Brandon Stanton, the famous blogger of Humans of Newyork (HONY), concluded his Pakistan series today. The series on Pakistan started on 30th July last month and continued till 15th of August.
Brandon during his time in Pakistan captured some brilliant moments through his camera lens which left almost everyone in awe.
The Pakistan series shed a light on the side of Pakistan that was unknown to the world in general. Many westerners simply lashed out at their media for keeping them blind towards this marvelous side of Pakistan.
“I never knew Pakistan was green or had trees; I always imagined it as a dry, brown, barren land”, said Richelle Koeppe while expressing her earlier view of Pakistan inspired by the excessive negative portrayal of Pakistan in the western media.
“The mindset of the people of Pakistan is beautiful. They have strong values and I wish we could hear more of the good and less of the bad from the media. Thank you HONY, for showing us a brighter side to Pakistan”, said Melissa Sparling.
“Mainstream media cheats us about Pakistan…they report like there is no life in Pakistan”, commented Laurent Kalonga.
Most of them expressed their desire to visit Pakistan after Brandon helped break the false and scary mirage created by the media and Hollywood creations such as Homeland and The Brink.
The most unbelievable thing was that a large number of Indian fans of HONY were amazed to see this side of Pakistan. After seeing Pakistan from such a different angle, a lot of them simply wished they could visit Pakistan.
“As an Indian I never saw this side of Pakistan because after partition of India all I ever heard or read is that they are our enemies but after reading the stories of Pakistanis all I feel is that it’s just people living there who are no different than people residing here”, commented Ajay Kumar, an Indian fan of HONY.
“Love from India for people of Pakistan. Thank You HONY for showing us this side of Pakistan”, commented Pravan Raj from India.
“I am from India. My whole life I didn’t like Pakistan but by looking at all these pics I feel they are same people like us. I hope and pray one day India and Pakistan will look each other like brothers not likes enemies”, commented another Indian named Rohit Vashishtha.
Pakistani fans on the other hand, were simply over the moon at such a brilliant and accurate projection of their country.
“As a Pakistani, its actually the first time in my life that I see my country’s name associated with beauty and love instead of terrorism, hatred, and politics”, commented Sarah Haider Karrar.
“Finally, someone from the west, showing a bit of ‘real’ Pakistan. Thank you Humans of New York for letting the world know, what we’re really made of and for doing such a wonderful job”, commented another Pakistani named Ammar Ahmad.
Before concluding the Pakistan series, Brandon helped create a donation page on IndieGoGo for Syeda Ghulam Fatima to help her in her cause of ending bonded labour in brick kilns. The donation call started with a goal of $100,000 dollars received $63,000 in less than four hours from 1930 donors.
The HONY page on facebook has close to 15 million followers who now have a different and positive view of Pakistan, all thanks to Brandon Stanton.
