chatting with his friends in a net café in Chitral city, he said they used internet facility to get in touch with their foreign friends with whom they got acquaintance during their visits to the Kalash valleys.
A number of net café owners in the city observed that although Kalash formed less than one per cent population of the district their visitors (internet users) were more than those from the Muslim community.
Even uneducated Kalash youth use the facility to make acquaintances, using helpers to dictate messages.
Abdul Ghani, a net café owner, said dozens of Kalash youth regularly visited his café on a daily and weekly basis and spent more than four hours chatting with their friends abroad. He observed that the Kalash youth were also fluent in English due to their interaction with the foreigners.
“They come to Chitral city to use internet after a travel of four hours, which costs them heavily. “But they don’t care about expenses,” he said. “Through internet they are also able to find jobs abroad.”
Fazeen Khan, another Kalash boy, who was busy chatting in one of the city’s net cafes, added that he had two friends in Greece and one each in UK and Australia who had visited the Kalash valleys.
Pointing towards another two Kalash youth in the café, he said they come to the city from the Rumbur valley once a week to chat with their friends abroad.
He said they learnt the use of internet out of sheer necessity which  would surely help them avail a chance of visiting any foreign country.
One of the theories about the origin of the Kalash people suggests that they were Greeks as features of Kalash and Greek resembled greatly. Many Kalash boys and girls have also visited Greece on the invitation of their Greek friends.–Zahiruddin

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