It had been exactly an year since I had not visited my friend's home. Yes, he had traveled to UK for his higher studies, and yes, practically I had no reason to go to his place. But theoretically I had offended his mom and his kid sister. More so his kid sister because her supply of chocolates had been reduced drastically over the past one year. So when he finally came to India for visiting his family, I got an opportunity to wash away my theoretical sins and finally visited his home.
"I am so sorry Gia, I could not visit you for so long, how are you?" I said, trying to sound like an 8 year old
"This is not done, I won't talk to you" She said, sounding haughty.
"Ok, here you go, Is a cadbury good enough deal for you to start talking to me again?" I offered, "Let me make the deal more delicious by making it a cadbury crunchy, How about it?" I added while taking out the chocolate from my pocket
"Yeah it will surely do" she said and snatched the chocolate from my hand. "Can I share it with my Pakistani friend?" she said, showing rare obedience.
"Pakistani friend? How do you know a Pakistani?" I said, showing all possible emotions of confusion.
"Yeah, she comes to school with a white scarf over her head, we all call her a Pakistani" She clarified.
"Ohhh" is all I could say to my this kid's mindset.
A few days later, travelling with the same friend in the suburban rail transport towards the famous VT station, I was talking to him about how south east Asians live in UK. I was recounting, how one of my friend told me that most of the fights in the city of Glasgow are picked up by Pakistanis and eventually leads to Indians being crushed in their fights. Immediately, a bearded guy with a skull cap sitting in front of me, got up and stood in the passage. I looked at my friend and he was nodding his head with his tongue out to indicate that I committed a mistake. Later, he told me, how that guy must have felt that I was talking in context of Muslims being a trouble maker in UK. I wondered how and why?
Almost every cricket lover in India remembers the T-20 cricket world cup triumph of India in South Africa in the summer of 2007. Chak De had just released and Mr. Shahrukh Khan, promoting the movie along with fulfilling his desire to watch an India-Pakistan world cup final, was present in the VIP box waving the Indian flag undeterred. India eventually won the match and SRK went down to give every player a hug. A Hindi news channel whose motto is to deliver news the fastest to its viewers spared no time in interviewing SRK. The last question of the interview went like this:
"SRK, it is known that you are a pathan from Peshawar, and since Peshawar is in Pakistan, how do you feel today, that Pakistan lost the match to India".
A stunned SRK somehow regained his composure and replied
"I am an Indian, proof of which is my passport, I was brought up on Indian values and I was there to support India. Yes, Pakistan had a good team, but I would ALWAYS WANT MY COUNTRY ,INDIA, TO WIN".
Does the news anchor know, that the Bollywood's first family i.e. the Kapoors, also belong to Peshawar. 80% of the Khanna's and Malhotra's in Bollywood are from Pakistani Punjab. Would the anchor dare to ask the same question to Ranbir Kapoor or Rishi Kapoor?
After every terror attack that occurs in this country, before anyone, including the state, central and international agencies and government can condemn the attack, the Muslim community spokesperson(usually a cleric) comes out and strongly condemns the attacks. Any attack should always be condemned by all civilized people, However when the condemnation, although truthful has an element of compulsion in it, it raises questions. Not on the community, but on us and the system. The compulsion to condemn immediately is due to threats from right wing Hindutva groups, for they, before condemning the attack, bay for Muslim blood "for sowing the seeds of terror". So we have Aamir Khan calling a press conference to condemn the 26/11 attacks and some of the other big stars could do with a simple tweet or a Facebook update, because they don't have a Khan appended to their name.
As clear, by many ,Muslims are categorized as Pakistanis.How many people know ,that the crescent and star flag which is seen hoisted in any Muslim congregation and is often mistaken to be Pakistani flag , is not a Pakistan flag. It is simply holy to the Muslims. How many people know, that one of the most orthodox Islamic school of thought, the Dar-ul-uloom in Deoband, which is infamous for publishing Fatwas against Sania Mirza for her skirt, Salman Khan for bringing in Ganpati and more recently, Muslim women for going for jobs, was one of the first Muslim organization to out-rightly reject the idea of partition of India into a Muslim Pakistan from the rest of India. It said that Idea of Pakistan was political and there was nothing Islamic about creation of Pakistan. How many people know, that the first paramvir chakra in the republic of India was given to a Muslim named Abdul Hameed in a battle against PAKISTANI forces in 1965 war.
If all Muslims indeed wanted Pakistan, then what can explain the fact that until recently we had more Muslims in our country than Pakistan. It was not very difficult to migrate to Pakistan, which was ready to accept all Muslims with open arms.
Some people may come up with the argument of Indian Mujahidden and SIMI being Indian Muslim terrorist organization, then I can come up with equal number of terrorists organization which are not Muslims. Calling all Muslims Pakistanis and terrorists would be as blasphamous as calling all Tamils as supporters of LTTE , all Sikhs as supporters of Khalistan movement and all North east Indians as Chinese.
For those who read the title of the blog and are confused how the content of the blog is related to the title, the answer is , no, I don't have a problem with Pakistan, it is a beautiful country with beautiful people with a problematic government and Army, however it is the Idea of Pakistan and its eventual creation which is the problem child and is the sole reason why the integrity of a Muslim is questioned in India,which is the troubled mother. Agreed, that a communal rift has been present in this nation since centuries, but creation of a Muslim theocratic state out of India only led to a bigger feud between the majority and the minority. Had we been together, yes, we would have fought, and fought fiercely, which we still do, but anyone's loyalty to the nation would have been unquestionable.
Omar Abdullah(J&K chief minister) had once famously said in a parliament speech:
"I am Muslim and I am an Indian and I see no distinction between the two"
I stand by his remarks.
"I am so sorry Gia, I could not visit you for so long, how are you?" I said, trying to sound like an 8 year old
"This is not done, I won't talk to you" She said, sounding haughty.
"Ok, here you go, Is a cadbury good enough deal for you to start talking to me again?" I offered, "Let me make the deal more delicious by making it a cadbury crunchy, How about it?" I added while taking out the chocolate from my pocket
"Yeah it will surely do" she said and snatched the chocolate from my hand. "Can I share it with my Pakistani friend?" she said, showing rare obedience.
"Pakistani friend? How do you know a Pakistani?" I said, showing all possible emotions of confusion.
"Yeah, she comes to school with a white scarf over her head, we all call her a Pakistani" She clarified.
"Ohhh" is all I could say to my this kid's mindset.
A few days later, travelling with the same friend in the suburban rail transport towards the famous VT station, I was talking to him about how south east Asians live in UK. I was recounting, how one of my friend told me that most of the fights in the city of Glasgow are picked up by Pakistanis and eventually leads to Indians being crushed in their fights. Immediately, a bearded guy with a skull cap sitting in front of me, got up and stood in the passage. I looked at my friend and he was nodding his head with his tongue out to indicate that I committed a mistake. Later, he told me, how that guy must have felt that I was talking in context of Muslims being a trouble maker in UK. I wondered how and why?
Almost every cricket lover in India remembers the T-20 cricket world cup triumph of India in South Africa in the summer of 2007. Chak De had just released and Mr. Shahrukh Khan, promoting the movie along with fulfilling his desire to watch an India-Pakistan world cup final, was present in the VIP box waving the Indian flag undeterred. India eventually won the match and SRK went down to give every player a hug. A Hindi news channel whose motto is to deliver news the fastest to its viewers spared no time in interviewing SRK. The last question of the interview went like this:
"SRK, it is known that you are a pathan from Peshawar, and since Peshawar is in Pakistan, how do you feel today, that Pakistan lost the match to India".
A stunned SRK somehow regained his composure and replied
"I am an Indian, proof of which is my passport, I was brought up on Indian values and I was there to support India. Yes, Pakistan had a good team, but I would ALWAYS WANT MY COUNTRY ,INDIA, TO WIN".
Does the news anchor know, that the Bollywood's first family i.e. the Kapoors, also belong to Peshawar. 80% of the Khanna's and Malhotra's in Bollywood are from Pakistani Punjab. Would the anchor dare to ask the same question to Ranbir Kapoor or Rishi Kapoor?
After every terror attack that occurs in this country, before anyone, including the state, central and international agencies and government can condemn the attack, the Muslim community spokesperson(usually a cleric) comes out and strongly condemns the attacks. Any attack should always be condemned by all civilized people, However when the condemnation, although truthful has an element of compulsion in it, it raises questions. Not on the community, but on us and the system. The compulsion to condemn immediately is due to threats from right wing Hindutva groups, for they, before condemning the attack, bay for Muslim blood "for sowing the seeds of terror". So we have Aamir Khan calling a press conference to condemn the 26/11 attacks and some of the other big stars could do with a simple tweet or a Facebook update, because they don't have a Khan appended to their name.
As clear, by many ,Muslims are categorized as Pakistanis.How many people know ,that the crescent and star flag which is seen hoisted in any Muslim congregation and is often mistaken to be Pakistani flag , is not a Pakistan flag. It is simply holy to the Muslims. How many people know, that one of the most orthodox Islamic school of thought, the Dar-ul-uloom in Deoband, which is infamous for publishing Fatwas against Sania Mirza for her skirt, Salman Khan for bringing in Ganpati and more recently, Muslim women for going for jobs, was one of the first Muslim organization to out-rightly reject the idea of partition of India into a Muslim Pakistan from the rest of India. It said that Idea of Pakistan was political and there was nothing Islamic about creation of Pakistan. How many people know, that the first paramvir chakra in the republic of India was given to a Muslim named Abdul Hameed in a battle against PAKISTANI forces in 1965 war.
If all Muslims indeed wanted Pakistan, then what can explain the fact that until recently we had more Muslims in our country than Pakistan. It was not very difficult to migrate to Pakistan, which was ready to accept all Muslims with open arms.
Some people may come up with the argument of Indian Mujahidden and SIMI being Indian Muslim terrorist organization, then I can come up with equal number of terrorists organization which are not Muslims. Calling all Muslims Pakistanis and terrorists would be as blasphamous as calling all Tamils as supporters of LTTE , all Sikhs as supporters of Khalistan movement and all North east Indians as Chinese.
For those who read the title of the blog and are confused how the content of the blog is related to the title, the answer is , no, I don't have a problem with Pakistan, it is a beautiful country with beautiful people with a problematic government and Army, however it is the Idea of Pakistan and its eventual creation which is the problem child and is the sole reason why the integrity of a Muslim is questioned in India,which is the troubled mother. Agreed, that a communal rift has been present in this nation since centuries, but creation of a Muslim theocratic state out of India only led to a bigger feud between the majority and the minority. Had we been together, yes, we would have fought, and fought fiercely, which we still do, but anyone's loyalty to the nation would have been unquestionable.
Omar Abdullah(J&K chief minister) had once famously said in a parliament speech:
"I am Muslim and I am an Indian and I see no distinction between the two"
I stand by his remarks.
4 comments:
awesome line of thought... beautifully expressed
the general public actually needs to read this !
kudos !!
Well written abhi., but there is a correction in facts i.e. the first Paramveer Chakra winner was Major Somnath Sharma from 4th Battalion, Kumaon Regiment. Abdul hamid is on 10th position in the list of 21 PVC winners.
I agree with you, and everyone should read it once....
"Failed State" they say on Google...
After reading this post and IF as according to democratic republic rules, what we mean by country is people, than no state can actually fail...unless we somehow make belive that there doesnt exist anything like shackels of diffrentiations on hollow basis like religion...
Another tide of informative realization Abhishek...Absolutely well formed to swipe the thought...
Wish we could spread this word so much that one fine day there wont be any "Discrimination" coming after "Democracy", even in Dictionaries... :)
@Mohit Tyagi
Yes, I know Major somnath sharma won Paramveer chakra, but India wasnt a republic then, it was a dominion. Hence I said, the first recipient in Republic of India...
@Shivani
Thanks...Hope it reaches the people who end up with humiliation or humiliating others intentionally or unintentionally. :)
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