What is Pakistan to me?

Salaam/hi

Wanted to reply in the CLASSICAL Pakistani way

( that is what you would think to be outright contemptuous, fundamentalistic, outrageous etc etc., and other superlatives the BALANCED z tee vee would put to it ), but I am stolidly holding my emotions!

Sir, it is sad that people in India havent come to terms with the fact that THE LARGER BHARAT was vivesected and articles` like yours just reflect that train of thought.

I wish for peace as much as you do ( if you do ), but peace without any strings attached, peace with a real purpose of improvement in relations, peace without expediency, and peace with mutual respect. Wish I could reply in more detail than this, but I dont want to be carried away with my nationalistic zeal just as you got carried away with yours.

Just learn to accept the reality that is Pakistan. Yes, a lot of lives were lost, certainly , a lot of families were split, but families like mine ( that forgave a lot of their LANDS in INDIA for the reality of Pakistan ) made it big Alhamdullih in my country.

At the end of the day, Pakistan came into existence , that IS what is important. I know that we never lived to our potential, but come to think of it, when I WATCH A CRICKET MATCH BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN...I SUPPORT MY TEAM ( and that is PAKISTAN NOT INDIA )

So please accept the reality and then we can talk of peace.

May Allah guide us all

Allah haafiz

A good way of seeing Pakistan in relation to India is to travel from East to West across the Indus and compare the tongues, faces, and topography as you move away from the bank at each side. Crossing

East to Dera Ghazi Khan you`ll literally by the minute see all thats Indian gradually fade into the arid hills of Baluchistan sloping up to Baluch tribal belt past Fort Munro. West from Baqar to Dera Ismail Khan, you`ll see fertile flood plains inhabited by Siraiki speaking farmers turn into scattering bazaar towns run by Pushtoons who come down from Waziristan in beefy pickup and flowing turbans. At either location, you`ll hear both Sanskrit and Persiatic lingos mixed in street scenes that are unique to Pakistan.

Wasiq Nawaz

Hello Veeresh, Salaams et al

Here`s good luck to yours and mine virtual journeys across `The border` via Chowk.

It was truly fabulous to read you here; I have decided to make it a point to watch Good Morning India.

Keep writing!

Regards

Saima
(Khi)

I am an Indian now living in Canada,born in Lucknow ,spent the first fourteen years of my life there later lived for two years in Jalandhar and then moved to my hometown of Hoshiarpur,before finally emigrating to Canada.An avid reader of Chowk ,Dawn and the Friday Times I was moved by reading Veereshs`article.I remember him from his letter to Dawn about two years ago when he proposed a car rally from Delhi to Jhang .Tabussam,your reply moved me the most.I make it a point to visit India at least once in three years and nothing touches me more than looking at the old buidings in the `sheher`whether it is Hoshiarpur or Jalandhar.

Dear Veeresh

I have neither seen you before (I don`t have star or ZTV access at my home)nor read you. But somehow you have struck some deep chords.

My father was the only one of 6 siblings who came to Pakistan at the age of 16 (lieterally ran away from home); not surprisingly, he feels very strongly about ``ideology``. Others like me, often wonder when Muslims kill millions of each other (The Iran Iraq war is said to have cost a million lives) or when we can`t keep Karachi in peace?

My grandfather died in India but of course I could not go. Perhaps my father was right for none of his siblings have made even a fraction of his success - that is because Mr. Nehru took away all their lands in the 50`s as they were ``lazy landlords`` living in cities while the poor tenants tilled the lands.

Those tenants are everywhere from Jhang to Bihar - as are those who must eek out a living from keyboards. That is because we spent 50% of our annual funds on debt servicing and another 30% on ``defence``. I am told a million people sleep on the streets in Bombay and Calcutta. I saw some of them when I led the first and so far only quasi-official Students Goodwill Delegation to India in 1980.

Here in Hawaii where I attend the East West Center, an academic community dedicated to peace and cultural interaction - I must occasionally face off hardliners from across the Wagah border who would not even have an intellectual discussion on disputes like Kashmir because by doing so, they would by default accept it as a disputed area and also give Pakistan the honor of being an equal. But perhaps the most spontaneous, lively and loving letter I have received has come from my friend Mahesh in Bombay (we too met in Japan).

To me it is not a matter of being equal or unequal, its just a matter of being stupid or intelligent. We have not been happy with 50 years of confrontation, can we give peace a try? I too look forward to a day when I can drive my car to Kanpur. Let`s hope that day comes in my lifetime - I`ve been dreaming of showing my children the mosque where generations of their forebears have been praying and the graveyard next to which they lie buried.

akif@hawaii.edu

What is India to me?
I`d like to visit someday and find out.
A friend of mine also wanted to come along
but since he heard that Kajol is now married
he has almost decided to join the Jamaat during the next Vajpayee visit to Lahore.

Ras

Veeresh
Right on. You speak for a lot of us.

Wonderful. Delightful. Excellent. I love it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

...SR

I found the following sentence very amusing: ``...courtesy a lot of luck and a lot of help from soldiers of my father`s regiment, the Baluchis.``
Cause there are no Balochs in Baloch regiment!!!!

Cant say that I think of India in the same way as you think of Pakistan - but I do have memories related to wars the 2 countries have fought. I was in Lahore, a tiny toddler, in 1965. We lived in a colony very near Wagah border and had to move into trenches while the bombers penetrated the sky above. For the second war in 1971, we were relatively secure in Quetta but even then we had to run into trenches one night when it was announced that Indian planes had bombed near Sibi (Sui gas lines were the target). All that seems like yesterday.

Good luck in traveling into Pakistan.

It shocks me to see how by using good diction, you try to justify the most horrendous things. You sit and explain how YOU were taught anti-bacterial and chemical destruction warfare in the Merchant Marines, but some how you even twist and turn that and blame it on Pakistan. How whacked is that?????

i read your article and confess that i sometimes have similar sentiments,misgivings or what you will. indian life has been brought very close to us courtesy zee t.v.but it seems on both sides of the divide we have this love-hate relationship. one thing that bothers me about the attitude of the indians, and i have met only the government functionary types, is their slightly superior, a little condescending and very holier than thou attitude.why are these types,i`m not generalizing, just narrating my experience,so eager to ``improve pakistanis`` and expect that we would do their bidding???