A president who cooks Pakistani dishes and reads Urdu poetry

(foto Dawn)

A very special American president, this Barack Hussein Obama. He has Kenyan relatives, lived in Indonesia and seems to speak at least some words of Bahasa Indonesia. And now this from an interview with Anwar Iqbal in Pakistan's daily 'Dawn', yesterday:

“Any plan to visit Pakistan in the near future?”

“I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,” said Mr Obama.

“What can you cook?”

“Oh, keema … daal … You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.

“You read Urdu poetry?”

“Absolutely. So my hope is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,” said Mr Obama.