On the 24th of August, a group of teachers from Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan had come to Delhi and then visited a school in Faridabad (Eicher school). The reception of the visitors and the response to the visit exemplifies the promise of peace driven by continuing people to people interactions.

They were welcomed with overwhelming warmth and enthusiasm. After the cultural programme held for the guests, the principle of St. Peters high school, Toba Tek Singh – Ashfaq Mesih addressed the children.

And then came the questions! And so many of them! The kids just had so many questions to ask. some of them kept coming back with more and more questions - a lot of them related to the youth there, besides of course the usual about the status of women, the strength of the peace process, the idea of borders disappearing ("like the Berlin wall"). Whatever the nature of their queries, somewhere they wanted to affirm or clear doubts over notions they had picked up from home, from the media etc.

Towards the end a request came from a little girl (10 years old maybe) who asked the Pakistani teachers to sing the Pakistani national anthem. All the students and teachers stood up in position while the national anthem was being sung. Monica Wahi, a peace activist woking with this program says she even saw some young children even tried to mouth and follow it. “I think all those present got goose pimples - it was very touching”, she adds.

But this was not the solemn end to the event. Being Punjabis at heart, the delegation from Toba Tek Singh- came with their own request – to be allowed to sing a Punjabi song for the school. The whole school was clapping and swaying to it while the delegation sang one song after the other. The kids loved it.

The teachers in a discussion later related how they were a little skeptical on how the kids would receive this delegation - even they were taken aback by the response of the children. Though the event started quite formally - where some "chosen" kids welcomed and performed, and spoke and carried themselves in a disciplined manner, once the children were given space to ask questions, they just took over. At one point the teachers had to ask the students to stop asking because the event had already gone beyond the school closing time.

Another very touching thing - the lunch for the delegation had been prepared by the teachers themselves. Normally you would not expect this from a fancy English Medium school that Eicher is. But the event here was obviously very significant for them - for the teachers to get involved so personally.

Both schools (St. Peters from Toba Tek Singh and Eicher from Faridabad) have invited each others' students now. A student delegation from St. Peters is scheduled to visit India in December and it will stop for two days at Eicher School.

Monica Wahi is a peace activist working for peace within India and South Asia through her work with victims of religious violence as well as Indo-Pak peace processes.

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