Hello friends,
I am wearing 3/4 beige linen pants (clam-diggers), my university in Texas' tshirt, my baseball cap, my sunglasses and listening to my iPod. I enter this internet cafe, this one being different from the previous one I frequent to. There is a cute lady sitting at the desk. Her name is Faree.
Mansur: (Entering the netcafe) Hello ma'am. How are you?
Cute Lady at desk: (Sleepily) I am fine sir.
Mansur: Are there any computers available?
Cute Lady at desk: (while fidgeting on her computer) Yes, number 5.
Mansur: (with his iPod in his ears!) Number 9?
Cute Lady at desk: No, 5!
Mansur: Oh, 5, ok, thanks.
After checking up on my emails and blogs, I printed out two documents, on which there were two Pakistani names.
Cute Lady at desk: (bringing the printed papers to me) Are you from Pakistan?
Mansur: Yes I am. Are you too?
Cute Lady at desk: Yes
Mansur: Whereabouts?
Cute Lady at desk: Multan.
Mansur: Oh, cool, I am from Lahore
Cute Lady at desk: You know what, you don't look like a Pakistani.
Mansur: Really?
Cute Lady at desk: Yes. You look like an Indian.
Mansur: (offended) Indian? How so?
Cute Lady at desk: You look like someone from Bangalore.
Mansur: (Exasperated) Huh? Where did you come up with Bangalore?
Cute Lady at desk: Well, you look like a really smart person, and Indians from Bangalore are smart people.
Mansur: (Unhappily) Ok, thanks. (All the while, I am fuming inside at yet another person thinking I am Indian!)
Aaaargh! I have had enough of people asking me: are you Hindi? Inta Hindi? What do I need to do to prove to people I am not Indian but a Pakistani? Paint my face green and white, with the crescent and star?
Mansur
what is rong with that mansur ....india and pakistan are very close to each other thats why ppl mix btw them
ReplyDeleteChange your T-shirt with another one written on It I am Pakistani :)
ReplyDeleteBTW; people used to ask me if I was Pakistani back in England :P
There is nothing wrong...but its as if people fail to see me as a Pakistani, thereby implying that there are no Pakistani people looking like me. It's somewhat discrimnatory, because almost always the next thing many people say is that "you don't look like a Pakistani because your looks are not like that of a Pakistani." But who I am to argue with these people who have already formed pre-conceived notions of what a Pakistani and an Indian looks like!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that India and Pakistan were one country prior to the Partition, but people like from Pakistan and Indian can usually tell who is a Pakistani and who is an Indian, just like the Arabs can tell who is from UAE, from Saudi, from Yemen and so on.
Mansur
i can tell of yr pakistani or indian or from bangladesh
ReplyDeleteits easy to tell,,but sometimes thee are exceptions
wear shlwar qameese no one can get wrong lol
i got to be guessed from at least 15 countries lol
Even if I wear a shalwar kameez, people will still say Inta Hindi? Did you know when the Taxis were being Saudized here in KSA, no passengers were willing to travel with a Saudi taxi driver, and suddenly, they started to wear the shakwar kameez, and people though they were getting into the taxi with a Pakistani/ Indian driver!
ReplyDeleteMansur
huh!! mansur! im frm lucknow india :( it's no so baddd being an indian. heck, u shud b proud :d hehe.. i mean 'cmon it's not everyday that u get categorized in so many diff nationalities .. i think it'd b super cool if some1 called me a pakistani! i'd b like.. heyyy! how cool.. though im originally frm india, i can pass off for a pakistani ;)
ReplyDeleteJust by chance I landed on your blog and was going through your articles. After reading your name and the writeups I was almost sure that you were an Indian, until I reached this particular article. When I started reading it I was hoping that you would write that you are an Indian. You do sound like an Indian not a Paki. We can easily make out Pakistani stuff. By the way I'm an Indian living in Jeddah.
ReplyDelete