Likely Alike!

This is the second month of the Building Peace Project with my counterpart - Fatiq and finally, though a little late, we had our second Skype session dutifully to discuss on the April issues of the curriculum. The talk was scheduled at 8 PM on 20^th of April. I was ready with my bundle of questions and so was Fatiq with his own pack. The talk started with apologies from my side for not been able to read about Toba Tek Singh by Mr. Manto which we happened to talk about in our last session. One thing lead to another and soon enough it got us into discussion about the elections for new LUMS student council and his friend Huzaifa Ahmed’s campaign. I was glued to the campaign, from creation of the Fan page to the personalized video message getting uploaded; the team Huzaifa had it all. Likewise, he was curious to know about India’s dramatic and immensely popular elections for Lok Sabha 2014. The people across the border including Fatiq were also not left from the heavy promotions of the one of the contending parties of election i.e. BJP and the troll pages of “Ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar”. The team Huzaifa, used this very troll to create a meme for the campaign in LUMS, now there is the message “Politics is not always divisive, it can be unifying for a moment also”.  He asked me about the Narendra Modi's ability to win and my answer was affirmative. He was positive, until I told him about the two statements made by his party leaders last week itself. The both statements were based on one central theme of “Say anything against Shri Modi and you will be deported to Pakistan”. This, which in fact should have been a serious moment during our chat, was taken over by laughter as I told Fatiq, he can expect me anytime soon infront of his home in Lahore in a box! 

Then, he enquired me about my cousin’s marriage that was on the same day of our talk, though I was tired but it was fun, I answered. The socializing aspect of the marriage is what we both don’t like along with the ‘smile’ plastered on the face for the guests. Fatiq, observed there is really not much difference in Indian & Pakistani weddings, leaving apart the traditional custom; we have similar cuisine, songs, dancing guests, happiness and excitement spread over. The one moment which I really like in Pakistani weddings is of exclamation of “Qabool hain” three times in a row and his favorite moment is what he has generally seen in bollywood movies.  Soon, the talk started shifting towards the central issue of this month’s topic i.e. ‘Misconceptions and what the other country means to you?’ 

We paused for a minute and we digressed from topic and started our discussion on the positive aspects of Pakistan, like the video I saw of “Pakistan’s Places” which are breath-taking and are never shown in our Media, by looking at which I (or us, as a matter of fact) can let the brain imagine a different Pakistan. Lahore’s architecture is mostly very British and the lanes and the alleys are magnificent. He appreciated the beauty of his city on the same lines but out with the next breath he accepted it to be a ‘false image’ of Pakistan. According to him, it is just eyewash, no doubt Lahore is developed but large parts of Pakistan are demolished. From Quetta to Baluchistan, things are not in pretty good shape. There is a constant battle between the Shias and the Sunnis. Talking about the peace prevailing in Lahore, I was told about the pact between the Shahbaz Sharif and the terror outfits, to have a peaceful co-existence. Then, once again he told me about the girl called ‘Nabeela’ whom he met and how a part of missile of drone attack was stuck in her brother’s leg and how traumatizing it is so see the young innocent children becoming victim of the hate planted by their ancestors. Talk on ‘Lal Masjid’ was the next, where the Pakistani govt. was suspicious of the presence of terror outfits and which made them attack on the Madrassa where supposedly young children were being brainwashed and the result was a scene of young faces wrapped in the white satin clothes absorbed in red.

After this discussion on the critical topics, we shifted our talk towards our view point for the each other’s country. He asked me first and my three points were the same stereotypical ones regarding Pakistan–

• Freedom deprived nation
• Fundamentalism at its best
• War than development

And then his viewpoints on India were-

• Rape Capital
• Dirty Politics
• Illogical bollywood flicks

That was it; we expected a clash of thoughts, but no! We accepted each other’s views whole heartedly. This wasn’t an exaggerated stand by both of us regarding each other’s nation; this was what people on the both sides of border generally perceive. The difference between the others and us lie on the fact that we amicably accepted our faults and did not go ahead relentlessly defending our respective countries.

Though, it was a moment to hang my head in shame as it wasn’t only my country where we are talking about the increasing crime rate against women but we as India are now a global capital for Rape? The answer might not be yes superficially but, in our hearts we accept the breakdown of the moral fabric in the country which once celebrated essence of womanhood.

I don’t know what made me ask him the ‘connectivity or relativity between Christianity and Islam’, it might be because of the discussion on which of these two came earlier into existence or may be because of me having friends belonging to both religion made me question him but to my surprise he answered ‘Islam was born out of Christianity’ . I recalled our last chat and our discussion on Feminism, thereafter we discussed about the successful culmination of the campaign by FemSoc of LUMS. It was one such idea which made me think and appreciate the beauty of the society in modern time. It is without a single doubt it is tough to pull off FemSoc in society which is dominated by men but these chaps in LUMS should be applauded for their work. We then were back to our talk on Indo-Pak, that is when he told me the name of NWFP has been changed to “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”, which he spoke around three times and I couldn’t even understand what he meant.

Then again, we entered into serious discussion on how every single child is given a different perspective of other nation and especially in the case of India and Pakistan. We are told, since childhood, the country next to us is our enemy and we have to fight against it. It might not be so explicit but it lingers in minds of every Indian and Pakistani somewhere down the line.

My love for Urdu is never ending and his passion to learn Hindi is unbeatable. My love for Sufi Music is unmatchable and his zest for strong message oriented Hindi films is unsurpassable. This mutual love and respect for each other and each other’s religion/customs/traditions is not as tough to achieve as pictured by our countrymen. All you need is one big heart and one sane mind, and luckily me and Fatiq are having perfect combination of both, which is why we decided to go for our masters together abroad!