The Unknown Girl from Pakistan

December 1, 2015 at 9:15 AMDec (Activism, Cinema, Friends, Media, Musings, Slice Of Life)

A year ago my friend Chintan Girish Modi as a part of Friendships Across Borders, an initiative of  Chintan, wrote an article aiming to contribute to a peaceful and harmonious relationship between the people of two countries, for which he interviewed people from across borders asking them who, from the other side of border, they admire the most. Here is what I had to say to Chintan and to FAB.

“In Anand Patwardhan’s film War and Peace there is a sequence at the Lahore Grammar School. A debate competition is taking place, the topic of debate being the nuclear tests done by India and Pakistan.

The competition begins with this girl who very passionately supports and defends the nuclear test by Pakistan. She is followed by few other debators who argue for and against the bomb.

Once the debate is over Anand begins a conversation with all the girls in the room. In this conversation all the girls speak against the bomb and the girl who spoke first in the debate speaking for the bomb, invoking religious identities etc. also speaks the opposite of what she said in the debate.

When Anand questions the shift in her arguments the girl says, “usually in debate hum wahi baat kartey hai jis mein zyada josh ho zyada dam ho. Majority jis mein hogi usee taraf lengey,” to which very calmly, Anand responds saying, “gaur se sochiye iss baarey mein. hamaare leaders bhi aise hee kartey hai. Wahi josh waali baat kartey hai aur wahi baat kartey hai jis mein zyaada dam ho.”

Feeling ashamed, the girl with great guilt says, “hum galat tey. humein aisa nahi kahna chaahiye tha, aisa nahi bolna tha. hum maafi chaahtein hai.”

In my entire cinema viewing experience, this was the most humbling experience. It is that unknown girl from Pakistan in Anand’s film who I admire immensely.”