The Grand Trunk Road spans South Asia, connecting the present with the past. In Pakistan, part of the highway passes the ancient city of Lahore and continues westward toward the tribal zones, where Pakistan fights a war against the Taliban. Host Scott Simon checks in with NPR's Steve Inskeep for a quick preview of his upcoming reports from the Grand Trunk Road in Pakistan.
SCOTT SIMON, host: Pakistan's part of that highway passes the ancient city of Lahore and it continues westward toward the tribal zones where, of course, Pakistan fights a war against the Taliban.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: It also passes near Islamabad, and Islamabad is where we found Steve Inskeep. Steve, thanks for finding the time for us.</s>STEVE INSKEEP: Oh, glad to do it, Scott, any Saturday morning.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: What are you trying to learn as you travel?</s>STEVE INSKEEP: We're talking with young people, Scott. And we're trying to get a little more deeply into what is happening, particularly in Pakistan, on this side of the border. This is a country that we think about for its conflict between Islam and secularists, or the war on terror - any of the phrases that we use.</s>STEVE INSKEEP: But when you start talking with young people and asking about their future, their dreams, you see people with a far more complicated struggle. This is in some ways a very dysfunctional country with a lot of economic and social problems, as well as political and religious ones.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: Yeah. And help us understand some of the divisions in society that might be difficult to understand from a distance.</s>STEVE INSKEEP: Well, let me give you one sense of this. I went to a university called LUMS, the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where I was talking to elite students who are about as well-educated as almost anybody in the world. I've also been in a tiny village where there were women who had grown to adulthood and had never learned to read.</s>STEVE INSKEEP: There are huge divisions in terms of class, in terms of economics. This is a country that is very much in transition, and you see that when you talk with young people, as we've been doing along the Grand Trunk Road.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: Steve, thanks so much.</s>STEVE INSKEEP: Glad to do it, Scott.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: NPR's Steve Inskeep continues his reporting next week along the Grand Trunk Road.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.