Have you met Shahrukh Khan? Isn’t he cute?
(If the questioner is older, substitute SRK with Amitabh Bachchan.)
(If the questioner is older, substitute SRK with Amitabh Bachchan.)
You don’t watch StarPlus?!! (read saas-bahu sagas)
We love going to India. Great place to shop.
You mean you haven’t been to the massage/spa centres down south yet?
We speak the same language, share the same history, it’s our governments who do not want us to interact. I hope things change for the better…
You are our “mehman”…hope you are enjoying your stay.
You don’t drink?
Overheard: Are there mosques in India?
You don’t look Muslim. Did you marry and become Muslim? That's the trend there – right?
We feel bad for the Muslims in India. Look at Gujarat…
You mean Muslims are not treated unfairly in your country?
When India-Pakistan talks were suspended in the wake of the Mumbai attacks: Why don’t you want to talk to us? You’ve just seen one Mumbai. We see Mumbais every day.
We wish Indian media would stop perpetuating stereotypes about Pakistan and its people.
Why are you stealing our water?
Of course, you are creating trouble in Balochistan!
And the latest addition: Walk like an Egyptian, eat like an American, shoot like an Afghan, plot like a Paki – but think like an Indian (courtesy Wajahat S Khan)
Please get a hold of Pakistani textbooks both Urdu and English and see what they say about your country and people and how they feed the fear, insecurity and paranoia within Pakistan in regards to India... and the many more questions they raise within the mind of the young Pakistani student... our education system needs a serious overhaul and a more contemporary and realistic description of our neighbours.
ReplyDeleteMaybe then some of the stupid questions will not be asked!
I wonder, maybe you should send the text books to one of your director/producer people in Mumbai, as Hindi films are very popular in Pakistan maybe you guys could produce a befitting reply to the propaganda fed to us by the Pak govt. and the uneducated mullahs... one Hindi movie would probably have more effect than all the boring govt. texbooks combined...
Just a thought!
A
Nice blog,At least you try to portray a mostly realistic image of Pakistan than most Indian media outlets ever do.
ReplyDeleteObviously Misconceptions you noted here exist in both countries.And they are unfortunate,but I don't think they can even be solved by improving education,look at current western bias against Muslims.Every country,group or community needs some villains for its own compulsions,u know.In fact more educated can be more zealots at times.
I have read from some Indians in their press or on net who have come here,but somehow they always seem to pretend to view Pakistan puzzlingly just like a western person would,but not like how a true "DESI" should,And they also always seem on the lookout for weak points,and where else the supposed superiority of their great India lies compared with Pakistan.Like Waiting on cue Wah,Wahs from their compatriots for their great investigating crusade across the border.But invariably they always seem to fail at grasping reality.
Infact my personal observation is that actually some westerns(I,m not talking about their sensationalist journos here)tend to view Pakistan in a more realistic,humane and understanding way than those"just like us" Indians ever can,Which further renders this bogus argument that "Pakistan and India are same after all" seem quite hollow,because reality simply does not match.
Some Indians use this argument when it suits their purposes but the same ones don't hesitate to brand Every thing related to Pakistan bad when it suits them.There is always that underlying bitterness about Pakistan in some way or the other even in most liberal of Indians,If you know and feel what i mean.
And to top it off their self supposed superiority over Pakistan is a big putt off and simply rude,and maybe yet another reason why they find Pakistanis a little confusing.U can,t make friends with anyone by straightaway belittling them.If they REALLY were that much superior to Pakistan then they would not simply feel the need to shout at top of their voice from their rooftops like they do now "look see how much we are better than Pakis in This,That and whatnot,because only insecure and laiers do that.Just like a westerner will not feel that need.
And Why they feel the need for pretension when dealing with the subject of Pakistan is beyond me,u can see and notice it on most internet forums where both Indians and Pakistanis participate.
Is it because they feel insecure that acting in just a normal way they will be giving kind of a head start to Pakistanis for some reason?Or their real selfs are not good enough to hold them off well?So they feel the need to exaggerate Indians achievements and downgrade Pakistan further.
Now all of that is bit rich considering that Number of people living under poverty line in India alone is much bigger even than the total population of Pakistan.They should First try to remove their own shortcomings and then preach to others,and then we too will listen .
I also feel that just like there is more unequal distribution of wealth on the Indian side,they also have a bigger gap between their upper classes and common masses on intellectual level.
Anyways.Have a nice stay
Peace.
@Anon,
ReplyDeleteYou had to spoil a nice pleasant post by bringing up the India- Pak squabbling, didn't you?
Going by your post you seem to have interacted with thousands of indians. Traveled the length and breadth of india; then produced a comment of such great depth and wisdom that it had to posted on on a blog where the blogger is trying to dispel stereotypes and create a dialogue.
hmmmmm is this what they ask of us interesting !! looks like they have lot of "Masails" in their "Zehn" .... just like us...hope i am spelling it rightly :P
ReplyDeleteComing to your blog after sometime. Good one that. I heard your video. You sound quite good.
ReplyDeleteAshu, not bad! Me impressed :)
ReplyDeleteIndra, glad you stopped by, and thanks for the compliment :)
There is no censorship in India.
ReplyDeleteYou can check the URDU Text Books Published in INDIA
http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/
Click for Each Standard ( 1 to 10th ) and check the Social Studies or History books.
Thankyou
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پاکستان میں کوئی سنسر شپ ہے.
پاکستان کو ایک اچھا تمام مسلمانوں کو عزت دینے والا ملک ہے.
آپ اردو انڈیا میں شائع کی کتابوں چیک کر سکتے ہیں
http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/
کے لئے کلک کریں ہر سٹینڈرڈ (1 10th) اور سماجی مطالعہ یا تاریخ کی کتابوں میں ملاحظہ کریں.
آپ کا شکریہ
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Thanks for Shout Out, Indians!!! Hope to see you both soon!! Might be moving to ISB!!
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here :) Looking forward to meeting you in Isloo.
ReplyDeletehaha this is funny. Being a Pakistani in the middle of Indians now, add the following
ReplyDeleteIndians to Pakistani - "Adaab Arzay" and a bow. Me- this stopped ages ago dude.
Indians to Pakistani 2- So u wear the same clothes in Pakistan u wear here? Me - eh yea?
Pakistani to Indians - a majority of Pakistanis dont see India beyond Punjab + kashmir/himachal, places and people they consider they have a 'kinship' with. Makes for some really funny assumptions the other way as well. (Speaking in Punjabi to every Indian is one of them.)
Just saw a "Please get a hold of Pakistani textbooks both Urdu and English and see what they say about your country and people and how they feed the fear, insecurity and paranoia within Pakistan in regards to India" in the comments section.
ReplyDeleteAs liberal as this sounds, this is absolutely not true. I have finished my schooling in Pakistan and there is 'propaganda feeding' in the books per se. When you disagree with another country about something, you present your own view e.g. about Kashmir issue, Pakistani textbooks will carry a Pakistani point of view in which they consider themselves right - how on Earth is that different from any other country's behavior? Or do Indian or US or British books malign their own countries and start posting someone else's view points? (And anyway, apart from a few pakistan studies books which just harp on pre-1947, there isn't much India mentioning anywhere.) There is no "Mullah uneducated propaganda" in textbooks of any form - talk about exaggerations and reading way too much between the lines. On other fronts, Pakistanis do about as much India bashing and anti India propaganda as Indian media does about Pakistan and so-called isi everywhere. I mean pick up Jung or The News or Times of India (ironically the same newspapers which started aman ki asha) and LOOK at the words used and the undertones provided and the scandalization of every news item.
As for the movie idea, it will flunk. Any movie which disses Pakistan in any form has a history of getting the strongest negative reaction from people (not that Pakis end up making money for Bollywood anyway - thanks to piracy)
Do Pakis have self respect? They take money from Americans to kill their own people .it seems Pakis are ruled by CIA
ReplyDeletePlot like a paki?
ReplyDeleteAnd Americans perhaps have the most unhealthy eating habits in the world!
My pakistani neighbour asked me to give tuitions for her 10 yr old son ,I promptly refused as i dint have enough time and i was nt sure whether i would be able to do it properly.I have an idea,from my pakistani friends, wat is there in the textbooks.Something called Pakistan studies is very anti indian.How much respect will that boy have for me.He once came to my house and told the other Arab child - "Beat the Hindu god" When i went and looked that was my 'cute little laughing Buddha,which i kept as a part of my feng shui ":(
ReplyDeleteI grew up in India ,at 10 years old i have heard like Hindu ,Muslim(my best friend n my neighbour) and christian( school). But i nver really knew that i was that Hindu until my parents put me in a boarding school. What the world has come to?
The child basically gets along very well but his attitude is pissing me off.He likes watch indian channel at our place.He tells me hw his teachers are and he likes to speak in english.But the fact that I am an Indian is fixed in his mind.
Tina
Pakistan being traced back to 8th century is some history to be taught!
ReplyDeleteHeck being an ICSE pass out, I don’t recall a word on Pakistan or Kashmir being ever mentioned other than Pakistan being created a day before we were to get independence, but here we have people justifying all the distortions that were ever taught, no wonder conspiracies come as naturally as breathing air to them, and they so easily succumb.
Uptil, recently the pak army and isi were supposed to be the best, what happened, one wonders!?
@ author (please pardon me, for I don’t know your name or shall I address you as ME :D lol)
If I may add to the “mock”tail of misconceptions, then there remains the legendary conspiracy of CIA/Mossad/RAW out to get them ……… what can one say.
Anyways, talking about distortions and how they got effectively told to Pakistanis over the years:
Najam sethi on “Murder of History” in Pakistan, it’s a 6 part series, check out all the six.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUKr3bCaNJY
Hasan Nisar’s take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9yLayFHXIE&feature=related