Once upon a time, I hated Pakistan......

......hated it enough anyway to turn me into a rabid fan of cricket when we played them. Fanatic and violent enough to wish that our bowlers hit them where it hurt the most. That wish was granted when Tendulkar did exactly that and sent Shoaib Akhtar with his tail between his legs. I rejoiced. After that though my it all went downhill. How can you hate an entity who has become old and weak and dying? No, no let me assure you, I didn’t become pacifist, but the it just wasn’t any fun to hate Pakistan, no longer fun to point fingers at it as the outside hand. Javed Miandad had been replaced by the genial Inzamam and Afridi who were genuinely likeable.

Now however the mantle of bearing the weight of my hate goes to.....The People's (liar liar) Republic (how ludicrous) of China (the only honest thing about its name). It started ten years ago when I realized on my repeated shopping trips to Tulshi Baug in Pune that there was something different about toys and clothes and even plastic containers that I was browsing for. They were all made in China. Right from pencil cells to computers to electronic peripherals to cell phones and erasers and the popular toys were all flooding in from China. Even the Ganpati statues were being imported from that China. I hated it. The decorative items were made in china too. Sharpeners, novelties, cheap toys, items of clothing and even food like chocolates and bubble gums, lamp shades, glassware, crockery, watches; the local shops were being glutted with these and the quality was suspect. I would prefer a cycle made in Pakistan but China?? Now way.

Be local buy local, this became my motto. Then came the Arunachal Pradesh issue. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as its own. It’s like claiming the neighbour’s parking lot as your own when he has in fact paid 13,000/sq ft for it and has the requisite papers. The you also lay claim to the car parked on it since you already have claimed the ground it stands on as your own. Next come the inhabitants of the car. You start showing sympathy for them, try to befriend them, help them and finally also claim them as your own and allege that the family members have been starved and ill-treated. Then you stop the guests from visiting the house because that is allegedly your house so how can you have uninvited and unfamiliar people who ‘claim’ to know those living in the house, when in fact it is you have been living there.

And so on the so forth. However China has been extremely persevering with its claims and consistently building on it, exactly like that of the ‘parking lot’ example. It’s amusing at first, then irritating, then becomes a nuisance until it grows into a dire, serious problem . A problem where the neighbors start taking sides (forget that this problem shouldn’t have cropped up in the first place) and express the sentiment that maybe, just maybe there might be some truth in the to the person claiming the parking lot as his own. You are doomed.

That China has balls to back it is evident from the claims, threats and protests that are more brazen than the ones before. Your disbelief keeps growing until finally you believe what China claims. Bingo, mission achieved!