A lot can happen over Skype!

The first interaction with my partner for Building Peace Project was on 2nd March,2014, a Sunday. Once we were told about each-other by the Organization, we exchanged a few mails giving each-other a brief introduction and decided a day to have our first chat.  Interestingly, that was the very same day India and Pakistan were battling out in a One Day Cricket Match and here we were, playing, stating, analyzing our thoughts. Fatiq and I, both, aren’t that much into cricket, but yes , as the norm goes, we also,like our other countrymen, look forward to the match between the men in blue and green. We earlier decided to have a talk sometime in evening but because of the match, we re-scheduled it at 10 PM IST. 

I forgot that I had to talk to him at 9:45 and it was mom who gave me the Aren’t-you-forgetting-something look whilst signaling to the wall clock. “shit!” Was the very next word from my mouth as I rushed to my room, opened my laptop and logged on to my Skype account at 10:05 PM and dialed for the peace builder across the border. 

I was curious as well as tense and when I am in this deadly combination of moods - I speak a lot. As a result, it was me who started the conversation.

“Hey! Aakash this side.”

He reciprocated the same from other side.  

He described himself as a student of Economics and Political Science in the Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS), which I was pronouncing as ‘L-U-M-S’ and he corrected me on it saying it is ‘LUMS’ as it is ‘LUNGS’.

The Lahore University is a world within itself, much different to the external environment. It is a place cherished by each student as they can be totally themselves without being worried about the regulations of the society. The infrastructure of the university is awe-some (I checked the pictures before hand), the reason behind it was it being funded by the US along with central government of the same country. Pakistan for me, as I pictured it, truly was a deserted place and having a university like LUMS in the heart of Pakistan blew me away and made me realize how wrong I was in picturing the other nation the way I did. He further told me about Lahore and Islamabad being the two most developed cities of their country. On being asked about the safety measures, he assured Lahore being the safest place in the country, as after the partition, a large part of army generals moved to Lahore. Also, it is the residing place of the elite club, therefore, it is a well guarded place to live in.

The next issue we discussed was the exorbitant fees structure of Indian Private Colleges and that of Pakistan, which further led to the discussion on the Indian population. His question “Do you have people in Delhi who die of hunger? “ left me paralyzed for half a second. He was in total awe of my country and for half an hour or so I could not understand why is he being so *Goody Good* about India? The answer was the difference of prevailing socio-political situations on the both sides of borders. The same feeling was growing inside me for Pakistan – a land of misconceptions. I could feel his inquisitiveness mixed with excitement and his immense love for “Bollywood” flicks. From Shahrukhwe went on to movie Rajneeti, he asked me whether I have seen it and is the political situation the same like it was in it? My answer was in denial to the first part of his question but then not to the second part of it as I realized we were talking about India being politically obsessed country, which was not ignored by the people across border even. He was fascinated by how we Indians, LIVE, EAT, BREATHE politics. I gave him an insight then into Delhi’s politics and how a third party defeated the two giants of Indian politics.

He was shocked! Yes, much as I was once the results of elections were out. 

He asked me, Congress did lose?

I was like Yes Man. (Silence prevailed for a minute) 

Then, it was his turn to show me the face of politics of his land, where the current PM was the TIGER. He was supporter of Imran Khan, whom I also wanted to see as the face of Pakistan. The talk then revolved around the political standards and eligibility of our leaders, on which India had a better stand. He respected Manmohan Singh too for his academic record but he was also of the view “Sonia Gandhi” controlling him. Thanks to our vibrant Indian Media which wonderfully weaves the stories. He asked me about the assassination of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and the reasons, of which I gave him satisfactory answers (I suppose) and he made me understand on how Mr. Bhutto and Madam Indira Gandhi had a pact on Kashmir and his successor Mrs. Bhutto’s assassination and the present leader, the young Bhutto’s style of functioning.

We shared details of our daily schedule and our ideologies. He is a Neo- Marxists , in complete opposition to me, i.e. Liberal. He loved reading the works of Marxian leaders especially of Leo Tolstoy, the person whose students were Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi ( I never knew this, it is him who made me know this ). I told him about the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),New Delhi and it being the hub of Marxism. Further I gave him a brief description about my Political Science professor-Mr. Abdul Rahman as well and to my surprise he was so glad to hear about a university having Marxian values. We found out, we share few commonalities like we both are Feminists with love towards social work along with being bibliophile who supports homosexuality and hates mathematics. Though he is student of Finance but was interested in Literature. He always gets a great grade in finance though he dislikes it. I was delighted to know that he cleared his Medical Entrance Exam but finally opted for the present course. (This was the time we were laughing hard, as we could so relate to our situations). He is the Editor of Rabt, a college run newsletter too. Our discussions on how we want a peaceful future took a very beautiful turn when he shared a quote of Rumi which was told to him by his professor and that was “The road to Mecca and Mandir are the same”. This, this amazing line made me smile and smile and the moment I came out of my “ Appreciating the line mode “ I realized we were talking about how the both countries were once a same land. Even now, people on the both sides are similar whether in their attire, the way of living and thoughts.  I was aghast to know that people in Lahore face 11-12 hours of power shedding and approximately 80% of its GDP is spent of military rather than on its people. The one positive part of Lahore city would be strict enforcement of traffic rules, where not even a single policemen takes bribe and how he especially bought Bluetooth earpiece as he don’t want to get caught by the cops while talking and driving. I told him about my love for Urdu and how much I adore the language, further we discussed on ' Mirza Ghalib ki Haveli ' in Delhi.

After having one and a half hour of chat, we realized that we haven’t followed the talking points given to us for this discussion and we finally had a look at it. Then adhering to it, I got to know he has 2 siblings- one sister (10th Standard) and one brother (1st standard). Mrs. Nadeem is a housewife and Mr. Nadeem is a Chartered Accountant (Now, I know the reason of him scoring exceptionally well in finance- it’s in his blood). The discussion ended up on a good note by him answering the question “What I hope to give my counterpart during this session” and answer was- A better picture of Pakistan. 

They say ‘Well begun is half done’ and I think in these two hours of chit chat with lots of laughter, information sharing and not to forget tinge of emotions we had a great start to our Building Peace Project.