On a taxi trip in Melbourne…My driver for the night was Mushtaq from Lahore in Pakistan…. Mushtaq bhai came to Australia 15 years ago and now is a proud father of two kids….
After initial exchange of “aap kahan sey hai”… Topic moved to bollywood… Mushtaq bhai made a controversial statement that all that we use in bollywood is urdu and claim its hindi….He pointed a few examples of “dare de jigar” etc ….
OK sir two can play the same game… Without missing a beat I asked him about the tan in Pakistan….There was a moment of silence in the cab when I made him aware of the fact … That tan is actually Sanskrit word sthan (meaning place) in Pakisthan…. Same as Afghanistan that comes from ashav –ghan –sthan (place of people who tamed horses)… Or kandhar is ancient city of Ghandhar and people from there were called Ghandarvs.... Same goes for Tajikistan, Turkmenistan.
And then made him aware of the fact that Mirza ghalib roamed the streets of chandani chowk in delhi while writing shairi in khalis urdu or popularly called Hindustani then…..
Mushtaq mia it is because of this forever fight of “your and mine”…. Me and you are sitting in melbourne instead of having gupshup over sawaiyan in Lahore or chaat in Delhi….
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