What Should I Do With You Pakistan?

I and Little B like reading newspaper together. It is not an everyday thing but more like a once in a week thing. Thanks to the colorful pictures-filled TOI, Little B enjoys it.

About a year back when we started doing this exercise, it was more about finding pictures of animals and cutting them. As time passed by, Little B started taking interest in other pictures as well. Initially she wanted me to explain the picture to her. Now she asks me to read it straight from the newspaper itself, though I doubt how much of it she actually understands. Any which way, I try to give her an explanation which is closer to the real news, of course keeping in mind that she is just a kid.

As she started flipping the newspaper herself and going through pictures, suddenly her world grew exponentially. She understood that if water is filled up somewhere, it must be a flood. If wind is blowing very hard, it must be Hudhud. Every rocket is PSLV. Big Hero 6 is still available in some theatre.

If all that was not enough, she started getting impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he is “adventurous” (for Little B whoever travels is adventurous). She even wanted to draw a picture of him which I didn’t appreciate at all because I am still on the fence about him!

It amazes me to hear the imaginary stories she constructs around some news. It also surprises me that sometimes a piece of news becomes a life lesson for her – don’t go near a manhole, children fall in them.

And then there was Pakistan.

Pakistan is always in the news for all the wrong reasons. There is shelling or firing. There was Peshawar’s Army Public School. Little B found out and sought an explanation. That day she learned a new word – terrorist.

We often underestimate children. I regret that I did too. I shouldn’t have taken it lightly.

We saw PK. Little B came back home and told its story –

“An alien comes to earth in a spaceship. He has a blue remote and somebody snatches it and runs away. There is a girl. She makes a boy from Pakistan her friend. The boy from Pakistan left her…”

Though Little B’s story went on, my mind got stuck on “the boy from Pakistan left her.” May be I was jumping to conclusions, but the way Little B said it made me wonder if that what she thinks “a boy from Pakistan” will do – leave friends.

May be she did. May be she didn’t.

I have never tried to give Little B a positive or a negative image about Pakistan. If anything, I have painted a black and white picture. For every shelling, I have reminded her that the ‘dama dum’ song that I listen to is sung by a Pakistani singer. Countless number of times I have told her about the “bravest girl of all” Malala.

But still, may be that wasn’t enough. I was uneasy, I grew desperate.

After the PK incident, days went by in me explaining how “the boy from Pakistan” didn’t leave his friend, it was just a misunderstanding. “The boy from Pakistan” wanted to say sorry to his friend but he was just a little late. I even made up my own story that “the boy from Pakistan” and friend both together wrote a story of friendship that everybody loved. Isn’t that really the future of India-Pakistan that we all really want?

It is going to take Little B decades to understand the complexities of India-Pakistan relationship. I just hope that before she does, she doesn’t fall for the biases that I hold. I hope she looks at Pakistan with clearer glasses than mine or of any newspaper for that matter.