Summary Gurmeet Singh named his sons in the hope that the two nations would come closer one day. Photo: TTI
(Web Desk) - Within the last 70 years, India and Pakistan may have shared an unpleasant relationship on political and strategic fronts, but ‘Pakistan’ and ‘Bharat’ from the Malout town of Muktsar in India have a different story to tell.
Twelve-year-old Bharat Singh, and his younger brother Pakistan Singh, who is 10, share a bond like any other siblings share. Their father Gurmeet Singh of Malout said that his grandparents at the time of Partition migrated to Haryana from Pakistan.
Singh and his family hate violence, having seen conflicts between the two countries. “The idea of naming my sons Bharat and Pakistan is to see the two nations share bonhomie,” he said in an interview to The Tribune India.
Gurmeet is illiterate and owns a shop named Bharat Pakistan Wood Works on the Fazilka-Delhi national highway in India. “Naming my kids did not go down well with some people, who warned me that Pakistanis would abduct my son. Some said it was wrong to name a child Pakistan in our country. Even cops had come to my shop, which I opened about two years ago and asked me to remove the word Pakistan from the hoarding installed outside. Once I told them the idea behind this, they returned,” he said.
The brothers in a conversation with the newspaper shared some stories about how Pakistan used to protect Bharat from their mother when she scolded them. When asked how the younger one feels when someone calls him ‘Pakistan’, the 10-year-old said, “It is my name and I am absolutely fine with it. We sometime fight with each other while seeing India-Pakistan cricket matches on TV.”
Gurmeet Singh added, “Pakistan’s school had objected to his name. So we had to enroll him as Karandeep. But he is Pakistan for us.”
He hopes one day the border between the two nations would open.
