An eyeshot of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, and the country's largest city with a population of about 3.3 million. Kabul province is the only province in the country with a larger urban than rural population. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Indian photo-journalist Aaquib Khan arrived in the rapidly changing Afghan capital Kabul in 2014. He shares some of his pictures and his insights with us in this post. Afghanistan is widely seen as a country torn between bullets and religious bullies, a no woman’s land, a pre-modern place where neither young nor old can have hope for a better future. The image in my mind was no different, until I landed in the country's capital, Kabul last year. Though much of the Kabul's imagery conformed to my understanding of the country, there were many other moments that cameras rarely capture. Old and new, traditions and modernity, are locked in a struggle. Afghans, slowly and steadily, seem to be the winners. School kids hide their faces as many consider getting photographed a sin. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Kabul is a place of hope, aspiration, warmth and hospitality, all of which shine through when Afghans saw my blue passport. “Oh, you are Indian? I love Indian movies!” A life-size poster of the Hindi film ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ showing Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif in one of Kabul’s music shops. New Indian films are quite the rage in the country. Turkish soap operas are also increasingly popular. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Indian movies and songs rule Kabul's music market, but JLo and Britney Spears are also quite famous among youth. Songs old and new can be heard in taxis, shops and on young men’s phones. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Posters of Indian film stars decorate the country's music shops. There is a mall named after Delhi’s famous Select City Walk. Alumni of Indian universities in the metropolises as well as small Indian towns bump into you on the fringes of crowded market places. A mall in Kabul named ‘Select City Walk’. A number of shopping malls are growing up in the capital. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Dil Jan has been a bookseller on the streets of Kabul for many years. She believes that young Afghans must read, for themselves and for their nation. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Afghanistan is far from monolithic. Walking beside burqa-clad women are schoolgirls strolling to school. Young women on their way to university, while CDs and DVDs of Bollywood and Hollywood movies can be heard playing in the background, a far cry from the blanket bans on entertainment of the Taliban period. In the land where the Taliban brought down the Buddhist statues of Bamiyan, mannequins in Kabul's shop windows don extravagant bridal wears. Mannequins wear elegant wedding dresses. Standard wedding dresses cost from 15,000 Afghani ($215) to 20,000 Afghani ($340). Lavish wedding halls have mushroomed across Kabul in the last few years. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Then there are the competing mobile service provider advertisements, FM Radio stations, 24-hour TV Channels, numerous talk shows discussing women’s rights. There are hookah bars, where hookah and coffee is served. No women or alcohol, but plenty of young men dancing to loud music. There is a growing demand for uploading songs and videos on mobile phones and compact discs in Afghanistan. Many youth, and even religious old men, visit these shops to get songs of their choice uploaded. Photo by Aaquib Khan. More than 200 gyms have opened since the Taliban’s fall. There are gyms for women, too. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Vehicles honk past you and leave you in a trail of dust. Afghans complain of increasing pollution in Kabul. Security personnel man the streets, helicopters hover over pedestrians. Amid the exuberance, there is apprehension: what will happen when the remnants of the US army finally withdraw? But young Afghans believe their country is gathering strength after decades of weakness and division. They shout a slogan which translates as: “One Afghanistan. No Tajik, No Hazara, No Pashtun”. Afghanistan for Afghans! The graffiti calls for unity among Afghans who are traditionally divided along ethnic and linguistic lines. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Youngsters surf the Internet near the ruined Darul Aman Palace. The palace, known to have braved many political upheavals in Kabul, was built in the 1930s. Only 5.5% of Afghan youths have access to internet with 20 million mobile phone users in the country in 2012. Technology played a role in connecting youth during last year's presidential elections. Photo by Aaquib Khan. Afghan soldiers near the Nadir Shah tomb in Kabul. There are 350,000 soldiers in the country. But there are fears over their ability to take on the recalcitrant Taliban once foreign troops leave the country completely. Photo by Aaquib Khan.