India, Sept. 28 -- Is it no longer acceptable for an honest upstanding Indian to feel at home in Pakistan? After all, tens of millions of us were born in provinces that today comprise Pakistan. At the time, it was the only home we knew. My parents, sisters and many of my cousins were born there. In her nineties, when Mummy said she wanted to go home, it was Lahore she was alluding to, not the farm in Chattarpur where she lived. Yet last week, when Sam Pitroda innocently said he felt at home in Pakistan, a TV channel attacked him for being unpatriotic. "I've been to Pakistan and I must tell you I felt at home," he said. "I've been to Bangladesh, I've been to Nepal and I feel at home." Over 15 minutes of a 25-minute news bulletin was devoted to excoriating this innocuous comment. The BJP spokesperson lit into him. The fact Pitroda also feels at home in Nepal and Bangladesh was ignored. The truth is Pakistan was also "home" for LK Advani. He was born and schooled in Karachi. In 2005, when Khurshid Kasuri, then foreign minister of Pakistan, invited Advani to visit, I was asked to convey his response. Happily, he said, and I'd like to bring my family. All of them accompanied him. The statement Advani issued on the eve of his departure for Pakistan eloquently underlined how important the impending visit was for him. "At a personal level, this visit has a profound significance to me. Having been born in Karachi, the visit connotes a kind of return-to-the-roots for me ... I pray to God Almighty that He shows our two countries the path towards enduring peace." However, I'll never forget what Advani reportedly said in Lahore, that he always believed there is a little bit of Pakistan in every Indian and a little bit of India in every Pakistani. It was a heart-warming truth that is undeniable as far as Punjabis and Bengalis are concerned. Today's TV channels, however, would have skewered Advani. To their nationalist ears this would have been tantamount to treason. But let me speak for myself. I've been in Pakistan countless times since 1980, when I first visited. On every occasion I've felt completely at home. In their Punjab, the language, the food, the traditions and customs, the houses and the way people live is indistinguishable from us. We even curse with the same words or, paradoxically, use them as endearments! Pakistan might feel strange to a Tamilian, Malayali or Kannadiga - but then so is Delhi and Srinagar - yet not to someone from Amritsar or Ludhiana. To an extent it's true to say how an Indian relates to Pakistan is determined by the part of the country he comes from. Itanagar has little in common, Aligarh arguably has little to separate it. What has particularly saddened me is the churlish and unsportsmanlike behaviour of the Indian cricket team recently in Dubai. Their refusal to shake hands with the defeated Pakistani team simply wasn't cricket. If that very British phrase means anything then, surely, it includes the simple courtesies of etiquette and decorum? India's decision to circumvent obligatory good manners made the winners look small. I can understand not wanting to play against Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack. It would not have been the first time India refused to participate in a championship because it didn't want to associate with the other team. Forsaking the Davis Cup finals in 1974, because we refused to play against South Africa, is the most memorable instance of this. But once you have agreed to play, shaking hands with your opponents is not just customary, it is civilised. To be honest, I'm surprised no one else has made this point. But then I'm also surprised Pitroda was dragged across the coals for saying he felt at home in Pakistan. Indeed, there's a lot I'm learning about my countrymen that surprises me....