As NSA talks between India and Pakistan were suspended, another kind of cross border conversation was taking place.
The vocalist of Indian Ocean band, Rahul Ram along with Varun Grover and stand up comedian Sanjay Rajoura produced a song to the tune of Kishore Kumar’s ‘Mere Samnewali Khidki mein’ (from Padosan). Their song ‘Mere Samnewali Sarhad Pe’ is a delightful and gentle parody of the mirror image pathologies in both our countries.
In response, Muhammad Hassan Miraj, who identifies himself as a Major in the Pakistan Army, wrote an equally disarming reply, sung by Mujtaba Ali, with Ali and Kamran on guitar while Gul Durrani directed the video.
Here’s to cross border solidarities!
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Chaand ke tukkde karne se…khidki hi toot sakti hai! Here’s to understanding and a full moon…with a hopefully brighter future.
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Beautiful. To me both these songs say that if only we could remain the simple, uncomplicated people we are, without the jargons of diplomacy, nationalism or academese, things would be fine. We would see that we are the same, we have the same struggles and the same strengths. That is what Gandhi called ‘heart unity’. It is really simple. But it is too tempting to find someone to hate or someone to be scared of. And then we get lost in our complicated ideas and ideals and destroy any hope for a real, genuine human contact which these videos are about.
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“the talks are off! the talks are off!”, they say,
“we have nuclear weapons and so do they”
fine, we won’t talk, but at least we can sing
we’ll replace the barbed wires with guitar strings
brothers will be brothers, no matter where they live
life’s not something to take, it’s impossible to give
so let’s forget our pride and our ideas of glory
our two nations are two notions of a single story
can we please have Rahul Ram as foreign minister
would surely be more musical and far less sinister
than the decidedly hawkish Mrs. Sushma Swaraj,
and can Pakistan elect Muhammad Hassan Miraj?
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oh! i loved it. so simple and human.
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And the dialogue continues –
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