Love Thy Neighbour March 29, 2009

I studied for 2 years in an Indian school in Saudi Arabia and another 6 years in an Indian School in UAE, after which I moved to India.During the time I spent at school in the Middle East, I’ve played, studied,danced, and done everything else that kids do at school with other children who hail from our neighbouring country Pakistan. The only time I had anything against Pakistanis was during a India-Pakistan cricket match in Sharjah.

I dont know where the hatred grew.Maybe it was Kargil that hurt me.All those men who dedicated their lives so that we can goto bed in peace everynight. Maybe it is all the bollywood movies where a Pakistani is, in most cases, the bad guy.How many movies have a Paki guy as the good guy?It just doesnt sell. 

I told myself, that there is no point in hating something so much for reasons I have no control over.Its just negative energy.And just when my hate level was decreasing, 26\11 happened.And this time I was deeply hurt.I cried.They raped my country.I cried.

Again, I had all those unanswered questions in my head.Why does Pakistan do it?Is this what the people of pakistan want?Is this hatred there somewhere deep down in the heart of every pakistani?I thought about it so much that eventually it reached saturation and  the questions started fading.But I was hurt, and the hatred remained.

I came back to Dubai and joined my new office.Dubai is a spectacular city literally built up from nothing by Indians (Mallus in particular) and Pakistanis.Everytime I meet a Pakistani, there is an awkward pause in the conversation after the ‘Where are you from?’ question.My face  gets the ‘hurt’ look and I go speechless.

After two such incident with people who have been really nice to me(A paki guy at work even helps me with my bags when I juggle with my camera , handbag and gym bag), I told myself , that its not the people of Pakistan and I told myself that I shouldnt keep such hatred.

I’ve improved in the last couple of days.I had some interesting converstaions with Paki taxi drivers on my way to and from work. About how similar Lahore and Delhi are and about holi celebrations in Lahore and projects coming up in Karachi.And the less hatred I accumulate, the more positive I feel.The more positive I feel, the happier I am.

I cannot hate every Pakistani because of the actions of its leaders.I wouldn’t want anyone to hate me for the things that the guys who run our country do. 

Lets just follow what JC said, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ (even if he is a pain at times), because they are all not realy Bad people . 

Live, let Live and Love.

Dubai…and my slice of it March 11, 2009

Dubai.I dont know what to think of this city.Is it messed up ?Or is it only the slice that Im being served that is messed up?I look around and see people who are either so busy making their careers that they dont value their relationships or people who put so much into relationships that even relationships themselves dont matter.(Confusing, I know!)

Makes me wonder if values and relationships are really that meaningless.Do people here literally live by the phrase ‘Business is the business of building relationships’ and build them for solely business?

I hope there is more to this city than what I see of it today.More of the Dubai I left years ago.

 

*(I apologise to people suffering from phobia of the word ‘relationship ‘for its excess use in this post )

The strangest connections…. March 9, 2009

I was shocked to see my mother ,who usually socialises mostly with Indians,happily chatting away with an arabic looking female at the reception area of my brother’s bulding.What shocked me even more was that she had found the strangest connection with them.When I walked over, she introduced me.She then turned around and told me that they were Syrian Christians, like us(Nasrani)!The only difference being that they were actually ‘Syrian’ and we were Syrian coz our ancestors were either Syrians or Indian Namboodaris converted by the syrians who came on the same ship as St.Thomas. Appa insists thatour ancestors were syrians and that that explains his bald patch!When he was in Iraq, the Americans even called him Saddam’s brother (Coz of his Middle Eastern looks. I know Saddam was not Syrian!)

Back to the real syrians.They were suprisingly overjoyed to meet us and even invited us over.My Appa went on to discuss prayers in ‘Suriyani’, which was an indication that we were gonna be standing there and talking to them for a loooooooong time!

Amma even thinks lil ‘Lucas’ is cute and even mentioned he is a lil older than our lil Mary aka Kunjus!!!(Hope this doesnt turn out to be like the half a dozen guys my mom promised to get me married to when I was a baby)  :D !

so where are you from…?? March 8, 2009

I went for lunch the other day with 3 other Indians(2 Mallus and a Mumbaiker) , a Pakistani, 2 Iranians, and an Egyptian lady(Hey, does this sound like the beginning of a ‘people on a plane’ joke ??;) ).Somewhere during lunch, some one asked Fake Mallu 1, ‘So, where in India are you from ?’ and he said ‘Bangalore’. Fake Mallu 2 said ‘Im from Bangalore too .’ And when asked , I very honestly said Bangalore.

‘Hey, are we on a table filled with fake Mallus ??’ came a comment !!

 

Fake Mallu1 and Fake Mallu 2 have never been in Blore for more than 2 days !

Ive decided, ill just say Kerala next time, even though i just dread being called a Malabari !