Born in Lucknow, but still from Pakistan | India News

It was unsettling, coming to know that even though I was born and brought up in Lucknow, I was not from Lucknow actually.Police uncle says I’m from Pakistan.Renewing a passport would have been a simple exercise, except the part where you need police verification. I have had the pleasure of meeting many policemen as part of my profession, mostly ‘affable’ I had thought. Still do.But then, what do you say when the policeman asks you: “Where are you from?” I told him confidently: “Lucknow.”“No,” he says. “I mean, where are you from?” he raises his eyebrows a little, apparently scrutinising my face suspiciously. I am confused. So, I tell him: “I was born and brought up in Lucknow.”He sifts through my documents, holds up the Aadhaar card and again asks: “Where do you originally come from?”“Do you mean where do my grandfather and great-grandfather come from?” I ask.“Yes,” comes a terse response, to which I reply: “Pakistan.”“Oh, so that’s why you were not telling me. Sahi bhi hai, kyun batayenge (Why should you tell anyone if you are from Pakistan),” he remarks. medium92276398I’m left speechless. He continues browsing through my documents and a little while later says: “Theek hai, jaiye, ho jayega aapka (Ok, you may leave, your verification will be done).”All’s well that ends well? I’m not too sure. Because, by the time I reach home I have a weird feeling in my stomach and a heaviness in my heart.So then, I reluctantly go to my father and pose a few questions. I get to know that my grandfather was a government servant, working with the Indian postal service. At the time of Partition, he was sent to Jamshedpur and then to Unnao. My father, who was about four years old then, had his schooling in Unnao. He shifted to Lucknow in the 1960s for his graduation and post-graduation from Lucknow University.Thereafter, he was selected through the Union Public Service Commission and retired as a director at the Geological Survey Of India (GSI). He was posted in Lucknow, though was mostly out of Lucknow for months on field postings and for a while was also working at the GSI headquarters in Kolkata (then Calcutta).I was born in Lucknow at Queen Mary’s Hospital under King George’s Medical University (then KGMC) and had my schooling in Lucknow. I have stayed in Lucknow mostly, except for a two-year stint in Bengaluru and a few months in Noida.However, never had I thought till now that I was not actually a Lucknow boy.Still thinking, what must have prompted the ‘affable’ policeman to have made such an observation.Never had I ever in the past been questioned on the right to call Lucknow my city. I have travelled to many cities in India and even to the US, always proud that I was from Lucknow, the city of ‘tehzeeb’ and the ‘pehle aap’ culture. Nowhere was I asked where I was ‘originally’ from. medium92276369Things though have changed, it seems. The past few years have witnessed an uncanny darkness apparently clouding even educated minds. Social media posts are becoming louder and clearer, each new day. Our WhatsApp groups, even of close school-time friends, have become bolder, not caring to hold back despite knowing that people of all religions are part of the group.I remembered, when during a recent interview Sadhguru told me that the hatred is not really on the ground, but actually “super magnified” by the media, I agreed only partly.Yes, two close school-time friends meeting at a coffee shop would just be happily talking about shared memories rather than bothering about their religion. But, “on the ground”, many are openly backing and, in fact, celebrating the hate-mongering, venom-spewing netas. We are all discussing food choices or clothes. Suddenly, people seem to be scared of eating even mutton.Try pointing out that all this is destructive for our social fabric and is pushing the country towards a scary future, pat comes the standard response: “Go to Pakistan if you don’t like it here.”So, do we really endorse anybody asking an elderly man to show his Aadhaar card, then beating him up mercilessly to death if he cannot do so? That elderly man who died could have been anybody. What right does someone have to even ask another person to prove his identity, or religion? Do we all have to carry our Aadhaar cards everywhere, fearing that someone just might ask for it, or beat us up to death if we are unable to show it?Also, what now when you do have the Aadhaar card and show it too, but then somebody asks: “Where are you originally from?” And you reply: “Pakistan.” medium92275553Why is this Pak man living in a UP police station? medium92275562