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Four-year-old Safwan Sarfraz of Lahore, Pakistan, recently went to New Delhi for heart surgery, one of thousands of Pakistanis who are crossing the border for health procedures, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent Mark Magnier.
“I thought they'd be mean to us, think we were the enemy,” said Safwan’s father, Sheraz Sarfraz. “But we met many nice people who even bought food for us. You don't behave like that if you harbor hate in your heart.”
Sarfraz’s initial fears are common among Pakistani patients, Magnier writes. Some friends and relatives of heart-transplant patients even go to the extent of expressing concern that their hearts are from Indians.
“How ridiculous! A heart is a heart no matter where it comes from,” said Nida Rashid, a British-educated journalist from Lahore. “But if you’re educated in Pakistani schools, taught to hate anything India in the textbooks, you have this sort of thinking. It’s high time people realize that India has a lot to offer and they should make use of it.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips and more.]
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‘A Heart Is a Heart’
Compiled & partly written by MELVIN DURAI 
December 2011
Four-year-old Safwan Sarfraz of Lahore, Pakistan, recently went to New Delhi for heart surgery, one of thousands of Pakistanis who are crossing the border for health procedures, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent Mark Magnier.“I thought they'd be mean to us, think we were the enemy,” said Safwan’s father, Sheraz Sarfraz. “But we met many nice people who even bought food for us. You don't behave like that if you harbor hate in your heart.”
Sarfraz’s initial fears are common among Pakistani patients, Magnier writes. Some friends and relatives of heart-transplant patients even go to the extent of expressing concern that their hearts are from Indians.
“How ridiculous! A heart is a heart no matter where it comes from,” said Nida Rashid, a British-educated journalist from Lahore. “But if you’re educated in Pakistani schools, taught to hate anything India in the textbooks, you have this sort of thinking. It’s high time people realize that India has a lot to offer and they should make use of it.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips and more.]
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