Many of us don’t look at each other differently
” They said the India-Pakistan cricket series would not be able to bring the two countries together. Yet while walking past a Samsung showroom in Kolkata, I saw a huge crowd peeping inside just to get a glimpse of the score, and at the stadiums, Indians and Pakistani mingling with love and warmth.
They say that 66 years have passed with innumerable futile attempts to engage in peace talks, three brutal wars, constant suspicion, blame and mistrust, breaking down of negotiations, ceasefire violations and tensions along the Line of Control. Yet when the people meet, it’s like meeting long-lost relatives and friends.
They say that India and Pakistan are “different”. Yet when I first met people from Pakistan, I couldn’t tell they were not Indian. This was at the Harvard Model United Nations, China 2012, where other people also failed to differentiate our nationality because of the way we looked and the way we spoke. When someone asked about that, my friend Umar from Lahore got up and said, “That’s because we are brothers” (he’s the one on the left in the picture).
This was when I realized that India and Pakistan are far more than just two countries fighting over a piece of land. I realised that despite these ruthless politicians, there are many of us who do not look at each other differently.
Only a few of us from our respective countries have the opportunity to know each other and know how it feels to be a PAKISTANI or to be an INDIAN. I was fortunate enough to get to know three amazing Pakistani students who changed the way I saw Pakistan. What I now believe very clearly is this: those who are in power must ensure that India and Pakistan resolve their issues. Whether they do or not, there will definitely be those of us who will stand up to prove that “achieving the impossible” can be a reality in the virtual world.
Sanuj Shah,
Kolkata, India”
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