Guarded by The Himalayas from the West, North and East and by the three seas bordering the peninsula, the Indian subcontinent is a unique place on Earth. Rakesh Sharma once mentioned that when he was out in space, the way the Earth rotated, they would always see India from the South up, and it seemed that the landmass came out from the blue seas. The golden Thar desert, lush green Ganga-Yamuna-Indus-Branhmaputra plains, purple mountain ranges... that is home. Yes it is, but the problem is we have put pencil marks on the map and have partitioned this landmass into multiple countries and those too, fighting neighbors.
Recently I was reading Aravinda de Silva's autobiography. Other than the information about cricket, I also got to know about the culture of Sri Lanka when he was growing up, back in the 70s and 80s. Even though that was a decade or two before my time, I could very well relate to that life where academics is of supreme importance and in the middle class family where the father is a salaried professional, your main focus in life is to get good grades in school and get a decent job.
A couple of days back, I watched the Pakistani drama called Dhoop Kinare once again after 1996. It is one of the best things I have ever watched on TV. I faintly remembered the story line after all these years, but now of course I understood the whole thing much more than in '96. Also, thanks to Bollywood movies, my Hindi skills have improved so understanding Urdu is not very difficult. The first thing that came to my mind while watching this serial was that - the people all look so normal! The way they talk, behave, think all seems to reflect the culture I was brought up in. Where fathers urge their children to take up science instead of fine arts, where a mother's unfulfilled dream is pushed on her daughter (it might not be right, but we know how it works), where junior doctors stand up when their supervisor enters the room and of course if they do something wrong they are scolded quite harshly by their superior as well.
All the countries in the sub continent have the exact same history, the same culture and the same taste. Is there a single person in South Asia who doesn't like cricket or Bollywood movies? Why do we forget all the things that unite us and only concentrate on the differences? Those differences are man made too. We act like zombies under our political leads and create fake images of the "enemy country" and then hate them. We never think that 65 years back we were just the same. A Bangladeshi friend of mine once asked a Malayli common friend that how come I and the Malayli guy belong to one nation when we have nothing in common whereas the Bangladeshi girl is a foreigner to me. When Navjyot Singh Sidhu and Inzamam-ul-Haque started quarreling in Punjabi, Tendulkar didn't understand a word! This is what it is like in the sub continent.
Outside our region, here in the US, anyone from South Asia reminds me of home. We go to buy Bangladeshi fish from a Pakistani store! In London, the way we were treated at a Bangladeshi restaurant made us feel like we have gone home. There have been many incidents where people from my neighboring countries have shown greater hospitality to me than my own fellow countrymen. It is so foolish of us to try dwell on the negatives and hatred instead of trying to live peacefully.
My mom says that when we have those peace missions, instead of sending ambassadors and political people, we should send normal middle class working families in exchange programs. They should go find out for themselves that nothing changes when you cross the border. Splitting up a nation doesn't do good to anyone. We lost so many lives, made millions of people leave their homes, made refugees out of well to do families and fought so many wars. All of us suffered and we are still suffering... we will continue to until we figure out that what we are fighting for is so trivial in the grand scheme of things.
Recently I was reading Aravinda de Silva's autobiography. Other than the information about cricket, I also got to know about the culture of Sri Lanka when he was growing up, back in the 70s and 80s. Even though that was a decade or two before my time, I could very well relate to that life where academics is of supreme importance and in the middle class family where the father is a salaried professional, your main focus in life is to get good grades in school and get a decent job.
A couple of days back, I watched the Pakistani drama called Dhoop Kinare once again after 1996. It is one of the best things I have ever watched on TV. I faintly remembered the story line after all these years, but now of course I understood the whole thing much more than in '96. Also, thanks to Bollywood movies, my Hindi skills have improved so understanding Urdu is not very difficult. The first thing that came to my mind while watching this serial was that - the people all look so normal! The way they talk, behave, think all seems to reflect the culture I was brought up in. Where fathers urge their children to take up science instead of fine arts, where a mother's unfulfilled dream is pushed on her daughter (it might not be right, but we know how it works), where junior doctors stand up when their supervisor enters the room and of course if they do something wrong they are scolded quite harshly by their superior as well.
All the countries in the sub continent have the exact same history, the same culture and the same taste. Is there a single person in South Asia who doesn't like cricket or Bollywood movies? Why do we forget all the things that unite us and only concentrate on the differences? Those differences are man made too. We act like zombies under our political leads and create fake images of the "enemy country" and then hate them. We never think that 65 years back we were just the same. A Bangladeshi friend of mine once asked a Malayli common friend that how come I and the Malayli guy belong to one nation when we have nothing in common whereas the Bangladeshi girl is a foreigner to me. When Navjyot Singh Sidhu and Inzamam-ul-Haque started quarreling in Punjabi, Tendulkar didn't understand a word! This is what it is like in the sub continent.
Outside our region, here in the US, anyone from South Asia reminds me of home. We go to buy Bangladeshi fish from a Pakistani store! In London, the way we were treated at a Bangladeshi restaurant made us feel like we have gone home. There have been many incidents where people from my neighboring countries have shown greater hospitality to me than my own fellow countrymen. It is so foolish of us to try dwell on the negatives and hatred instead of trying to live peacefully.
My mom says that when we have those peace missions, instead of sending ambassadors and political people, we should send normal middle class working families in exchange programs. They should go find out for themselves that nothing changes when you cross the border. Splitting up a nation doesn't do good to anyone. We lost so many lives, made millions of people leave their homes, made refugees out of well to do families and fought so many wars. All of us suffered and we are still suffering... we will continue to until we figure out that what we are fighting for is so trivial in the grand scheme of things.
PS: And it's not just South Asia. If you peep a little over the boundaries you'll see how similar the entire East is. Arnab has an old co-worker who signs his emails to Arnab as - "your friend from across the Himalayas." It is all in the mind. If you can open your mind and heart to strangers and accept them without any condition, not only will you enrich your own life, but you'll cast a positive influence all around.
