Sohrab Barkat, and Waqar Bagga, are two young Pakistani journalists working for the portal siasat.pk.
Sohrab has taken many video interviews of me, which can be seen on youtube, and Waqar has also taken a few.
Recently I sent this joke through whatsapp to both :
” Ek baar ek bandar ne dekha ki ek chooha zameen par idhar udhar daur raha tha.
Bandar ne usse poocha ki tum kyon idhar udhar daur rahe ho ?
Choohe ne kaha ki abhi abhi khabar aayi hai ki is taraf ek shikaari aa raha hai sher maarne.
Bandar ne kaha magar tum to sher nahi chooha ho. Phir kyon dar rahe ho ?
Chooha bola ” Magar meri maan hamesha kehti hain ki mera beta sher hai ”
Having narrated this joke, I added below in the same whatsapp message to both ” Sohrab Barkat is a chooha sher ”.
Two days later an indignant Sohrab called me on whatsapp and said ” That rascal Waqar Bagga has shared your joke with all employees in our office, and even with many others, and now I have become a laughing stock in my office and elsewhere, all fellow employees and others calling me ‘Chooha sher’. It is all because of you ”.
I replied ” You Pakistanis must develop a sense of humour. When someone called you a ‘Chooha sher’ you should have smiled and said ‘I am proud to be one’.
I then told him the story of Biharis and Odiyas becoming very upset and angry at me, because of something I said in lighter vein a few years ago
