Response to Nani Ma, by Alisha Mohammed

I feel as if many of us can relate to “Nani ma” in our own ways since a lot of our parents or grandparents were not born in this country. Having a generation gap along with a small cultural difference considering both people were not raised in the same country creates a sense of a shift in a family. However, I think the similarities we experience in facing the same problems mentally are what makes us realize we aren’t so different and helps us better our connection with our family. Considering all differences like age and birthplace, the conflicts that we face are what makes us the same and being able to connect with someone else about these conflicts we face every day can strengthen our bonds. Our relationships with our elders lie in our conflicts and our realization of how we have gone through similar problems at different times in this world.

Response to, “The Border: A Double Sonnet”, by Alberto Rios

In the poem, “The Border: A Double Sonnet”, Alberto Rios represents the idea that we have divided ourselves with imaginary lines drawn on a map creating chaos between people on each side of the border. A line that stands out to me is,

“ The border is a line that birds cannot see.”

The way in which it is portrayed that not even animals divide each other and create chaos with imaginary lines like humans do made me question if we behave worse than animals. I can personally relate to this poem because my great grandfather’s life was greatly affected by the border between India and Pakistan.

After the British colonizers left India, India was divided into India and Pakistan. The border between India and Pakistan went through Panjab which divided Panjab into Eastern and Western Panjab. This inflicted a lot of violence between both sides of the border as Hindus and Sikhs were being killed on the Pakistan’s side of the border whereas Muslims were being killed on India’s side. My great grandfather from my moms side lived in Western Panjab which was in Pakistan and had to move to Eastern Panjab due to all of the violence. This had to be done very fast which meant my great grandfather had to leave a lot behind when he moved. He had a lot of gold buried beneath his house in Pakistan and had to leave it all behind and was never able to get it back. My great grandmother had to live for the rest of her life stressed out about how much gold was left underneath her house in Pakistan which was very difficult for her family and her to deal with . My great grandmother passed away due to all the stress she had to carry with her for the rest of her life about everything she had left behind. It is evident that borders placed between countries divide people and create chaos which greatly impacts the lives of those on both sides of the border.

Citations

Featured Image: https://i.pinimg.com/236x/62/8c/f6/628cf64e494f34c412ca738de54ce48c–punjabi-culture-farming.jpg

Image 1: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBXjH72pNCfiarWAKr1W5II9Id12JeqZM2sQ&usqp=CAU

Image 2: https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-6a87fd9d0c19afba5b278719ccdd300f.webp