South Asian Peacemakers

I learned about Saima Pirzada only a short while ago. I learned about her from my friends Sameer Khokhar and his business partner Mahesh Punjabi, who are legends in the world of Vlogging in Pakistan, as well as in the support of minorities of all kinds in the country. It is heartwarming to see a sensitive and always cheerful young woman working hard to not just show minorities in her country in a sympathetic light, but also put in a lot of effort in her choice of music. Her husband seems to prefer staying anonymous and he only makes a brief appearance along with her occasionally, but she must enjoy his wholehearted support because the work is absolutely top notch. Please follow the young couple and support their efforts at peacemaking.

While several other peace bloggers who are from Pakistan are either university students or young professionals, Sohail Balkhi is someone who has worked in several countries, before returning to his country to work for peace. He helps students and newcomers to the workforce prepare for interviews and so on via motivational videos in addition to featuring interesting vignettes about both Pakistani's majority Muslim community as well as minorities there. What I find heartwarming is his always positive outlook and his frankness in not editing out uncomfortable aspects of history, even while he maintains this state of mind. His viewpoints about social media and instructions for newcomers to Vlogging are especially good starting points for those interested in taking this up either as a hobby or full time, and my guess is that his ideas are likely to have helped and influenced several others who have taken to peace blogging.

The first peacemaker whom I would like to feature is a young gentleman whose name is Sameer K. His videos feature several interesting subjects focused upon life and culture in Karachi and in Sindh. Sameer Bhai is a Muslim, but he goes out of his way to seek friends from the Hindu minority in the area and show the world their way of life. Together with this, he brings movie reviews when he can (the recent tense situation between India and Pakistan has hurt the entertainment and sports industries on both sides) and there is always something interesting to look forward to in his posts. His channel is updated almost daily, and the recent features of Pakistan's tiny Hindu majority city of Mithi and of the Tharparkar area have been beautifully done. A must watch. Languages: urdu and SIndhi. Hindi speakers would understand everything that is spoken. Occasionally, he has Gujarati speaking guests.