When Indian met Russian on India-Pakistan ground!

Much has been said and done over India and Pakistan relations post August 15, 1947. Twist here is, recently I got the chance to meet an aspiring Russian journalist, also a friend's girlfriend, whose parents were much worried about sending their daughter to a “country caught in attacks”. Her idea of the same left me in splits. She thinks highly of this much “cordial” nation. Amidst our talk of the elephant in the room, both being journalists, we talked about places to visit in India; comparing economies of two countries and pension system, where she was amazed to hear how the government of India provides lumpsum pension money and houses to live in to its employees, the much-hyped India-Pakistan relation caught us for long. Off course we Indians like to talk about India-Pakistan relation and Modi and I am no different.

Being an Indian, I do believe in communal harmony, peace, and brotherhood. But when she asked me for my opinion on the same, I without a second thought said, “This is going to stay for long or probably will only deteriorate with time.” This expression came out of no pessimism, but out of practicality. What started off as a fight against the border, Jammu and Kashmir, water dispute and terror controversy, according to me has escalated into an ego fight. This is no longer a matter of one country, just like any other in the world fighting with another country.

However, putting aside this personal thought, which I even shared with her, the highlight of our meeting was when she said. “But then, you were one.” Factually yes. But this pierced my mind because this was the thought of a First World country for a Third World country affair, other than the fact that we are synonymous with “dirt, bindis, dark, Old Delhi”. Off course! I could even sense a smirk and triviality with which she said it. For your information, nowhere did this come up that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. She seems to have no clue about that!

Further, she was excited to see Old Delhi and street markets. That is the aspiration most of the foreigners come with to India. Reason being: anarchic, culture abundance, so many mouths speaking so many languages has always been an eye candy to them. There is nothing wrong with that as being a secular country, that defines us. But the eye of a third man for whom we are "other", the gaze with which they see it is always different. 

On the one hand, we see Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin and Narender Modi all candid, being the epitome of brotherhood on their visits. Recently, much to everyone’s amaze (no offense to Modi Bhakts), our PM was honored with Russia’s highest state decoration award for his role in promoting close ties between two countries. What a coincidence! This came out as an ironical act for me, post my meet. Such close is the tie that they see us romanticizing the past and our issue are trivial and may sound stretched out to them. Such close is the tie that we can only sympathize with the cause (maybe!), but cannot empathize with it.

Note: What triggered me to pen down this experience was Narender Modi receiving the award. Call it coincidence, it sounded so ironical to me.