Friendship with Esha (March-2014)

I am Shughla Ismail. I live in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Peshawar of Pakistan. To build peace between the two countries India and Pakistan, I participated in Building Peace project, where I met Esha, my counterpart.

A girl who belongs from Calcutta (erstwhile capital of British India) presently residing in Gujarat. When I was introduced to her I was very glad that I will have a new friend from the place where once our grandparents lived, India!

My experience with Esha is going very beautiful. They way we talk, is like friends. No borders between us. It’s only true friendship between an Indian and a Pakistani. I learned a lot about the cultures, food, the styles and the friendship form my fellows, and I realized that we have the same hearts and felling. We only need true education in our institutes, so we can understand the real meaning of friendship between India and Pakistan.

My first experience with my new friends went the best, and I hope that our friendship will last. The first month went awesome, and with time, the bond will become more strong and we will work together to help in building peace between India-Pakistan.

Experiencing the relations (March-2014)

India and Pakistan separated in 1947. My family was left in the region of Pakistan, where Muslims were considered to be. I grew up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan where in my school and college I was taught that India is not our friend, they are our enemies and they and their religion has done worst to Muslims. We were taught to fight them was good because we are right and their religion is wrong.

Living in such a society my mind started to mingle in the thoughts of the general knowledge books that I started to read about India and Pakistan and the lessons I was taught in my institutes. After some time I realized that India and Pakistan are friends and they will always be. Religion cannot be an excuse to break relations. So I started to work for Peace building.  I made friends that were from India and then I learned a lot of new things about India, its beauty and cultures. It wasn't the way we were taught!

In Peace-Building project I met Esha, my counterpart, from whom I learned more and more about the bright side of India and friendship. I was introduced to new people and I felt that my whole knowledge was a big lie and cheat. Reality is not what we are taught; it is more beautiful and encouraging. Everyone is like a friend and there is no difference on the behalf of religion and cast.

My experience with new friends was the most beautiful experience and I will struggle to tell the world that; we were friends, we are friends and India- Pakistan will always be friends.

Hatred on the basis of religion is wrong! We are taught wrong. The realities are not hidden from us, we only need to search for it and they are beautiful.