“He is my brother from another mother”: Story of Jenis (India) and Talat (Pakistan)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indopak Border, Jenis Samuel from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), India shared the story of his friendship with Talat Islam Khan of Punjab, Pakistan. Jenis writes,

I have had made hundreds of friends in Pakistan motivated by my bond with my first Pakistani friend Atif and which I cherish a lot.

Among many people, I met a man from Punjab (Pakistan). His name is Talat Islam Khan whom I call as “Tali”. He is of my age and a great friend of mine now. We met each other through Facebook just 3 months ago but our friendship did not take even a minute I think!

We share a lot in common. Most of the feelings, thoughts synchronizes between us and seriously I often ask him, “did you ever read my diary?” He think of us as the same soul in two bodies and I so agree with him! We have a lot of common things including our stance on Indian Pakistani friendship, bollywood, southern films, music among other things.

He is a great entertainer indeed. He is a mimic artist, actor, singer…well he’s multitalented!

The best thing I like in him is the way he speaks. He is a great follower of philosopher Rumi and through him I came to know about the great person. His thoughts are also so fine just like Rumi. I feel that Tali is a brother from another mother to me!

I feel that I owe him a lot. He is good at philosophy and he guides me in many ways. He respects our friendship and whenever we find time, we speak for hours or so through whatsapp and messenger.

There is a saying that I really like – “Unexpected friendships are always better”. I think I understood it’s meaning because of this fellow.

Yes, there were many stereotypes that tried to break our friendship. I was asked not to speak to him and to avoid this friendship. But I had made up my mind. Even if I will have to delete 99% of my Pakistani friends, I’ll not unfriend some and Tali tops that list.

It’s hardly few months and we both believe that we are kind of brothers. My parents know him and his mom know me. That’s how he’s popular in my home too!

When I told my mom and aunt about him, they were so surprised to know of his character and how much I valued this friendship. His mom would have felt the same 🙂

Coming to people’s reaction on our friendship, as usual many were and will be surprised and shocked to know about our bond. I had uploaded a video about our friendship on Facebook a few weeks ago wherein I shared about our friendship and the value he has in my life. To my surprise, I got good comments not only from Pakistan but also from my fellow Indian friends. They appreciated and agreed that it will be great if we all start thinking this way and to reach out, form bonds with people who are regarded to be “different” and “opposing” to us.

There are plenty of similarities among Indians and Pakistanis. Once we clear out all our attitude and speak to people who are from the other side of the border, I am sure that we will be able to see a lot of changes.

As a common saying goes this way, to solve a problem, speak WITH each other and not speak ABOUT each other. I hope once people will come together, all these stereotypes and myths could be broken off.

I want to tell my friend Talat that “I have found no one as good and close like u brother ❤ You are seriously a brother from another mother :)”

This year we gonna celebrate 2017 New Year as virtual brothers and I hope that we are able to celebrate the next year together!  

I really hope that we both meet soon in person and that we share about our friendship to the people out there, to the world who tries to control friendship and emotions through borders 🙂

Do you have a friend(s) across the border, share your story with us. Send us your story along with photographs at aaghazedosti@gmail.com

 

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“We shared and laughed together at the criticism on our friendship”: Story of Dawood Abbasi (Pakistan) and Pratyush Pandey (India)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indopak Border, Dawood Abbasi from Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan shared the story of his friendship with Pratyush Pandey of Lucknow, India:

I am from Rahim Yar Khan city in Punjab province of Pakistan. I was born in Paris but lived most my life in Pakistan. My friend Pratyush Pandey originates from Lucknow in India but currently resides in Hyderabad (India). We met in 2009 and studied BBA (3 years) in Paris School of Business. Today, I am considered like a family member by his family.

We celebrated all religious events together. He use to fast every Tuesday and to respect that I wouldn’t drink nor eat during all our time together. Well that’s all mutual respect. Multiple times he visited mosque and I visited Temple with him. We wholeheartedly respected each other traditions and norms which can be concluded by saying that “we taught and learned from each other”.

We both faced stereotypes in our own inner circle like his friends from India and my Pakistani friends would question my friendship and we use to tackle those with strong condemnation and later would laugh discussing those discussions.

During our 3 years tenure, India-Pakistan played few matches and every time we use to invite our friends and watch it all together or planning night outs. Our friendship did managed to bring our other Indian Pakistani friends closer as well. Together we made trip to Amsterdam, organized university events on Eiffel tower and roamed around Paris like it must be toured.

I think it’s all about the environment in our respective country. Indians and Pakistanis who have traveled abroad have no complain meeting and even working with each other. Middle East is the biggest example where millions of Indian and Pakistani mostly work, share apartments and even dine together. It seems so unfair when same people living in their own country criticize/blame the neighbor country for any on-going event. All Indians and Pakistanis must be given chance to travel and have some experience in order to actually understand the true meaning of humanity by staying humble as we share same culture, language and interests. I feel sorry for people who have spent whole life around their own countrymen, community and accordingly they developed the hatred engulfed through the environment, political system. Europe has seen world wars yet it’s countries managed to put all past behind by demolishing borders and united to develop economically, socially and culturally by allowing flow of people traveling to other countries even though most countries have different languages. Why can’t India and Pakistan follow Europe and set aside the past as both countries faces same issues of poverty, terrorism and development of rural areas. Both countries are wasting billions of dollars on military upgrades which seems useless since both countries are nuclear states. Ultimately it’s the civilian paying the real price at the hands of politicians who secretly maintain healthy relation (Modi-Nawaz Nepal meeting, Modi attending Nawaz’s granddaughter wedding) but on front tend to ignore dialogues which can least pave way for stability in both countries.

We as nations are the main culprits for the unstable neighbor relation allowing our selfish policy makers to keep stretching the border line. Relationship between both countries can only develop when each individual of both countries show some optimism and humbleness towards each other. Follow your own heart instead of news.

Do you have a friend(s) across the border, share your story with us. Send us your story along with photographs at aaghazedosti@gmail.com

“She is my strength, my love guru”: Story of Atiqa (Pakistan) and Abha (India)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indo-pak Border, Atiqa Shahid from Lahore (Pakistan) share her story of friendship with Abha Jeurkar from Solapur (India):

“I met Abha last year when she came to Lahore (Pakistan) for a training on adult education which was being conducted by the organization that I am part of. Abha is a certified trainer for Play for Peace.

She belongs to Solapur in India. Currently she is working for Dalit community in collaboration with CSEI. She has such a strong and charismatic personality that I never felt that this was my first time to meet her. We became very good friends in just 15 days, in fact from the very first day. When both of us along with our other friends were roaming on the roads of Lahore, our laughs were the loudest. We have discussed almost everything during those days from patriarchy to peace.

She is my strength and also my love guru 😀 as she always told me that heart breaks and breach of trust may happen a lot but will heal eventually. She has taught me so many things including how to wear a sari and how important it is to be yourself.

I feel blessed that we are living in an era of technology as this allows us to communicate very often. I really miss her and long to meet her.”

If you have a story to share, send it at aaghazedosti@gmail.com

Peace Building and Great Friendships: Story of Tulika Bhatija (India) and Raza Khan, Suraya Islam and Zaibun Nisa Hussain (Pakistan)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indo-pak Border, Tulika Bhatija, an Educator and Peace Builder shares her story of friendship with Suraya Islam, Zaibun Nisa Hussain and Raza Khan from Pakistan whom all she met as part of her peace building activities between India and Pakistan.

I met Suraya Islam first time on Skype, along with my students at Ecole Mondiale World School. Our conversations about cricket, partition and flavours of both countries were filled with humour and interesting insights from both sides. Suraya led the discussion with flair, maturity and helped her students reflect on their thoughts and interactions. I learnt so much from her that day. A few months later, I found a gift on my coffee table, with a note attached to it, ‘To our favourite teacher, With Love, Karachi.’ I was very overwhelmed to receive the Ajrak from Sindh; it was strangely nostalgic. Till date, I keep that note in my purse, and think of my wonderful exchange with Suraya.

I met Zaibun Nisa Hussain through another beautiful letter exchange between Mumbai and Chitral. Zaibun and I connected instantly; we shared similar values as educators and encouraged our students to write heartfelt letters and messages to each other. She is a humble, kind and a loving human being and a teacher in which Pakistan can find hope in to bridge barriers between India and Pakistan. I hope to hang out with her some day and have conversations over many cups of chai. 🙂

Raza Khan and I were introduced through Aaghaz-E-Dosti in the aftermath of the Lahore attacks. We have exchanged stories of peace, pain, sorrow and trials and tribulations of being teachers. I can never imagine what it feels like to teach in a school where children have lost their very own. I am very fortunate to have met someone so passionate and determined like him. He continues to grow as an educator and is always to open to learning and sharing ideas.

If you have a story to share, send it at aaghazedosti@gmail.com

Terrorist threat to school brought Indian and Pakistani students together: Story of Alishba (Pakistan) and Selena (India)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indo-pak Border, Alishba from Islamabad (Pakistan) share her story of friendship with Selena from Delhi (India):

“From our childhood we learn that India is our enemy. But Is it really? okay let me tell you my story.

It started when a girl named Selena took admission in our school SLS. We came to know that she is an Indian and she really hate Pakistanis. And a question emerged in our minds that why? Why she hate Pakistanis so much? She was new admission and she didn’t know about our school’s rules and regulations and so we told her that if she needs any help then we are here for her. But she was so rude and arrogant. She said “No! I don’t need help of any of you. I don’t want to take help of you Pakistanis”. And we said that okay if you don’t need our help then we wont. After that day I used to hate her for the way she is and I started to think that she is my enemy because she is an Indian. We both used to hate each other.

But one day our school got threats from terrorists and they said that they are going to shoot every Indian in our school. The principal announced that school will be off for two weeks because of the threats. She got so scared and started crying. Our heart melted when we saw her crying in a corner. Then me and my group helped her and we sympathized with her, told her not to cry and that everything will settle down soon. We assured her that nothing will happen to her. We were the ones who helped her in her bad time and then her thoughts changed towards us. Soon she was so embarrassed about her arrogant behavior. Then she became a member of our group and as time passed our friendship got closer and today its been 3 years and we all are still together. THE BEST FRIENDS!

Just like that, Yes we want war between India and Pakistan but only in cricket grounds! We are the good neighbors .We are the most skillful. We are the best people in the world. Lets shake our hands and be best friends and best neighbours. YES! We both nations want Peace, We want Prosperity.”

If you have a story to share, send it at aaghazedosti@gmail.com

Indian Reality TV Show facilitated bond between an Indian and a Pakistani: Story of Hiranmoy (India) and Aabi (Pakistan)

As part of our call to share about their friend(s) beyond the Indo-pak Border, Hiranmoy Boruah from Assam (India) and Aabi Khan from Rawalpindi (Pakistan) share their story.

Hiranmoy Boruah from Assam, India:

“Both of us were die hard Big Boss fans. It was last year, during the course of supporting the same celebrity contestant Mandana Karimi, that I met Aabi Khan. Another Pakistani friend of mine had created a facebook group to support Mandana Karimi, to which I was added. Aabi’s reaction to one of my posts was the first time I got to know about him. After this we became friends on facebook but due to some reasons, did not interact. Big Boss got over. It was hard for us to accept Mandana’s defeat. But, eventually, things became normal.

I started following his posts and came across some inspirational and heart touching posts on his timeline. They were so relatable. I could literally see myself. I have been through the same phase. Exactly the same words I wanted to convey. You can check. We even have two common profile pictures and one common cover picture. And this is what made me take the first step and say ‘Hello’. Now we’re very good friends. We talk about our hobbies, passions and of course about our countries. We care for each other. We support each other in need. He teaches me Hindi and Urdu. (Though I’m from India, my Hindi is very weak) and I tell him about the beauty of India, about our culture and the unexplored paradise that is North-East India.

I really want to meet him one day and my other Pakistani friends too. I have been warned by other people against trusting people blindingly and it’s a bitter truth but I’ve seen the hatred some of them feel for Pakistan. But I believe that nobody is born evil. Even the so called ‘worst’ of all people, also have some good in them. We just need to clear our vision. And when it’s about friendship, nothing else matters – no distance, no boundaries, no societies, not even language. It’s not about India or Pakistan, Hindu or Muslim. If two people wish to share a beautiful bonding, let them be best buddies. That’s what I feel.”

Aabi Khan from Rawalpindi, Pakistan:

“Hiranmoy bourah is one of my closest friends. I got to know about him via a Big Boss fan group. We both liked Mandy as a contestant and shared our likes and dislikes on facebook. He is from India and I am from Pakistan but our friendship has no boundaries. He supports me and believes in me. He is like my support system and can make me smile no matter how low I am feeling. He is the one who keeps me motivated when I’m going through a tough time in my life. To me, he is my second brother. I’d be lost without him as a good friend.”

If you have a story to share, send it at aaghazedosti@gmail.com