E-Paper
Delhiites living the Isloo dream
Two Delhiites are becoming a talking point in Pakistan's Capital.
Two Delhiites are becoming a talking point in Pakistan's Capital. Set up last month, a blog called The Life and Times of Two Indians in Pakistan(
indiansinpakistan
.
blogspot
.
com
) is a diary of how two Indians are making sense of a country which some of their countrymen think of as an enemy nation.
The bloggers - Lamat and her husband Rezaul - share nuggets of daily life in Islamabad, fondly called Isloo by Pakistanis.
The husband's day job was responsible for the couple's move across the border in 2007. In an e-mail interview, Lamat said, "We started this blog because we wanted to document our experiences, which we think are unique. It's a fun way to connect with friends and family. We also want to shatter stereotypes about Pakistanis and their lives, and fill readers in on the pluses and minuses of being an Indian in Pakistan."
Each blog post is deceptively simple: taking out the little nieces of domestic helps to Pizza Hut; bringing home a cat (and asking her if she's an Indian or a Pakistani); spotting the bootleggers.
Chattily written, these posts provide a peek into the 'other' Pakistan, a land where real people tumble through joys and anxieties that won't be out of place in Delhi. Almost all the followers of this site are Pakistanis. If these Delhi bloggers become a rage in Islamabad, this will be a true instance of people-to-people contact helping in bridging the India-Pakistan divide.
