The second anniversary of the 26/11 attacks is just behind us. Like the smell of smoke in the air after a blaze is put out, the anti-Pakistan rhetoric still hangs heavy in the air
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The second anniversary of the 26/11 attacks is just behind us. Like the smell of smoke in the air after a blaze is put out, the anti-Pakistan rhetoric still hangs heavy in the air. Understandably, the simmering rage at the old enemy came to a boil as the city remembered the day it was held to siege.
At the recent Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, when the Pakistan hockey team played against India and lost, the Pak outfitu00a0 complained that they were finding it difficult to play in India because of the vitriol spewed by the crowd, who continually reminded them of the 26/11 connection. At a recent function at the Mahalakshmi Turf Club, a speaker said that there were certain sportspeople that Indians admired, including Sania Mirza, till they married somebody across the border.
Do Indo-Pak couples feel they were naive to think they could fight history? Are such marriages a challenge?
Today, some Indian-Pakistan couples married and living in India might have it incredibly tough. I wonder if their lives are something like an old story I read on BBC some time ago, a story called West Bank lovers.
u00a0The story is about a couple, a Jewish Israeli woman called Jasmine Avissar and a Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar. Osama and Jasmine met at their workplace and got married three years later. First, they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there. Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult. "Our marriage was a human thing. We just fell in love," says Jasmine in the story. "The society around us is making it political."
Osama tells me why he has also given up on his own people. "There were threats. People said if I brought my wife here, we'd be in danger. Even my friends say that I am a traitor. It makes me wonder whether I want to be a Palestinian any more." "Some see me as some sort of Israeli envoy. It's a **** feeling." Both say they were naive to think they could fight history. The story ends with Jassine leaving for Europe with Osama supposed to follow her soon.
While the India-Pak political situation is very different from that of Israel-Pakistan,u00a0 the human situation may have some parallels, certainly. Do Indo-Pak couples too feel they that were naive to think they could fight history?
u00a0Even as they live in the acrimonious present, do they contemplate a complicated future? Marriage is a challenge but with these cross border marriages, one thinks even more so.
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