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It was a little more than a week back or so, I was standing near my building that my cell phone rang. I remember it was also the ‘haldi’ ceremony of one my frieds who was about to get married. I picked up the phone ‘Kartik Krishnan’ flashed the name on the windscreen as i received the call…

Me - Hey
KK - Whats up?

General sweet nothings of 5Ws and 1H were exchanged as KK directly came to the point and asked me as to where I was? “Near my building” was my reply… “Come lets meet” are u in a mood to have a drink? I was, as i most of the time am… and we decided to meet in this middle market bar opposite Vikhroli station…

I was meeeting KK after quit some time, an it was really nice to see him… As the session progressed and we talked talked and talked about cinema, films, Ramu, Anurag kashyap, No Smoking, Sriram Raghavan, Johnny Gaddar, Sourabh Narang and everybody that we could think of, our topic came down to my visit to Karachi for the 6th Kara International Film Festival… that kartik all of a sudden got intersted in how my trip was… as i started to narrate him my experience he suggested that I write about it on PFC and here I am…

Before the news was spread amongst my immediate group of friends and colleagues who were happy as well as unhappy for various reasons best known to themselves… one comment which I clearly remember was “Boss, don’t even think of visiting Pakistan, as you will never get a visa to the US” my reaction was and how the fuck does that matter? and going to US in itself is no benchmark of having ‘arrived’… In any case i d love to go there just to visit and see the place remains a different issue… But the general impression was that I was visiting a so called ‘enemy’ nation, a muslim country… I think to a larger extent the kind of hype that the media has created amongst us citizens is unbelievable as we will see what the ground reality iactually is… and because there’ so much animosity towards pakistan was also one of the reasons that I personally wanted to go and see the place myself and meet the people there and experience the place that was very much a part of our own…

The best thing that happened to me was I was invited there as my film was nominated, else I dont think I d have ever been able to go there… though Now I am looking forward to go there again and again and again…

Mr. Yusuf Hussain, this very young at heart actor friend of mine got to know the news and immediately he told me “son, dont you worry, everything will be taen care of as my friend Dr. Rais Ahmed Alwi, poet and the Registrar of Karachi University is staying in karachi itself and he will guide you and you will not have to worry about anything else…

And that is what actually happened… firstly I when I landed in Karachi, I never felt then or during my entire stay that I was visiting a foreign land, as even the air smelt the same as it does in India… the look of the place was almost as similar as it is here… though I felt it to be a little more open and fresh… unlike India where u just cannot get any relief from the crowd…

Dr. Alwi had came to receive me along with his two beautiful grand children, As i was supposed to stay in a hotel, he ensured that I stay in one of the very best hotels that i could afford (though he did not take the money I offered his son in law Mr. Adnan Mirza just speaks volumes as to what kind of people the pakistanis’s are. Not that there arent any criminals therem, but than they are here too, and maybe more in numbers…

But, the point being, I must have met close to say 40/50 different people as i used to Visit dr. Alwi’s office at the university as I had expressed my interest in going and visiting the Mass communication department of the Karachi University whcih I must say was very well equipped…

People were talking my own language and whoever I was Introduced by Dr. Alwi was genuinely happy to have met me and almost everybody had a a story to narrate as some or the other relative of theirs was staying in India… It was so nice to see them give u a warm affectionate hug. Whenever i met these lovely people it always felt that they were meeting heir relative whom they have never met for years together…

Kara film festival was fun as i met Moiz Kazmi who took me around Karachi and treated me for the lovely dinner in one of the malls there, extremely developed, I met Hasan Zaidi Sahab, the festival director who was ever busy with some work or the other, Khadija was always there, in fact i was the one who was missing from the scene as i wanted to make the most out of my visit to karachi as i wanted to see and feel the place…

I had a great screening going for me, though i wish it was screened in the evening as the attendance of the people was much more as compared to in the afternoon, more people would have got to see it and the venues were two so the audiences were split in these to different locations…

Dr. Alwi along withg Adnan Bhai and one of his colleagues came to see the film with me, it was really nice of them as they too loved my film In fact Dr. Alwi in the Q & A session could not stop praising my film. I personally loved the film on Mukhtaar Mai… so beautifull shot and executed and sensitively handled too by the director…

Post my screening I was invited for ‘Dawat’ to Dr. Alwi’s house, and ‘DAWAT’ that was… as i don’t think i have ever been treated to such great hospitality as Tayaaba Bhabiji, Dr. Alwi’s Daughter in law went all the way out to get everything on the dinner table that she cooked the whole day all by herself… we had a great evening that night as the entire family was present there to ensure that i dont feel out of the place as we chatted about films, people, partition and what not… and never ever did any of us feel that we were strangers as there was so much of love amongst us… there was no Indians or Pakistanis, there were people, people who wanted to love and live in peace and harmony…

The next day was my flight back to india, and i had decided to buy some scarfs for my various friends who are girls so i had requested Tayyaba Bhabi to get me some ten scarfs nice and sexy looking. Sriram is fond of collecting match boxes and he had asked me to get the match boxes from karachi… and i didnt want to miss these two things… scrafs were safe as bhabiji was supposed to manage…

But in between, Adnan bhaijaan has decided on some plans for me to go around and he had also managed to fix a meeting for me to go and meet the owner of ARY channel to discuss my future film projects if they were intersted in, plus he also took me to his own office a software firm which he is running very successfully, Gudiya his wife was writing a novel and side by side also ran a travel agency, Adnan Bhai was brought up in the US…

The whole day was busy… as i was hunting for match boxes, Adnan Bhai took me around karachi saying that if i wanted to do some shopping for myself than he d help… I was sure that i didnt want to, yet he took me to the market there… and i was like maybe he wants to buy something for himself, as i didnt want to and i had made that clear to him…

Cut to at the shops he asks the shopkeeper to get some nice branded clothes as he goes to get them he tells them “suno bhai, inke size ka lana” (listen brother, get his size), and i was like in full protest that he cannot do that… as it is Adnan bhai had refused to accept any money from me that I owed the hotel guys, it in itself was embarassing… But the only thing he kept saying was “arrey Surya Bhai, ye toh Mohabbat hain, yeh toh Monabbat hain” (Bro its love) and he had his own way… he bought me two pairs of T shirts saying one from ME and one from Gudiya, his wife…. I was speechless… didnt know what to say, how to react, Adnan bhai just picked the packet, and put it in his car… Such was time spent with Adnan Bhai… I felt like as if I am visiting my relatives house for the first time, as there is/was a tradition in India that if we went to our realtives house for the first time Our uncles and aunty’s bombarded us with gifts…

At Dr. Alwi’s house we quickly finished dinner, again lovely food that Bhabiji had made herself…. (yummy stuff guys, u have to be there to believe it) time came when I had to say final Good bye…

Adnan Bhai was supposed to see me directly at the airport… As i was getting ready to leave came another surprise Bhabiji came along with the scarfs, and as i offered her the money she totally refused… now this was not happening… I insisted and Dr. Alwi tries to pacify saying, “relax she is you sis in law, so just give up and listen to her”, he also had a favour to ask, he had bought some stuff for his friend Yusuf Hussain Sahab to be delivered in Bombay, and i told him that I will be more than happy to do so… so there was a perfume bottle, and some lovely Kurta Pyjama’s bought by his daughter and his Daughter in law for Yusuf Bhai… and there was this another beautiful Kurta that he said was for ‘ME’….

My bag was full, It didnt have any space to accomodate stuff as Dr. Alwis and bhabiji both took my bag and packed all the goodies they bought for me and Yusuf Bhai as i kept staring at them thinking and they call pakistan our enemy nation…

Sorry dude, not mine!!!