one world, post nationalism, beyond borders, diaspora, are terms that give me hope for peace somewhere in human future.
the 20-20 cricket series is on and we all await days when Pakistani team will be playing. the height of cricket fever is on the days when Pakistan is to play against India. yes, that is the match that thrills people all over the sub-continent. people make their kids take school days off, shops are closed earlier , market places go quiet and women fry goodies to serve the families and friends getting together to watch the match. you can hear screams of joy or loud uncensored punjabi abuses blurting out from the rooms where tv is being watched while the electricity is still on.Miraculously if Pakistan wins, there is a celebration truer than the celebrations of Eid. and God forbid if we loose , then people go back to their normal every day sulking and feeling like a crappy nation. for a day or two we blame Afridi, or the cricket board or the match fixers, then we blame America (for unknown reasons) , and then are eventually distracted by news of a bomb blast, fire , kidnapping or some natural disaster occurring at one or other part of Pakistan. if nothing goes wrong tangibly we can find catharsis in the political statements of our leaders or the petrol prices rising again.
interestingly i have been coming across these thought provoking talks lately about the truth of the indo-pak partition. was it supposed to happen at all, or be divided this way? or not? whatever and however it came to happen , we all know it was painful for a hell lot of people of more than 2 religious groups. now after more than 60 years, still when common people go visit the other side of border, here to there, or there to here, an explosion of emotions and love is carried back home. my family migrated from Amritsar to Lahore and both my parents always cherished their love for their childhood's homeland. their parents had immigrated from Kashmir to Amritsar in the 19th century and my parents had inherited the love of Kashmir as well. now i am loaded with all this love of lands that i have not ever seen but i happened to visit India a few times in the last couple of years. South India is beautiful, Pondicherry and Kerela have their own charm. But the connection i felt with Northern India, and by that i basically mean Delhi, is remarkable. i literally had to remind myself many times "hello! you are not in Pakistan. so behave!" and i kept forgetting, because not just visually, architecturally or climatically, it is so similar to here. But the people, the language, the behaviors, the the food, and the smells are extremely alike. perhaps the only 2 differences were the presence of Hindu temples and the option of alcohol on restaurants menus. and the love and affection i received for being a Pakistani / Lahori was quite something. interestingly all the people i came across had some kind of connection to this part of late-India, i mean now- Pakistan. but our armed forces make sure that the people do not thrive these feeling too far. and it makes sense. if people don't want war or the fear of war why would they want the armed forces right! but perhaps i am wrong. my sarcasm here probably amuse a few , but the majority out there, that comprises the main population of our country, that has not been blessed with the right kind of education, awareness, thinking and also the opportunity to believe in the power of peace and harmony , will not agree or understand the fact that we are all very similar kind of people who follow different religions. well, people here are not ready to accept shias and sunnis as equal Muslims, so how can we expect them to accept non-Muslims to be any better. i feel that the nature of these nations is still the same, and it is based on the structure of of "otherness". we the Muslims, they the Hindus. we the Hindustanis , they the British. we the Pakistanis, they the Indians. we the Sunnis, they the Shias. we the Lahoris, they the Karachi'ites. there is an inherent gene here that forces the people to groups up and detest the others. Therefore perhaps these cricket matches beautifully bring our innate desire to fight come out. not with bombs but with bats and balls. well i prefer these fights over "those" fights at any given time. even if we loose the match, well so what. we can play again. akhir baray baray deshon main aisi choti choti batain to hoti rehti hain ;)
the 20-20 cricket series is on and we all await days when Pakistani team will be playing. the height of cricket fever is on the days when Pakistan is to play against India. yes, that is the match that thrills people all over the sub-continent. people make their kids take school days off, shops are closed earlier , market places go quiet and women fry goodies to serve the families and friends getting together to watch the match. you can hear screams of joy or loud uncensored punjabi abuses blurting out from the rooms where tv is being watched while the electricity is still on.Miraculously if Pakistan wins, there is a celebration truer than the celebrations of Eid. and God forbid if we loose , then people go back to their normal every day sulking and feeling like a crappy nation. for a day or two we blame Afridi, or the cricket board or the match fixers, then we blame America (for unknown reasons) , and then are eventually distracted by news of a bomb blast, fire , kidnapping or some natural disaster occurring at one or other part of Pakistan. if nothing goes wrong tangibly we can find catharsis in the political statements of our leaders or the petrol prices rising again.
interestingly i have been coming across these thought provoking talks lately about the truth of the indo-pak partition. was it supposed to happen at all, or be divided this way? or not? whatever and however it came to happen , we all know it was painful for a hell lot of people of more than 2 religious groups. now after more than 60 years, still when common people go visit the other side of border, here to there, or there to here, an explosion of emotions and love is carried back home. my family migrated from Amritsar to Lahore and both my parents always cherished their love for their childhood's homeland. their parents had immigrated from Kashmir to Amritsar in the 19th century and my parents had inherited the love of Kashmir as well. now i am loaded with all this love of lands that i have not ever seen but i happened to visit India a few times in the last couple of years. South India is beautiful, Pondicherry and Kerela have their own charm. But the connection i felt with Northern India, and by that i basically mean Delhi, is remarkable. i literally had to remind myself many times "hello! you are not in Pakistan. so behave!" and i kept forgetting, because not just visually, architecturally or climatically, it is so similar to here. But the people, the language, the behaviors, the the food, and the smells are extremely alike. perhaps the only 2 differences were the presence of Hindu temples and the option of alcohol on restaurants menus. and the love and affection i received for being a Pakistani / Lahori was quite something. interestingly all the people i came across had some kind of connection to this part of late-India, i mean now- Pakistan. but our armed forces make sure that the people do not thrive these feeling too far. and it makes sense. if people don't want war or the fear of war why would they want the armed forces right! but perhaps i am wrong. my sarcasm here probably amuse a few , but the majority out there, that comprises the main population of our country, that has not been blessed with the right kind of education, awareness, thinking and also the opportunity to believe in the power of peace and harmony , will not agree or understand the fact that we are all very similar kind of people who follow different religions. well, people here are not ready to accept shias and sunnis as equal Muslims, so how can we expect them to accept non-Muslims to be any better. i feel that the nature of these nations is still the same, and it is based on the structure of of "otherness". we the Muslims, they the Hindus. we the Hindustanis , they the British. we the Pakistanis, they the Indians. we the Sunnis, they the Shias. we the Lahoris, they the Karachi'ites. there is an inherent gene here that forces the people to groups up and detest the others. Therefore perhaps these cricket matches beautifully bring our innate desire to fight come out. not with bombs but with bats and balls. well i prefer these fights over "those" fights at any given time. even if we loose the match, well so what. we can play again. akhir baray baray deshon main aisi choti choti batain to hoti rehti hain ;)
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