Unwilling Enemies

India and Pakistan were two flowers of the same plant. One plucked and planted on a different land, surprisingly enough what grows is nothing but the same plant again. What was the point ?

 I am an Indian. That's my nationality. I am not an Indian only because I was born in the geographical region called India but also because this has been fed to me since I was a child. Everywhere around me be it at home, school, college; the identity of my nation has been fed to my mind. The idea of being an Indian does not come alone. It brings along the idea of being the arch enemies of Pakistan. People always define Pakistan as the other. Be it cricket matches (which, by the way, are no less than wars between the two countries) or politics or even boundaries for that matter. Indo-Pak border is not like any other. It is breathing patriotism, instead of the winds there is patriotism blowing everywhere, with songs, flags and what not, constantly trying really hard to demarcate the region, establish the fact that this is India and that on the other side, a few meters away is Pakistan. I wonder how did we become enemies in about a few months time (not to forget we all got "influenced" like they wanted, so we acted like they wanted) enemies enough to breed the hatred in all generations to come. In spite of all this, I could never recognize Pakistan as the 'other'. Aren't we one ?

Are we not a whole ? The way I see India is never without Pakistan. When I look at the political map of our country and see Pakistan as a different one, all I feel is regret. Regret of having lost something so indispensable and impersonal that I wish we had not.

Think about the places, the monuments, the markets that we will, most probably, never be able to visit. All we will see of Pakistan is what media has to show and what we have watched in films and Zingadi (the channel). Not all of us will be fortunate enough to get a first hand, personal account, telling details of how are the people, the places, the streets, the air, the men ;) in Pakistan. The TRP ratings of Zindagi are enough evidence of the amount of "hatred" Indians have for Pakistanis. The division has not only taken away a piece of land and what it has to offer, but also, a culture all together. While watching Zindagi for the first time, I wondered why do people not talk like that in India, I would have loved to talk like that. That's when it struck me, the loss of a culture all together, It ranges from the clothes they wear, language they speak, the television they produce and every other man made thing possible. But what they couldn't divide and remains immovable is the air we breathe, the rivers that comes through, the mountains we share, the feelings of many others like me in both countries who detest such political demarcations  and everything natural that was beyond their power to divide.

When one stands on a mountain top or maybe looks down from a plane flying high up in the sky, one realizes how feeble, in existent  and irrelevant are these boundaries in the eyes of the creator, who still sees them all as one, a large piece of land he created and nothing more.