A Friendship beyond the Borders

Ram is getting married in Mysore, India, to his Swedish partner. I imagined the vibrant colors, the music, and the rituals blending Indian tradition with Swedish simplicity.

• It is deeply sad that people who met in distant lands, who built genuine friendships free of prejudice, cannot freely cross a border to celebrate each other’s most important life moments.
•  To the authorities in India and Pakistan, I say this with humility and sincerity: this is the 21st century. The world is interconnected in ways unimaginable to previous generations.

By Abdullah Usman Morai | Sweden

Today, 2026-02-22, my dear friend Ram is getting married in Mysore, India, to his Swedish partner. As the rituals begin under the warm South Indian sky, as flowers are woven into garlands and sacred vows are whispered around the fire, I sit thousands of kilometers away, carrying both joy and a quiet ache in my heart.

I have known Ram since 2008. We were young guest students then, navigating new lives in Stockholm. We had arrived from different corners of the world, South Asia especially, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. We were strangers in a cold Nordic city, bound not by borders but by homesickness, ambition, and the shared uncertainty of youth.

In those early days, friendships formed easily. We studied together in libraries, cooked meals that tasted like memory, argued about politics we barely understood, and laughed at our own broken Swedish. Many of those friends slowly disappeared. Some returned home. Some moved to other countries. Some simply drifted away, as life often demands. But Ram remained.

Life took him to Gothenburg for work, where he stayed for years before eventually returning to Stockholm. Our meetings became rare but meaningful. We would speak occasionally, catching up on careers, on the subtle ways life reshapes our dreams. Time thinned the frequency of our conversations but never the sincerity of our bond.

When Ram called to tell me he was getting married in Mysore and invited me to join the celebration along with our Swedish friends, I felt a surge of happiness. I imagined the vibrant colors, the music, and the rituals blending Indian tradition with Swedish simplicity. I imagined standing beside him, laughing about our student days, teasing him as he stepped into this new chapter of life.

But imagination was as far as I could go.

Though I’m Swedish citizen, I am originally from Pakistan. And we all know that relations between India and Pakistan are not ideal for welcoming each other’s citizens with ease. A border that is merely a line on the map becomes, in reality, a wall of paperwork, suspicion, and near impossibility.

And so, while our Swedish friends board their flights to India with excitement, I remain here, happy for my friend, yet quietly saddened by a distance that is not measured in kilometers but in history.

There is a deep irony in our story.

It was Sweden, a land far from our subcontinent that allowed us to understand one another. In Stockholm, an Indian and a Pakistani shared classrooms, meals, and dreams. We debated cricket scores and politics over coffee without fear. We discovered that our languages overlap, that our humor is similar, that our mothers worry the same way, and that our songs carry the same melancholy.

Thousands of kilometers away from home, we understood our neighboring countries better than we ever could while living side by side.

How strange that it took a foreign land to make us neighbors in spirit.

If India and Pakistan had warmer relations, how many such friendships would flourish naturally? How many weddings could be attended without anxiety? How many shared festivals, academic exchanges, business collaborations, and cultural celebrations could take place without being overshadowed by mistrust?

Today, as Ram ties the sacred knot in Mysore, I think not only of his marriage but of all the invisible knots that remain tied too tightly between our countries.

It is deeply sad that people who met in distant lands, who built genuine friendships free of prejudice, cannot freely cross a border to celebrate each other’s most important life moments. Weddings are not political events. They are human events. They are about love, continuity, and hope.

And hope is something our region desperately needs.

To the authorities in India and Pakistan, I say this with humility and sincerity: this is the 21st century. The world is interconnected in ways unimaginable to previous generations. Students travel across continents. Businesses operate globally. Digital communication has erased distances. Yet two neighboring nations remain separated not just by a border, but by rigid policies that punish ordinary people more than they protect national interests.

It is time to grow beyond inherited hostility.

Here are some humble suggestions for both governments:

1. Ease Visa Policies for Civilian Travel:

Introduce simplified, transparent, and time-bound visa processes for weddings, funerals, academic events, and tourism. Special short-term event visas could allow people to attend personal milestones without bureaucratic nightmares.

2. Promote Educational and Cultural Exchange:

Universities, artists, and researchers should be encouraged to collaborate. Joint academic programs and cultural festivals can humanize each side in ways political speeches never can.

3. Establish Humanitarian Travel Corridors:

Families divided by borders should not suffer for decades. Create dedicated channels for family visits and life events, monitored but humane.

4. Encourage People-to-People Diplomacy:

Civil society initiatives, youth forums, and business councils can build trust from the ground up. When citizens see each other as humans rather than headlines, fear begins to fade.

5. Depoliticize Personal Occasions:

Attending a wedding or celebrating a festival should never feel like crossing enemy lines. Separate human relationships from political disputes.

Security concerns are real, and no nation should compromise its safety. But compassion and security do not have to be opposites. A mature state can balance both.

Ram’s wedding is a symbol. It is the union of cultures, Indian and Swedish, made possible by openness and mobility. It shows what happens when borders are not barriers but bridges.

Sweden gave us the space to become friends. It allowed a Pakistani and an Indian to sit side by side, to learn, to grow, and to respect one another. If such understanding is possible in a distant northern country, why not between neighbors who share history, language, and bloodlines?

Perhaps one day, I will travel freely to Mysore, not as a foreigner viewed with suspicion, but as a friend attending a wedding. Perhaps one day, Ram will visit Pakistan without layers of bureaucracy. Perhaps the next generation’s children will read about hostility only in history books.

Until that day arrives, I send my blessings across the borders.

Ram, my friend, as you begin this new journey of love and companionship, may your marriage be filled with patience, laughter, and mutual respect. May your home be a bridge between cultures, a small example of what the world could look like if we chose connection over division!

And to those who are in power on both sides: grow. The world has changed. Your people deserve better. Let weddings be attended, friendships be honored, and neighbors be neighbors again.

Today, I celebrate you from afar, Ram, with happiness in my voice and a quiet sadness in my heart.

Read: Sindhis Elevating Beyond Comfort

____________________

Abdullah Soomro, penname Abdullah Usman Morai, hailing from Moro town of Sindh, province of Pakistan, is based in Stockholm Sweden. Currently he is working as Groundwater Engineer in Stockholm Sweden. He did BE (Agriculture) from Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam and MSc water systems technology from KTH Stockholm Sweden as well as MSc Management from Stockholm University. Beside this he also did masters in journalism and economics from Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur Mirs, Sindh. He is author of a travelogue book named ‘Musafatoon’. His second book is in process. He writes articles from time to time. A frequent traveler, he also does podcast on YouTube with channel name: VASJE Podcast.