It’s just no-man’s land that separates them

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 28

“Aap Pakistan se hain? Are you from Lahore? Oh! My grandparents are from there, too.” 

This is the reaction that Sarah, a 20-something college student from Lahore, Pakistan, has been getting ever since she first set foot on the Indian soil late last night. “It is my first visit to India, and this reaction from almost every second person I have met here has stopped surprising me. This outpouring of warmth and generosity from Indians, especially Chandigarh residents, has charmed me. I wish I could live here,” says the chirpy young girl. Her friend Khadija, too, is overwhelmed with the love and affection displayed by city residents to her and her 19 friends. They are ordinary students from Pakistan. And just like any young adult from this side of the sub-continent, they have curiosity in their eyes and love in their hearts for their neighbours. What separates them from college-goers from India is just a piece of no-man’s land, commonly known as the Indo-Pak border and the warring governments of the two neighbouring countries. The 19-member ‘Girls for Peace Group’ from Pakistan that arrived in the city last night to be part of the 11th edition of the Global Youth Peace Festival is the voice of its nation and talks openly about the bitter relationship between India and Pakistan.

“We all are upset because of the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan. The perpetual fight between the two nations is due to lack of sincere and sensible leadership in both countries. We, the youth, only have love in our hearts which has grown deeper and stronger with this visit,” remark Alveena and Syeda, students from Lahore. 

Syeda Shiwal Raza from Lahore says, “Coming to India is like coming to a second home. There is no hatred at all in the hearts of general public of the two countries. I wonder why the governments can’t stop fighting.”

Aliya Harir, young peace activist from Pakistan, who is spearheading friendship initiative ‘Aaghaz-e-Dosti’, sums it up aptly. “Unfortunately, to hate each other is how we define our nationalism in both India and Pakistan. People fail to realise that I will not become any less of a Pakistani by loving Indians. What will make me anti-Pakistani is supporting the Indo-Pak war,” she says, before signing off.

We can’t agree more!