At the fifth Joint Convention of the Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy, everyone's eye was on a young Karachi-based journalist, Nasir, his wife and two minor daughters, honorary child delegates to this gathering in Bangalore When he had first sounded them out about going to India,6-year-old Zoya had innocently piped up,"Hamara India!"…
Formal schooling had yet to make Zoya self-conscious about such an unpatriotic slip, and she was easily forgiven for parroting the refrain from an advertising jingle heard constantly on Zee's satellite transmissions. For, the Indian television channel's footprint takes in all of Pakistan.
What would Zoya remember of that week of April in Bangalore? Perhaps her childhood memories would include the sentimental cry of "Ek Mata Do Santan" (one mother,two children) rendered by some delegates. More likely, however, it would be the more imaginative articulationto be found in Brothers of Chichibaba, an anti-war children's storybook released at the Forum which Zoya took home. Written by scientist D P Sen Gupta, the tale is of right-handed Guruk and left handedTuruk, two brothers from the land of Chichibaba. They have a falling out and become implacable enemies, raising armies against each other till both acquire bombs"so hot that the earth will melt like butter". The children of what has become two countries, Chinchin and Chinchun, frightened of meltdown, push through a hole in the wall separating them. In the end, Guruk and Turuk are transformed, and vow to destroy all weapons and live in peace.
Of course, real-world India and real-world Pakistan will not as easily come to terms with each other, given the remarkable fit on both sides of state ideology based on hostile relations, the national security obsession, and popular acceptance of hate politics. Nevertheless, this it will inexorably loosen up as long as the people-to-people dialogue continues to engage in ever-more complex arenas and goes beyond the hail-fellow-well-met phase. When that happens, and it is no longer a question of ´if, the people who talk of peace between India and Pakistan and in the South Asian region as a whole will be as successful as the daring children of Chin-chin and Chinchun.