Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Thaw in Indo-Pak relations thanks to little girl?
When I started writing this blog, I had promised myself not post any mushy stories. However, this one is too good to resist posting. I have maintained that a lot of the so-called intractable conflicts of the world could be solved by simply arranging people-to-people contact, whether it be Israeli-Palestinian, Indo-Pakistani or whatever. Contact sort-of establishes that the "dreaded enemy" is not really that different from you. The latest proof of this comes via Noor, the little girl from Pakistan with a heart problem who underwent a successful surgery in Bangalore, where she and her family managed to get to thanks to the restoration of the Lahore-Delhi bus. According to various acounts, the reception accorded to the little girl and her parents has been extremely warm, with people lining up on streets, offering to pay for Noor's surgery and so on. This is the Hindustan Times' version and this is from the BBC.
In Bangalore, children on Tuesday lined the streets with placards reading "Get Well Soon!", and total strangers gave flowers to Fatima's parents at the hospital. "I am overwhelmed by the hospitality I got... We are feeling at home even though we are 4,000 kilometers away," said Sajjad. "Thoughout the day we received telephone calls from unknown Indians who told us they were praying for our kid. We have been bombarded with good wishes, greetings cards and flowers for the last two days," he said.
The parents have decided to establish a fund for ailing Pakistani and Indian kids, using the money donated to them for Noor's surgery as seed.
Does this mean Siachen can be demilitarised tomorrow? Certainly not, but this story probably represents what could be.....
In Bangalore, children on Tuesday lined the streets with placards reading "Get Well Soon!", and total strangers gave flowers to Fatima's parents at the hospital. "I am overwhelmed by the hospitality I got... We are feeling at home even though we are 4,000 kilometers away," said Sajjad. "Thoughout the day we received telephone calls from unknown Indians who told us they were praying for our kid. We have been bombarded with good wishes, greetings cards and flowers for the last two days," he said.
The parents have decided to establish a fund for ailing Pakistani and Indian kids, using the money donated to them for Noor's surgery as seed.
Does this mean Siachen can be demilitarised tomorrow? Certainly not, but this story probably represents what could be.....
