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
7 comments:
what is rong with that mansur ....india and pakistan are very close to each other thats why ppl mix btw them
Change your T-shirt with another one written on It I am Pakistani :)
BTW; 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!
I 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
its 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!
Mansur
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 ;)
Just 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.
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