The realities of Bigg Boss, Wasim Akram and Pak-India relations

Though we scream and shout about how different India and Pakistan are from each other, in terms of culture or traditions, that is simply not the case!

Faseeh Mangi October 15, 2010


It never fails to amaze me how Pakistanis and Indians pretend to be indifferent to each other but keep their eyes and ears open for any tiny bit of news that might be floating about each other.

There are countless people who we can thank for this.

Let’s see, there’s the cricket teams, as no Pakistan-India conversation is complete without at least three mentions of the last match played or how unfair the Indian Premier League was for not letting any Pakistani play this time.

That doesn’t mean India has ‘recognised’ the immense talent we have in the Green Land. They got Wasim Akram to co-host a show with Sushmita Sen, with rumours that the two would tie the knot as well. Though those two denied the rumours, Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik did actually get married.

The latest and probably the most shocking of all is Veena Malik and our very own Begum Nawazish Ali being participants in the widely-watched “Bigg Boss” show. They have made more news thanks to Shiv Sena protesting against their participation than through their performance. Veena Malik has used this platform to go on and on about how brutal her relationship with Mohammad Asif was whereas Begum Nawazish has continued to do what she’s best at, flatter all those around her while putting on a forced show of modesty. I wonder how many more feathers they’ll rustle.

Though we scream and shout about how different we are from each other, in terms of culture or traditions, that is not the case. We’re more alike than we are willing to accept. Both Indians and Pakistanis enjoy festivities with big celebrations, fancy clothes and elaborate shaadis. The bonds of friendship and relatives reach out all over the world regardless of where you are and when people from the two nations meet elsewhere, it’s like the reunion of long lost brothers and that is exactly hopefully what “Bigg Boss” will prove...aside from raising television rating points and oh yes... the publicity.

WRITTEN BY:
Faseeh Mangi A senior sub-editor on the business desk of The Express Tribune who is currently finishing a masters degree in Business Administration.
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (61)

Amna | 13 years ago | Reply Forget it, I am not even going to reply anymore. You obviously do not understand my comments and so I am not going to kep trying to explain what I mean to you. You are obviously defensive and are going off on huge tangents. Like I have mentioned before this page has been going on for too long, and I am not going to focus on this anymore.
Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @Amna, I guess it must be really boring for you but I want to reply for the last time. "My point was, you act like security is main concern Indians have with Pakistan yet you claim not to know the Army Chief’s name.WIth all the Indians on this site all the time I think you would know by now." --> I have an academic in Pakistan and emotional interest in the well-being of India. It would be a perfect world for me if what ever happened in Pakistan did not affect India security wise. But, its not a perfect world,is it. Lot of the guys who are commenting here too have an interest in Pakistan for some or the other reason like me. Considering there are 81 million Internet users in India and most of them are English educated Pakistani websites like this one should have been swamped by now. As I said, I've observed only North Indians intensely are emotional about Pakistan. Rest dont give a rats behind for cultural and geographical reasons. "Pakistan is a Muslim country with nuclear weapons" --> They knew in advance in the 1990s and even in the 80s that Pakistan was a Muslim country and was getting help from China on nuclear weapons. Even in the early 1990s they had a pretty good idea that both India and Pakistan had nuclear weapons. India even had to abort a Test in the early 1990s as the Americans found out about it and threatened to sever aid. Anyway, what I trying to say is America willfully ignored Pakistan's nuclear weapons program in the 80s and 90s and is not ideologically against it but for other reasons. Stop this victim mentality and own up. US could have destroyed Pakistan's program but it ignored it since Pakistan was its ally and there is no reason why US should be threatened by Pakistan's program since Pakistan has specified that it is India-centric and will probably never have long-range missiles which can reach the US. If America was ideologically against a Muslim country then why it is supplying $60 Billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia? Regarding the strategic location thing, Pakistan's location is not strategic but tragic. 3000 people died in 2009. I dont see what is strategic in that. Yes, US uses Pakistan's land to get into Afghanistan. But, what will happen to this strategic leverage over US once they go out of Afghanistan in 4 to 5 years from now? US will remember all the Pakistani patronage to Taliban and promptly stop aid on some pretext of the other, which Pakistan is deperately depending on. If Taliban come to Power in Afghanistan, then US will blame Pakistan and even punish it using economic and military means. So, my dear, Pakistan's location is not a strategic location. Atleast its not going to be in a few years. If Pakistan's location is strategic then it is for India. Pakistan acts as the buffer against the extremely volatile and violent Afghanistan. It is taking all the hits in War on Terror and will be blamed by the world for the mess in Afghanistan. The Afghans hate Pakistan already for screwing up their country. I am so glad that Pakistan lies geographically where it does.
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