05 November, 2007

“You’re Pakistani, Aren’t You?”

Annie Zaidi remembers:

The first unpleasant memory associated with being ‘mozi’ came in.... the fourth standard?

The memory is a vivid one. I was at the ‘matka’ - our school didn’t have fancy filters then; we just drank from an earthen pot, using our palms as a cup - with Rimjhim, a junior in school. (She was a very pretty girl and would ask her fan-friends to tie her shoe-laces, when they came undone on the playing ground.)

She said, you’re Pakistani, aren’t you?

I said, no. Of course not.

She said, no, I know that you people are Pakistani.

Even then, I knew that I was not Pakistani. I was such an overt patriot that I cringe to think of it now (had saare jahaan se achha by heart - the whole six verses). But in that instant, looking at her face, her smugness, the authority with which that child of eight (I think) spoke, I also knew that there was nothing I could say or do to win this particular argument.

Almost two decades later, I cannot forget. She was a child and I have forgiven. But I have not forgotten.

Annie’s post, examining what it has meant for her to be Muslim in India, in a non-political, personal sense, is fabulous. Rather than quote any more from it—what would I pick, there is so much there that is so good—I urge you to read the full thing.