Five Things I Love About India/Pakistan

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Google+, India, life, Pakistan, relationships, serious, social networks, society

Caution: Not a funny post! Somehow my “funny” left last week in an unknown direction and hasn’t been seen ever since. Till it comes back, we all unfortunately will have to tolerate a serious me.

It has been 4 months now that I joined my favorite social network. I came there to share stories from my blog with wider audience, but ended up doing and having much more than that. I met some incredible people that shared their stories with me, and sometimes I even shared them with my stories.

Today, I made one unexpectedly interesting acquaintance, which brought my attention to some interesting statistics. From all the people in my circles, there are ca. 10 to whom I talk very often, whose streams I check out regularly. We have fun, semi-fun, serious, all kinds of conversations. About food, about life, about each other. And funny story: 6 of these ca. 10 people are from India/Pakistan. Surprisingly enough, we have a lot to talk about. Surprisingly enough, we have a lot in common. I thought about it a bit more (I tend to do that), but couldn’t come up with the reason. I was always sure that I was born in a wrong country, but I could never imagine I would feel connected to the people brought up and living worlds apart from me more than to my own tribe.

So I decided to think less (although I usually don’t do that), and just tell you guys that I really appreciate you. And also tell you some things about me that you probably didn’t know. Although I usually don’t do that as well, at least not voluntarily.

Now, I’m totally aware that you are not one country, that your cultures are different, I hear you (almost) officially even don’t like each other. But truth to be told, I don’t care about your politics. Because there are things you have in common that I love^[1].

1. Your Food

For me, it’s the tastiest food ever. Sometimes I have the days of “let’s finally eat something else”, but only to get reassured that there is nothing better than your food. My favorite dish is lamb everything: curry, korma, kabab. On the rare vegetarian days of mine I like to go for lobia, rice and yogurt. And if I could, I would live in a gajrela factory. Sometimes I think I like it more than chocolate (please, don’t tell chocolate).

2. Your Language

Before I start learning your language, I had an honor with 5 other foreign ones. Not that I’ve learned them all, but I got their “spirits”. And none of them I found to be so close to my native language than yours. Your language is so colorful, so flexible that it seems that there is no thing or emotion in the world that cannot be expressed by it. So much as an untranslatable two letter world can make a huge difference. Now, it might sound weird, but it’s the only foreign language that makes me “see the images” and really feel it when I hear people talk or talk myself. The same I feel when I speak my mother tongue. For any other foreign language it’s just plain text with little emotional connection, although I’m way more fluent in them.

3. Your Songs and Movies

Your melodies and texts strike a chord with me like nothing else. Although I usually prefer silence over music, and poetry is usually completely wasted on me. My absolute favorite song is “Bichra Yaar”, its new version, where Zoe Viccaji sings acapella. I have more favorite songs, but if I tell you which ones I would ruin my so carefully created image with you for good.

I’ve seen DDLJ three times. I’ve seen “Baghban”, “Hum Tum”, “Khuda ke Liye”, and some selected others (I’m very bad with names). I’m yet to see “Bol”, but I hear it’s tough, and as I know how much your movies always get to me I watched “Channai Express” instead a week ago. I laughed so hard, especially because some jokes I understood without the subtitles.

4. Your Families

So often, you have like fifteen people of three generations leaving together. If couple of years back somebody told me that this can work I would have laughed in their face. Like fifteen people in one house? The old, the young, the toddlers? How long till the first murder gets committed? I had a family of four, and I still wonder how we didn’t kill each other in the process.

First time I saw a healthy functional family (and I stayed with them long enough to know), it was a Pakistani family. Apparently, this is a common thing. I didn’t want to leave that house and wished they could have adopted me. I have some friends who claim they have no issues caused by parents whatsoever. I ask them regularly, in case they just forgot, but they insist it’s true. Now, I’m sure there are nut cases, even evil people in your families, too. But I’ve also seen you making it work. And when it works, the feeling of the big family that has your back is… well, something I will never experience, but something I imagine feels amazing.

5. Your Pride for Your Countries

My own country doesn’t exist anymore, and with my step-motherland we have a healthy hate-hate relationship (after 11 years spent there, I’m pretty sure countries can hate people, too). It doesn’t feel my own, I don’t see anything there I can be proud of. And when I finally complete the process of changing the citizenship I’ll make a little fire with my passport and perform a ritual happy dance around it.

I’ve never met people who were more proud of their countries than you. I’m still yet to meet an Indian or a Pakistani who is not. For me, it’s something I will be never able to relate to, something I deeply admire, and something I secretly wish I could have. I would be even willing to exchange it for an apartment in the gajrela factory (please, don’t tell gajrela).

I guess now is the time and place for a powerful and inspirational closing, but I really don’t have anything more to add. One funny fact maybe: when I’m abroad, I’m always much happier to meet a person from India/Pakistan than one from my own country. True weird story. I really wonder why it is like this.

[1] – I know this word is highly overused these days, but trust me, this post alone already burns my half-yearly quota of its usual usage. ↩