Dr. Kuldip Nayar, an eminent Indian journalist, talks about horrors of partition and shares his own experiences of the greatest migration ever happened in the history. He has authored 11 books and regularly writes for Pakistani and Indian newspapers.
My long-nurtured dream of visiting the land of my grandparents took ages to mature into reality; and my sojourn there seems to have melted away in seconds. Despite crossing many hurdles which came between me and a seminar which took me to Pakistan last month, I was effervescent with the undying spirit of setting foot on Pakistani soil.
The journey to Pakistan was really wonderful. Initially there were certain doubts, inhibitions and apprehensions but when we crossed the border on foot, we were overwhelmed with joy. The same culture is on the other side of the Line of Control. My wife was also accompanying me. At the entry of Lahore, there is famous Shalamar Bagh built by Mughal ruler Shahjehan. The beauty and architecture is still intact.
Days after the recent skirmishes at the Line of Control, when the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan was threatened, an alternative reconciliation was underway in Lahore. Music became the metaphor of shared ground between the two countries, challenging divides between them that can become violent.
It is not yet possible to determine who is to blame for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The jury is still out. There is no doubting the inept handling by the Indian government and its advisors.
If you live in Lahore and choose to go North-West, you will be in Gujrawala in about an hour’s time. And if you move from Lahore to the East, on the same Grand Trunk (GT) Road which Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan Warrior-King, carved out, in about the same time you could be standing in Amritsar—except for the ordeal of crossing the Indo-Pakistan border.
Since 1947, Kashmir had been offered toffees and chocolates to stop its tears as one does this to a small kid weeping. No one realized that the agony of Kashmiris lies deep inside their hearts. Since last 17 years of insurgency, approximately 100,000 people have been killed. Thousands of young boys and men between the ages of 15-65 were taken to the custody for investigation by security forces but their return remains uncertainty for their families.
“They are like my two eyes,” says the fabled Pakistani folk singer Reshma, speaking of India, the country of her birth in 1947, and the country she has lived in since infancy. Similar emotions are echoed by another lauded singer, the Mumbai-based Seema Anil Sehgal, known as the ‘Bulbul (nightingale) of Jammu and Kashmir’. Last May (2004), she dedicated her CD, recorded at the first ever concert in Mumbai on the poetry of Allama Iqbal, the man credited with the idea of Pakistan, to “India-Pakistan friendship”.
Dr. Kuldip Nayar, an eminent Indian journalist, talks about horrors of partition and shares his own experiences of the greatest migration ever happened in the history. He has authored 11 books and regularly writes for Pakistani and Indian newspapers.
My long-nurtured dream of visiting the land of my grandparents took ages to mature into reality; and my sojourn there seems to have melted away in seconds. Despite crossing many hurdles which came between me and a seminar which took me to Pakistan last month, I was effervescent with the undying spirit of setting foot on Pakistani soil.
The journey to Pakistan was really wonderful. Initially there were certain doubts, inhibitions and apprehensions but when we crossed the border on foot, we were overwhelmed with joy. The same culture is on the other side of the Line of Control. My wife was also accompanying me. At the entry of Lahore, there is famous Shalamar Bagh built by Mughal ruler Shahjehan. The beauty and architecture is still intact.
Days after the recent skirmishes at the Line of Control, when the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan was threatened, an alternative reconciliation was underway in Lahore. Music became the metaphor of shared ground between the two countries, challenging divides between them that can become violent.
It is not yet possible to determine who is to blame for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The jury is still out. There is no doubting the inept handling by the Indian government and its advisors.
If you live in Lahore and choose to go North-West, you will be in Gujrawala in about an hour’s time. And if you move from Lahore to the East, on the same Grand Trunk (GT) Road which Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan Warrior-King, carved out, in about the same time you could be standing in Amritsar—except for the ordeal of crossing the Indo-Pakistan border.
Since 1947, Kashmir had been offered toffees and chocolates to stop its tears as one does this to a small kid weeping. No one realized that the agony of Kashmiris lies deep inside their hearts. Since last 17 years of insurgency, approximately 100,000 people have been killed. Thousands of young boys and men between the ages of 15-65 were taken to the custody for investigation by security forces but their return remains uncertainty for their families.
“They are like my two eyes,” says the fabled Pakistani folk singer Reshma, speaking of India, the country of her birth in 1947, and the country she has lived in since infancy. Similar emotions are echoed by another lauded singer, the Mumbai-based Seema Anil Sehgal, known as the ‘Bulbul (nightingale) of Jammu and Kashmir’. Last May (2004), she dedicated her CD, recorded at the first ever concert in Mumbai on the poetry of Allama Iqbal, the man credited with the idea of Pakistan, to “India-Pakistan friendship”.