[Reader-list] 'Imagine' -by mohsin hamid, tehelka may 19th.

[mihir pandya]

See in your mind's eye... Imagine!  Kabhi kabhi main bhi sochta hoon ki kya sabkuch itna aasan ho sakta hai

  Aur dekhiye, udhar bhi koi kahanikaar aisa hi sochta hai. To aap bhi sochiye, kyoki bas sochne ki hi to der hai...
  
miHir J
   
            PEACE SMOKE
  Lack of imagination is stopping India and Pakistan from being amicable, says Mohsin Hamid 
    The first time I was in India was in 1988. I was 16 and had come to Delhi with my high school football team. We snuck out after bedtime, jumped a wall and went to a nightclub called Ghungroos. It was the first time I was in a nightclub and I remember thinking, "How fantastic!"
  This time round, I was a 35-year-old writer on a book tour. India has changed and I have changed too. I was in Mumbai and Delhi and I had a fantastic time again. I had heard from other Pakistanis that Mumbai reminded them of New York. It reminded me less of New York than of tropical cities like Manila, built on an intimate scale with their winding roads and colonial architecture. Delhi seemed as familiar as Lahore. The differences were very slight. I enjoyed the diversity of people you encounter in India.
  I guess for anybody growing up in India or Pakistan, it is shocking how normal it is across the border. After this trip, I felt I would like to live in India, perhaps in Mumbai, for a year. I think it is really possible for India and Pakistan to have a different future, to do things together without thinking of Partition all the time. On this trip, I met a Pakistani journalist, Rehan Ansari, who works at a Mumbai newspaper. Rahul Bose is making my first book Moth Smoke into a film. These things should be far more common. It should be possible for us to hop into a car and drive from Delhi to Lahore in three hours to meet a friend. All that is lacking is imagination. 
  I don't know how much change novels like mine can bring about. Novels are very modest objects compared to movies or the PM announcing a new government policy. But a novel is one conversation. If enough novels, if enough movies, if enough politicians, if enough people reading novels start talking, then we can make changes.
  I got a really positive reception in India. I did meet a tiny minority of people who were preoccupied with Muslims and Pakistan and asked me strange questions. I also met people who said, “We don't care. We feel it’s fine that India and Pakistan are not on friendly terms.” I think most of the economic growth is in South India and it would benefit North India if the country was on good terms with its neighbours such as China and Pakistan. It's not as if I want to meddle in internal affairs. 

  It's just that we underestimate how much both countries would benefit from being on friendly terms.
  As told to Nisha Susan
      May 19 , 2007


       
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