| Written by Smriti Vij, |
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1778  |
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 It was my first stay in a hostel; my first visit 'abroad' and I brought back memories of an experience to be cherished for the rest of my life. I had heard stories of my father's family shifting from Pakistan to Srinagar and from there to Jammu each time India and Pakistan fought on the battlefield in the 1960s and 70s. Stories about where you belong to often entice you towards taking on journeys to trace your roots. As I stayed in Delhi all through my life, having grown up hearing that my father's family moved from Muzzafarabad, a visit to Pakistan would be a special one.
After a flying time out 35 minutes, we were out of the plane and on to the road, welcomed warmly by students and teachers…the first rendezvous with our hosts. We were travelling on the brightly lit Lahore highway and it took me a while to register in mind that it was not Delhi, not even a different city but a different country altogether. It was night, the air was cool, the people were warm….an entire family of women our age waiting to receive us. As we reached Kinnaird College for Women, our home for the coming week, familiar red walls welcomed us (familiar because Lady Sriram College for Women, which we represented has red brick architecture too). I was the lucky one amongst our group of 11 who was put up as room-mate with two of our hosts from Kinniard, that meant I could spend more time interacting with the 'other'.
Post midnight sessions on issues ranging from what we want from life and whether we get it, whether our societies permit us to dream and what kind of dreams do we see for ourselves. This I felt, was a true exchange. An honest exchange of ideas, thought, perception. At one level, it was two college students talking, at a closer level, it was two women talking.
While leaving for Lahore, my mind was too full with questions about the place and its people…they will be receptive surely, but will that be out of diplomacy or will it be genuine. A week tightly packed with site seeing, discussions and copious amounts of food, passed and I felt that it sure was..genuine..as what I saw was selfless hospitality translated into actions. From, "lets switch beds, mine will be more comfortable for you", to, "don't take out any money please, I'll pay for the snacks", as though our friends were trying to make up for having grown in a world with strained relations and the onus is on our generation who havent grown witnessing the gory partition, only heard and read stories of the same.
Most conversations with one another revealed that people across the border were willing to talk, well aware of the fact that though we do lead similar lives in many aspects, differences too, did exist.
Wajeeha Javed, was twenty, my age, engaged to get married on completing her graduation….I held most of my fair and frank, one-to-one discussions with her…ranging from Islam to Hinduism, from why she couldn't care less to "slap hard any man acting funny on the street". Her views seemed familiar. I also got to sneak out for an exclusive shopping trip with her a day before we had to depart, travelled with her on bus, where there were separate sections for women and men, and yes got all the discounts I wanted.
All through the seven days I tried my best to replace Hindi words with as much Urdu as I could, and it was heartening being in another country where there was not much of a language barrier, at least when you spoke. But were there any barriers at all? On my way back to what we call 'home' this was a question I was still hoping to find an answer to. But my idealistic self made it clear that when you interact one-on-one, person-to-person it should be without the burden of politically erected barriers created on land or textbooks, for, we exist as individuals after all, irrespective of which cultural ethos or religion we represent.
So on our flight back home when the Pakistan International Airways plane was to take off and the prayer was being read I didn't wonder as to why must they say a prayer before a plane takes flight, instead I closed my eyes and realised , it's yet another question of the universality of faith and we must appreciate one another and our respective beliefs…beyond that we are all individuals, representing the diversity of the same planet. - Smriti Vij
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