A few years ago, as an undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, I went to Russia on a research project. I was excited about going aboard, performing research and making friends from all over the world.
My project was in the Department of Physics and Higher Mathematics at the National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University in Siberia. It was winter, and the temperature used to fluctuate between -40 degrees Celsius and 0. Rarely would I go out of my dormitory, except to the university library, office or shop.
The dormitory on Usova Street in Tomsk had people from all over the world. After a few days of staying, I heard a group of people talking in Hindi. I joined them out of curiosity, and they warmly accepted me into their group. They were mostly post-doctoral researchers or MS students from Pakistan.
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Among them, Umair became a good friend. We used to talk about our research projects, Russian language and many times, the border disputes between India and Pakistan. What I liked about our friendship is that we discussed the border issue rationally. In far-off countries, united by language and culture, Indians and Pakistanis often become friends.
It’s been a long time since we talked. The increasing discontinuity in India-Pakistan relationship, mainly after the Pulwama attack on February 14, created a wide hole in the friendship. Earlier we used to crack jokes at each other, often on Kashmir. The disputes between the two nations have grown to such a level in the past few months that we cannot continue with such banter now.
Ours is more of a confused relationship between two individuals who are torn between being rational and nationalistic (as people define it nowadays by glorifying wars). I don’t know his point of view, but I am sure his country’s media and politicians would have created a biased view in his mind too as ours have done here. I wish I would see Pakistan and India as friendly neighbours in my lifetime, and I could tease Umair again.
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