India Pakistan: Two sides of the same Coin

No matter how much both governments try to dissociate themselves from each other, India & Pakistan will always be two sides of the same coin.

My grandparents are older than the divided countries of India-Pakistan which are now only 64 years old.

And the more i read, the more i realise that we Indians & Pakistanis are not so different at all.

We share the same history, same language(Hindi-Urdu), same food, same costumes, same passion for cricket & bollywood and so on.

We are essentially the same people, albeit, now we just live on different sides of an imaginary line.

Ask an Indian if he's Pakistani and you'll hear a couple of cuss words in the very least for mistaking him for the 'other side'. Its the same if you ask a Pakistani if he's Indian, There's this strong sense of hopeful dissociation.

On probing deeper, we see that our national languages 'Hindi' & 'Urdu' both derive from Khairiboli, which was the official language under the Mughal rule since about 1800, which derives from a fusion of the mughal languages - Persian & Arabic and North Indian languages like Punjabi & Haryanvi.

The language was given many names through the ages like - Hindawi, Dehlavi "of Delhi"; Hindustani, and so forth before finally settling on Hindi & Urdu.

Hindi was only standardized to distinguish it from Urdu, which is essentially the same language but with written with arabic characters rather than the Devanagari text.

I cant help but wonder as to what the undivided India would be like. The serenenity of the Hunza valley, the cultural richness of cities like Lahore & Karachi, the amazing food from the North-west Frontier provinces.

Can you imagine the Pakistan & Indian cricket teams of the 90's playing as one? Wasim, Waqar, Sachin, Ganguly, Imran all playing on the same side...

This newfound alienation can only do harm to both sides, because we share way too much common ground between us, to be able to completely break-away from the other side.

My Cool New CV

Spent a whole day making this.

Im pretty excited to share it with prospective employers.

Any thoughts?

What i am/ was reading lately:

I Finished reading - Secret of the Nagas, by Amish, follow up to the hugely successful, but terribly written first book, the immortals of meluha.

Well, i dont know how he did it, but the second book was even worse than the first. And unfortunately for the author, i wont be buying anymore of his books.

Im currently reading:

1. Paulo Coelho - Aleph, which is looking like a phenomenal read. I actually dont think ive read a bad paulo coelho book, and ive read a few.

2. Jack Kerouac - On the Road. The book that inspires every reader to alteast once make that crazy roadtrip, and experience life on the road

3. Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - After almost a year, im finally almost done with this, what an unbelievable book, and its added so much value to my life.
I would recommend it to every human being alive.

4. City of Joy - Dominique Lapierre , Ive just started reading this one, the title belies the fact that its about a really big slum in calcutta, and despite all odds the author finds this place to be the city of joy.

Cheerio.

I Wish i knew

(C)
Wish that I can take you someplace
(F)
Where you can find yourself, Where you can find your self.

(C)
But i wish i knew
(G)
Wish i knew where


(C)
Wish that i can take you through this
(Am)
Without causing too much pain, without causing too much pain.

(C)
But i wish i knew
(G)
Wish i knew where

(C)
I know that i can take through through this
(F)
To the place you want to go

(C)
I just wish i knew
(G)
Wish i knew where.....

Reminiscing: Studying languages in school

Firstly, i have been wondering since a while, as to how much a person really change through a lifetime?

In extreme cases i mean, from 0 to 10-15% maybe ?

I mean, maybe you might look completely different from the outside, dress differently, talk differently, but who we are deep down inside remains the same, the values, the attitudes, the core.

I, in school like most students liked / disliked certain subjects.

My favourite was French, which i excelled at, throughout school and junior college.

And my most hated were Hindi & Marathi.

ALL LANGUAGES.

The way i looked at it then, and still do is :-

I already spoke Hindi when i was learning it. BORING. It did nothing for me practically speaking.

Marathi - On the other hand, was just beyond comprehension, from reading, to writing and i did miserably at it, almost failing a couple of times.

HNowever, today i can confidently say, i speak it better than most people i know, just by interaction with people (mostly cops and rickshaw drivers in rural maharashtra) and hearing the language.

After spending 6 months in japan this year, i faced a similar dilemma, japanese to write it unbelievably hard, and i had no interest in learning to write whatsoever.

Learning to speak, with its vast practical application, not to forget 'coolness quotient' for a foreigner to be speaking the language... made it an incredibly exciting proposition, and again i lapped it up, with childlike enthusiasm.

I wonder wonder sometimes if its a bit lame to still approach things the same way i did 10years ago.................

Shake that Thang - The Buddy T Project

Composed this song couple of days ago....

Are we ready for change?

India`s society in its steadfast backwardness, conservatism and vast segregation into rich and poor is in pressing need of an overhaul.

All that`s lacking is some intelligent fresh perspectives and the desire to clean out the plumbing, so the system can function smoothly and grow from there.

The current political harbinger of betterment – Anna Hazare might provide the inspiration to the people to follow him in his quest for an accountable society and make them stand up against the system.

But the chances of that happening right now are bleak.

Its amazing how much China`s society has evolved recently, spurred on by the economic growth.

India`s economy has been rising quite resiliently as well but this being India, the sluggishness in the coming of change is quite expected.

Globally it can be seen from many other examples that economic growth is usually followed by social reforms.

We have intelligent well educated leaders running our corporations with success, but semi-illiterate conficted felons are running our country.

Ridiculous.
Only in India...