It has been around a long time that India and Pakistan have been divided, there is something about Pakistan that has always attracted me. I do agree that Pakistanis are also as human as we are, but still after all the controversies and rivalry between the two countries that is internationally portrayed in a real bad way which made me question about their culture, customs and other stuffs. Thank god to the technology that helps you to connect to the world on just a click and it helped me as well in a really wonderful way.

There is a guy who is a good friend of mine today from Pakistan, around 7-8 months before I was going through a Pakistani Page on Facebook I saw him and randomly texted.

Curiously I texted him without realizing who he was and introduced myself that I’m from India, the reply I got was “Namastey” from his side! I was just smiling and wondering stuffs then I got another ping from him that “My relatives live in India and I love India” further he told that he has visited Jodhpur and he was from Karachi, when I asked about his hobbies he stated that, “Mujhe cricket bahut pasand hai magar hum kabhi jeet te nahi hai”. This was hysterically funny!

Being really curious I asked him that what more does he knows about India, in a fraction of seconds he replied, “Pani Puri aur Waha ke log bahut achhe hai, jesa TV main btate hai wese nahi hai.” I wondered that are we portrayed in a negative sense over there, just like Pakistani’s are portrayed over here! And yes I was right, when I told him the same he responded by saying that, “I hear the same about India here every day, “yaha ke media wale waha walo ke jese hi hai” He meant that the media here portrays Pakistan as a Terrorist Country and there they portray India as an Anti Muslim Country!

When I asked him more about Karachi he invited me to visit his city and he will give me an amazing tour of his city and no wonder I really want to. He added that it is a very beautiful city and in every 7-8 days many Indian movies are released over there.

I asked him that did he really think that the distance that has been created between the countries is really appreciateable. He said that, “Nayomi, The government and Media has potrayed us in such a way, we are humans just like you and even we want to live in peace we are all the youth of our country yes we love our country but more importantly there is humanity within us, being a Muslim I hate terrorists as well because Allah says in Quran, if u kill one Innocent men you’ve killed humanity and if u save one you have saved all human beings”

The best part was this that he wasn’t able to type Hindi properly so I asked him that Do you know Hindi really well, he replied, “Bachpan me national geography channel bahut dekha hai wo bhi hindi me toh itna toh bol hi sakta huin” This gave me a good laugh and a break from such serious talks!!

Talking more about India Cinema he said, “Yaar tumhara Ye Shaharukh Khan kab thakega Movie bana banake” The fun and joy I had while this interaction was irreplaceable and it internally made me so happy.

After a long talk on everything I did apologized to him for being too lame and asking such questions about the treatment of girls there and many such things like that and he proved me wrong all the time. But at the end he said, “Aap logo ne Pakistan ko bas Tv main dekha hai, sab same hai India jesa hi hai”

Today, I’ve a different image of Pakistan in my mind I can’t make you change your perceptions but I can simply share this in the form of a blog. Everything… whether be a country has its own pros and cons, we need to accept it and spread love and not war. Being a citizen individually we can’t change the whole of the nation’s thinking but I guess one after the other the more we open our minds, the more we grow and develop mentally.

The guy today is a really good friend of mine and we are still in touch, and I hope one day I’ll be visiting our neighboring country.

I really don’t think that this blog needs any sort of conclusion, I don’t know how many of you will feel this blog deeply, because somewhere this incidence did hit me hard and it felt good really good.

Time to break the stereotype!!

“Rehan Soomro, my dear friend this one is for you, thankyou so much for being an amazing host and virtually making me visit Pakistan”

-Nayomi Sharma