Dubai diaries: The very first meeting
Dubai, 2016.
"Mere Sapnon ki Rani kab ayegi tu" , the delightful voice of Kishore Kumar greeted me as we got into a taxi in Dubai. I was taken in by a pleasant surprise because it was after an extremely long time that I was hearing Kumar's melodies, more so in a place hundreds of miles away from home..
Soon the track changed, giving way to more songs from Sharabi and Padosan. "You have a great collection of songs sir, I could have never imagined getting to hear these outside India", I said to the driver, naturally assuming him to be from India.
He inferred I was an Indian from this comment and said in Hindi, "Maam hum Pakistan se hain lekin Bollywood ki toh baat hi kuch aur hai" (I am a Pakistani and love Bollywood).
"Oh wow! From where in Pakistan?" , We asked him visibly surprised. "Multan", he replied.
This was the first time I met anyone from Pakistan and I had tonnes of questions for him.
We talked everything right from his hometown to cricket, food and even Shahrukh Khan. He suggested several dishes to try while we were in Dubai; but sigh it was our last day in the city.
The conversations seemed so natural that one could never feel talking to anyone different; he just felt like someone of our own, someone from a place whose description you can easily relate to, who shares the passions of cricket and food — just another simple guy from a humble background who was here in Dubai with lots of aspirations, who wished to earn for a few years in UAE before going back to his family.
We were now at the airport and disembarked the taxi, exchanged pleasantries and bade our new friend goodbye. Our short visit to Dubai had come to an end but the songs of Kishore Kumar and the memories of this conversation continued to chime in my head for a long time.
I don't know what was so special about this conversation that I am penning it down. Maybe it was just the simplicity of it that makes it apart. Maybe it was how naturally the conversations flew with a stranger, having a warm talk with someone across the border and not feeling the slightest of aberrations that the national relations are marred with. Maybe it was just the feeling that how effortlessly all of us humans fit and connect to each other.
"Mere Sapnon ki Rani kab ayegi tu" , the delightful voice of Kishore Kumar greeted me as we got into a taxi in Dubai. I was taken in by a pleasant surprise because it was after an extremely long time that I was hearing Kumar's melodies, more so in a place hundreds of miles away from home..
Soon the track changed, giving way to more songs from Sharabi and Padosan. "You have a great collection of songs sir, I could have never imagined getting to hear these outside India", I said to the driver, naturally assuming him to be from India.
He inferred I was an Indian from this comment and said in Hindi, "Maam hum Pakistan se hain lekin Bollywood ki toh baat hi kuch aur hai" (I am a Pakistani and love Bollywood).
"Oh wow! From where in Pakistan?" , We asked him visibly surprised. "Multan", he replied.
This was the first time I met anyone from Pakistan and I had tonnes of questions for him.
We talked everything right from his hometown to cricket, food and even Shahrukh Khan. He suggested several dishes to try while we were in Dubai; but sigh it was our last day in the city.
The conversations seemed so natural that one could never feel talking to anyone different; he just felt like someone of our own, someone from a place whose description you can easily relate to, who shares the passions of cricket and food — just another simple guy from a humble background who was here in Dubai with lots of aspirations, who wished to earn for a few years in UAE before going back to his family.
We were now at the airport and disembarked the taxi, exchanged pleasantries and bade our new friend goodbye. Our short visit to Dubai had come to an end but the songs of Kishore Kumar and the memories of this conversation continued to chime in my head for a long time.
I don't know what was so special about this conversation that I am penning it down. Maybe it was just the simplicity of it that makes it apart. Maybe it was how naturally the conversations flew with a stranger, having a warm talk with someone across the border and not feeling the slightest of aberrations that the national relations are marred with. Maybe it was just the feeling that how effortlessly all of us humans fit and connect to each other.
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