India and Pakistan: Kal, Aaj Aur Kal
1947
Trains, Bullock carts, selling assets, unnoticed overflow of tears & haunting memories, and my great grandfather saw two nations awake - awake upon being divided.
2015
Today, I stand looking across the Wagah border. Many trains to Pakistan have been boarded, many a trains have been missed, many got derailed & many could not begin their maiden journeys, my great grandfather saw two nations awake.
Future:
Perhaps I'm one of those miniscule particles, a part of the umpteen jostling emotions which has candidly lived through Yash Chopra's flossy and over the top Bollywood scripts where a handsome Pakistani in black pathan suit sweeps an Indian princess off her feet.
I'm one of the many generations whose great grandfather sold his jewellery to facilitate those crossing few kilometres into the same looking land but a new country.
We dream of peace, of prosperity, of a thousand million hyperboles which dissipates with time flies & the Yash Chopra flossy cover film reels lie in moth ridden dusts & so does our fate.
India & Pakistan are two aspects of one journey, the journey which was lived by Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the journey where Durga Bhabhi lived in the by lanes of Lahore & where Lala Lajpat Rai died. History is definitely not moth ridden dust. History breathes, it lives, and it’s passed down as heirloom. Our history has been that we fought independence wars, we fought against British & now we will fight against thousands of evils in our own society. An actual jihad is fighting one’s own nafs, why are we fighting with each other? For whom? For the coming generation?
Are the tears of an orphan Pakistani Waseem different from an orphan Tarun who begs outside Maratha Mandir? Are the pangs of those women who used to dance in Anarkali bazar different from those women who dance in the lanes of Bhendi bazar? The tears, the pangs of the lovers who meet near the parks of Badshahi mosque to those who stroll hand in hand near Humayuns Tomb are the same and may be their lineage is the same too! May be their kids will befriend each other via Facebook or Twitter & love each other in the same way. As Yash Chopra's Veer fell for Zara, Ahmed can fall for Meenakshi, Aslam can fall for Rupali and Rupali's great grandfather could have been like mine who sold away his belongings to facilitate his friend Aqib Ali Rehman to settle in Lahore. Pakistan & India hold the same history, the same linguistic patterns, even our food habits are the same. One Ali Zafar is no different from Shaan Mukherjee, the lanes were taken up by Mughals & in Delhi, Sir Ganga Ram & Mayo opened schools & hospitals in Pakistan & in India, freedom fighters social workers didn't differentiate, Edhi sahab didn't differentiate a Geeta to any Sanam Khan. Malala doesn't differentiate & so does social media.
Paris burns & Indians & Pakistanis both throng twitter to give support. Floods happen and we stand, a Geeta is stranded we stand, a Peshawar APS school is gutted by bullets and we mourn in Delhi.
Our history has been the same, our futures are intertwined with commonality, and our fate is conjoined with each other. Real life Veer does meet his Zara. Oh yes, love across the salt desert takes place.
From Punjab to Gujarat, from the Sindhi culture to the Kashmiri culture, the Sindhi roti & raan gosht, from Pink Floyd to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Amitabh Bachchan, Indians & Pakistanis are flowing together like the seven rivers in Punjab.
Bol made India take notice of Pakistan's films & our Chennai express goes house full in Karachi, Diwali is celebrated in Himachal & Diwali is celebrated in Lahore. We cried when Rajesh khanna died, a certain Salman Taseer would have been a Rajesh khanna fan, well some secrets come out late. Avalanches make us donate, movies bind us, cricket matches makes us fight but death & demise again reunites us.
In my country Pakistani designer Sana Safina & Deepak Perwani are applauded, in my country when we compare swing bowling we have one name - the swing of sultan Wasim Akram.
My great grandfather must be now seeing two nations fly ahead.
And, then I remember these words- 'Kaheen se tou silsila chaleyga abb'
We have to unite for our future generations, we have to stand together for thousands of those Shoaib Malik's whose wish is to hold hands of their loved ones, we have to stand for many Geeta's whose father Edhi sahab became. We have to stand, it is only then that my generation shall say "My Great grand parents united the two nations who were away"
Shivangini Pathak
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