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aman ki asha Destination Peace

INTERNATIONAL

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

AN INITIATIVE OF THE JANG GROUP AND THE TIMES OF INDIA

A BIRTHDAY CAKE FROM PINDI

recent story on
the Aman ki
Asha facebook
group is a beautiful example of
how the social
media becomes a bridge
across borders and generations when there is a platform
to facilitate dialogue.
Waseem Altaf, 53, a writer
and teacher, who grew up in
Rawalpindi, was struck by a
comment on a friends facebook wall, by Yashpal Sethi, a
retired banker from Yumananagar, Haryana. Sethi
mentioned that he was born in
Rawalpindi. Altaf sent him a
friend request that Sethi
promptly accepted.
Altaf says that although
much younger in age than
Sethi, it greatly appealed to
him to know someone who
was born in this city 16 years
before Partition, knew about
the city as it existed then, and
had to leave everything behind in 1947 just because
he belonged to a different
faith!
He had to abandon the
house in Mohallah Shah Chan
Chiragh where he was born in
1931, comments Altaf, thinking about the young Sethi
forced to leave his childhood,
his books, friends, everything that belonged to him
and forced to go to an alien
land along with whatever was
left of his family, never to return.
But he returned. In 2006

mercial plaza; only some remnants of the old house remained. As he told me, he
took a couple of pictures of
the house but got emotional
and hastily left the place.
Sethi recently asked Altaf
to get some pho-

though there is a border between you and us, we all love

you and everybody across the
Radcliffe line for mankind has
not been able to construct a
barrier so far which can obstruct the human connection.
That same day, Sethi
joined

rior as well as the interior, and

sent them. Sethi was euphoric. He later told Altaf that
for several days he remained
enraptured in those photographs and would reconstruct his child-

A view of the rear street

where some of the old
houses still exist.
A recent picture of
Mr. and Mrs Yashpal Sethi.

A picture of the packing

containing the cake sent by
Waseem Altaf to Sethi Saab
from his old home,
Rawalpindi.

at the age of 75 Mr. Yashpal

Sethi along with his son
Rakesh Sethi visited Pakistan.
He went to Mohallah Shah
Chan Chiragh, Rawalpindi to
recollect his childhood. He
saw the structure which used
to be his house which was
then transformed into a com-

tographs of his house, for his

82nd birthday that was approaching. Armed with his
camera, Altaf set off to find
the house. Sheikh Mahmood,
a trader whom Sethi had met
during his 2006 visit, helped
him find it. Altaf took several
photos of the house, the exte-

hood days which were

scattered all over those pictures.
On September 7, at 9 am
Altaf called his friend Raajan
Soni in Chandigarh and asked
him to get a birthday cake delivered on his behalf to Sethi.
He also told Aman ki Asha
facebook group members that
it was Mr. Yashpal Sethis
82nd birthday and requested
people to send him birthday
wishes.
He concluded: In the end
let me say Sethi Saab that al-

B R I E F S

Mumbais Swaang sings Faiz

umbai-based cultural band Swaang has recently composed and
sung Faiz Ahmed Faizs poem Kutte (Dogs) that they are keen to
share with Pakistanis - see the video at: http://bit.ly/15LFALx.
Swaang is a cultural group whose members include people from varied
fields actors, musicians, poets, writers, cinematographers, and academics, many of them working with the market-driven Bombay film industry, but whose hearts continue to pull towards progressive politics,
explains Kutte video director Ravinder Randhawa, who also works as a
screenwriter.

today as much as it was when it must have been written. The poor are becoming poorer and rich richer. All around the world, the poor are becoming completely irrelevant, inconsequential and unimportant to ruling
classes. Without much of a dignified existence they are nothing more than
stray dogs, says Randhawa.
The song has been rendered with due permission from Faiz Trust and
Faiz Ghar, who have been very kind and generous towards us, he adds.
Overall the response has been quite good. We wanted to reach out to
youngsters and I think we have been successful to some extent. A lot of
young people who had no idea about Faiz Saheb, have called us and written to us enquiring about him and wanting to know more about him.

The band comprises music composer Rohit Sharma, actors Pankaj

Badra and Swara Bhaskar and Prabhat Raghunandan. Swaang sings
mostly protest songs, besides theatre and poetry readings. The bands
earlier song Ma nee Meri was a response to the brutal Delhi gang rape on
Dec 16, 2012.
Kutte is the first in the series of Faiz poems that the group plans to
compose. The poems contemporary relevance enables it to stand true

ifteen year old Indian runaway Jitendra Arjunwar, apprehended by the

Pakistani border security agencies on August 12, 2013 and charged
with trespass under the Foreigners act, will be produced before the Session Court, Umerkot on September 12.
According to jail officials, Jitendra is suffering
from sickle cell anaemia and needs blood transfusion, which they arrange frequently. He has been
taken for medical tests outside the prison.
However, jail administration is not giving child rights
defenders permission to meet him and ascertain the nature of his problems. Kahsif Bajeer, Sindh regional head of the Society for the Protection
of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), said that this is the first time that they
have been barred from meeting a juvenile inmate.
SPARC is waiting for the jail authorities to grant permission for their
lawyers to provide legal support to Jitendra, that they have requested in
writing.

Jitendra Arjunwars ordeal

An astonishing experience
ast month, a
nine-member
team
of
mostly grade 11
students
from
Karachi participated in the Harvard Model United
Nations, Hyderabad. The team,
led by Aqib
Khalique (public
Speaking trainer),
comprised Aniqua
Amir, Babrik Khan, Bakhtawar Atta, Hira Hameed, Sana Ahmed, Uzma
(staff member), Zain Qazi and Zubair Siddiqui.
The students expected to face some hostility because of their nationality, but in fact we didnt feel much of a difference in the way people interacted, says Aqib. The only difference, he adds, was if you edit the dialect of Urdu to a more casual one, it will transform into Hindi (at least
thats how I learned to act like an Indian at times).
The conference itself proved to be an astonishing experience as it allowed us to socialize with those whom we thought to be alien enemies,
only to realize after actually meeting Indians, that there were few differences.
No matter how bad circumstances get, says Aqib, peace loving people, who are in majority on both sides shouldnt give up their desire for a
prosperous and peaceful future in which we learn to co-exist without derailing the rights of the others.

Peace debate update

onfirmed judges at the
First Indo Pak Invitational Debates being held
in Lahore in November
this year include Alfred
Snider, Anne Valkering, Leela
Koenig, Sharmila Parmanand, Harish Natarajan, Tamara Juricic and
Nita Rao, all of whom are well
known in international debating circles, with several laurels and
awards to their credit.
The debates are being organized
by the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
(FAST-NU), in collaboration with
Aman ki Asha.
Aman ki Asha should be applauded for their wonderful work in
encouraging and strengthening debate in the region. Debate is essential to building relations between
nation states using peaceful, non-violent channels, says Nita Rao, current World Universities Debating
Championship (WUDC) Berlin
Champion. Through providing a
forum for discourse between Indians and Pakistanis, Aman ki Asha is
not only allows people to engage in
meaningful discussions about the
big issues such as Kashmir, Siachin,
water and terrorism, but allows for
a network to be built between people in both countries to facilitate
peace and stability in the region.
This is a truly exceptional initiative.
Confirmed Indian teams so far
include National Law School of
India University (NLSIU), National
University of Juridical Sciences

Alfred Snider: Peace is the one strong word

(NUJS), Nalsar
lege.
University
of
Arindam
Law, Raja LakGhosh of Raja
shmi EngineerLakshmi Engiing, Vellore Inneering College,
stitute
of
which is hosting
Te c h n o l o g y,
the World ChamLady Sri Ram,
pionship in DeM. S. Ramaiah
cember, applauds
Institute of
the initiative to
Te c h n o l o g y
encourage healthy
(MSRIT), IIT
discourse and disB o m b a y,
cussion. I urge all
Delhi School
the Indian deof
Ecobaters to come to
nomics, and Arindam
Lahore on NovemGhosh: Be pa
Shaheed
ber 7th, 2013 to be
rt of the change
a part of change, a
Bhagat Singh Col-

Nita Rao: Debate is essential to building

relations..

part of peace and a part of history

when it all happens and we will all
create a new tomorrow.
Alfred Charles Snider, Director
of the World Debate Institute and a
professor at the University of Vermont, is excited about this opportunity to work with young people
from both India and Pakistan who
wish to set the stage for a new period in South Asian history, where
both India and Pakistan work to develop their respective nations and
do so in peace.
I am extremely grateful to the
Jang Group and Aman ki Asha for
supporting these efforts. I have
been using both these sources to
gather top quality news about this
part of the world for a few years
now, he writes.
We are in a position to turn
weapons into words. Let us use this
opportunity to debate for that purpose. We celebrate the culture of debate precisely because it appeals to
an inner longing we have for a new
type of relationship. Those that we
debate against are like us, they all
have things to teach us, they teach
us through disagreement, sometimes they are right and we are
wrong, and we avoid coercion.
Peace is the one strong word with
which the atmosphere of friendship
created among equals has been appropriately named. This is what I am
expecting at this event in Lahore.
The organisers hope that this event
will be repeated annually, in Pakistan
and India alternatively. For more information, email . In India, call Abhijeet
Singh Narwal on +91-95-9540-4560.
The last date for Indian colleges to
register is Sept 11, 2013 but this may
be extended by a couple of days.
aka

Mr. Sethi and notables of

the area, February 2006 just
outside the backdoor entrance to the house.
the AKA facebook group. Welcoming him there Altaf commented: Sir, its an honor for
this group that you have
joined in. We all will definitely
benefit from your knowledge
and experience.
Several people joined in
the discussion and wished
Sethi on his birthday.
Waseem Sahib u r really a
great. I have no word to thank
u for the emotional environment u created on the birthday of of a small and ordinary

man. God bless u, ur family

and friends, responded Sethi.
The following day, he
posted a few photos from his
birthday party, and the cake,
along with a note on how he
had experienced Altafs gesture. He had been standing
near his gate at around 11 am
on September
7th, the day
on which I
was born 82
years back. A
motorbike
stopped at my
gate, two unknown gentlemen alighted
with smile and
said, Happy
birthday,
sir.
Here is a cake
for you, sent by
Mr. Waseem Altaf
from Rawalpindi.
I was surprised and uttered,
Caaake Waseeem Rawalpiiindi holding the wrapped
box. My eyes were moist with
emotions, though the day was
bright. Only two, three months
back Waseem Sahib and I became friends on facebook... At
my request, he sent me over
two scores of snaps of the
house where I was born at
Rawalpindi. How great you are
Waseem Sahib! In the evening, I
cut the precious cake, laced
with unusual love and affection,
ceremoniously and enjoyed it
with my children and grandchildren.
Beena Sarwar

Welcome, Haider
bhai, to Kolkatta
o me Pakistan was
never a country of enemies, but a country
where my Ma lived,
what she called the best part
of her life. She did her graduation (BA) from Sacred Heart,
By Nilendra Sarkar
Lahore, in 1947. She says it is
the most beautiful city she has lived in.
So my feeling and my attraction for the people of Pakistan is
a bit different. It feels very close. So when I came to know about
this Aman ki Asha facebook group, I just jumped into it. I saw
Pakistan through my Mas eyes.
The biggest festival and maybe the biggest carnival happens in
Kolkata during Durga Puja time. According to mythology the goddess Durga along with her four children comes to her ancestral
home from her in-laws place. This is the reason for the celebra-

Haider Ali in Kolkatta with Sonali Chakraborty, one of the

organisers www.aimkarigarline.org
tion. Every locality creates a temporary structure (pandal) to accommodate Goddess Durga and her four children. These structures are decorated with stunning pieces of artwork and ideas are
pulled across the globe. This time when I learnt through Aman ki
Asha that Pakistani truck artist Haider Ali is coming from Karachi,
I just couldnt wait for his arrival. It was September 7 at ICCR,
Kolkata, finally I met this great person and artist.
It was such a pleasant meeting. The man with such an immense worldwide acceptability was so humble. The very first hug,
I could feel the warmth. Our meeting had been delayed by half an
hour, and the first thing that Haider bhai said to me was, Sorry,
got stuck up in jam. I
found it to be such a
touching expression. The
last thing he said to me
was also very personal. We
werent able to converse,
as the media hounded him.
Sorry, I just couldnt give
you enough time, he said.
Never did I feel that I
Pakistani truck art in Kolkatta.
was
meeting someone
Photos: Nilendra Sarkar

from a different country. The entire space was decorated with

miniature trucks and other creations of Haider bhai. The most
amazing experience was when I saw him actually painting a truck
body. Welcome Haider bhai to Kolkata, the Capital of Art and Culture, the city of Joy. Thank you all who made this a possible, and
special thanks to the locality (Hatibagan Nabin Pally) and the person who visualised this, Gopal Halder.
Nilendra Sarkar is an IT professional based in Kolkata.
Email: sarkarnilendra@gmail.com

THE FIRST STEP

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

A peace initiative whose time has come...

Feedback, contributions, photos, letters:

Email: amankiasha@janggroup.com.pk
Fax: +92-21-3241-8343
Post: aman ki asha c/o The News,
I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi

Destination Peace: A commitment by the Jang Group, Geo and The Times of India Group to
create an enabling environment that brings the people of Pakistan and India closer together,
contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.