As I was leaving Pakistan, my thoughts were on the warmth I had received, the many friendly people I had met but equally so on the intimidation I had faced from some quarters, writes Meena Menon, The Hindu's Islamabad Correspondent who was expelled by Pakistan.

Little Amjad stands outside the Bari Imam shrine in Islamabad, thrusting plastic bags for sale through the barbed wire fence. Like the other boys with him, he doesn't go to school.

He makes Rs.100 a day selling the thin and brightly coloured bags for Rs.2 a piece '" no fuss over micron thickness here. As he looks at me with hope, my camera gives me away. He thinks I am a tourist, which means dollars. He grins in disappointment when I tell him I am Indian but he's excited to have met one.

Even the female security guard asks me a lot of questions about India. In the women's section in the shrine, many of them tell me it is an honour to have met someone from their favourite nation.

Coming right after I was told to leave Pakistan in a week's time, it couldn't have felt better. This was how it was when I left for Pakistan in August 2013. After landing in Islamabad around midnight, we went to buy a can of drinking water from a chemist, where we experienced our first taste of welcome.

From then on there was practically no one who didn't exude charm or warmth; the sinister exceptions came much later. With a visa that was restricted only to Islamabad, and which had to be renewed every three months, the paperwork was enormous; the many trips to the External Publicity (EP) Wing, our contact point, were meant to tire us out. Even there they were nice, always ready to offer a cup of tea and words of solace that the visa would be renewed.

Read more on Hindu