DESI AMERICA: Lahore - in Virginia?

[ DESI AMERICA = items about South Asian America ]

Sure, you know about Lahore, the famous city in Pakistan. What about Lahore, the tiny town in Virginia? Below is a YouTube version of a story done by SAJAer and VOA Urdu TV channel (yes, VOA does TV now) correspondent Imran Siddiqui (it runs 6:31 and in is Urdu with lots of English soundbites).

This is a story about Lahore, a small town in Orange County, Virginia, which in the 1850s was named after the ancient city of Lahore in [what is now] Pakistan. We spoke to the present American owner of a portion of the town's land, and also the Pakistani American who has recently bought that piece of land to develop it to match the Pakistani town of Lahore. The new Lahore will have a school, a museum, an airport, and a replica of the famous Shalimar gardens in Lahore, Pakistan. But the remaining memories of the 18th century Lahore town in Virginia will also be carried forward by uniting American Lahore with the Pakistani Lahore.

Check out more of Imran's stories here. And here's a link to a page about the town.

There are many towns in the U.S. with South Asian or South Asian-sounding names - Delhi, Iowa; Delhi, Ohio; Delhi, Louisiana; Calcutta, Ohio; Madras, Oregon (any others?) - but, as far as I know, none have such a strong link. Reax? Post your comments below.

[ UPDATE / Jan. 7: We have now compiled a comprehensive list of U.S. towns with South Asian-sounding names - take a look. ]

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was interviewed by Imran about India-Pak relations last year and there's embarrassing YouTube footage of me attempting to speak at length in Urdu-Hindi.

Comments

[siddhartha]

Absolutely brilliant and hilarious. We went ahead and linked at SM with some additional commentary: http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004076.html