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Indian man names sons Bharat, Pakistan
I abhor hatred, the carpenter says.
Gurmeet lives with his wife and three kids - two sons and a daughter - in a modest home in Maulot town of Punjab, India, located 70km from the India-Pakistan border. His sons -- 11-year-old Bharat and 10-year-old Pakistan -- are reminder of a throwback era when Partition didn't happen and both people lived in harmony and peace. It is this overriding emotion that prompted Gurmeet to blur the divide with his loving gesture.
"I abhor hatred," said Gurmeet, who was born after Partition. However, the anti-Sikh violence that swept India in 1984 is still quite fresh in his mind. He was 10 when his family migrated from Haryana's Hansi district to Malout.
"I was very young, but I remember hearing about the violence following Indira Gandhi's assassination. The talk of violence all around left an indelible mark on me. Anger does not exist in my body. Forgiveness does," the National Herald quoted Gurmeet as saying.
"I decided that I should do something to spread love and forgiveness among people, nations and neighbourhoods. So, I named my elder son Bharat and the younger, Pakistan," he told the daily.
He adds that nothing gives him more pleasure than to hear Bharat say, "Pakistan is my brother."
"People used to berate me. They used to say that Pakistanis would kidnap him and many other ridiculous things. But we, including my wife Lakhwinder, didn't yield to pressure. Overtime, people understood the idea behind my children's names and now they have no problem calling my younger son, Pakistan."
However, when the time came to admit both sons to school, Gurmeet was forced to rename Pakistan as Karandeep, due to pressure from school administration. But he is still called Pakistan at home and by his friends.
Interestingly, Gurmeet has named his small carpentry shop 'Bharat-Pakistan Woodworker'.
"The soul cannot be at peace if the mind is full of hate towards things, people or nations. It is as simple as that. I may be illiterate and poor, but I believe in the power of love towards all," pointed out Gurmeet.
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