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Thinking About Pakistan |
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Thoughts
Without Boundaries Thoughts
of love & longing |
Recently I met a Pakistani entrepreneur. We had lunch together. An excitable, young man, with a ready smile, a small frame and big dreams. The quintessential Internet entrepreneur. We met on neutral territory. It was a restaurant in Hong Kong. We met thru a common acquaintance - a Briton who was careful to ask me if I was ok with having lunch with a Pakistani guy. It was a nice lunch and we discussed business, the Internet and shared our mutual love and passion for the Internet way of life. Even as we spoke, the soldiers from our respective countries were killing each other at the border. Our countries have spawned generations of hatred that runs deeper than blood. But we skirted these issues for fear of unknown passions, like a lady avoids the dessert table for fear of temptation. Perhaps even as we spoke, somewhere in a seedy building behind the crowded market place of Karachi, a bunch of renegades were planning the hijacking of a plane. An event that would bring a country of 1 billion people to its knees. Much like Glenn McGrath. Do you know what I would have done to that Pakistani boy if I had known that the hijacking was masterminded in Pakistan? You're right - nothing. Absolutely nothing. We would have shared some deep and sympathetic sadness at the way things were. I would perhaps read that sadness in his smile and he in my eyes. But lunch would have gone on as planned. Refined. Far removed from the realities of our soldiers. So does this make me unpatriotic? Less committed to my nation? Is this the kind of easy-going pacifism that is rotting our country? Raising its ugly (but happy) head in our sports and our politics and letting us wallow in our unsatisfactory status quo? Lets pop the question - how many of you really care? Did you lie awake in bed thinking about the jawans who were hunkered down in the cold wondering if they would survive today, so that you could be sure of tomorrow? I know I didn't. And I believe that there is nothing wrong with it. While it would be callous of us not to spare a thought and perhaps some material possessions for our soldiers, lets face it, sitting in Mumbai, or Calcutta or Bangalore, its different planet from that of the guardians of our borders unless we have known and loved ones there. In fact may one argue that going to the extremes with statements like "we should hate all that comes out of Pakistan" is the kind of jingoism that drains rather than directs our energies. Faced with corrupt politicians, inept bureaucrats, hegemonious neighbours and a cricket team that is unable to stoke our dreams, we could also go the Pakistani way and use hatred as a common force. (Of course one is told that hatred of India is what makes Pakistan tick.) But I can't see that getting us anywhere in particular. Isn't it funny, we play cricket against them, we watch their shows, we applaud when our stars marry their stars. We make heart rending movies about cross border love. We carry the ache of separation two generations later. But we hate the notion of Pakistan. And lord knows they hate us. Yes, it boils the blood to think that they can systematically exterminate our countrymen. It makes me want to punch somebody in the proverbial face when they think they can push us over. Yes there is much to hate. But what is it that we must hate? The plot of land that is Pakistan? Is "Pakistan" a place? A people? A government? A religion? Or just a vague shadowy threat that looms on our otherwise happy horizons? Did we rejoice in our hearts when Vajpayee blasted the bomb? Or did we weep for the planet? Who do we fear more - Musharraf or Shoaib Akhtar? What should we do if a Pakistani people embrace us like brothers in strange lands far removed from our grim realities? Should we keep the dagger handy? Or should we search for the real reason for hate? 1999
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