When shall the twain meet

Occasionally they get to meet on cricket field, and we witness a groundswell of excitement. They are arch rivals but finally the sense of game tells each one us how to behave. No heavens fall if the two meet in the field of sport, or in the swathes of culture, language, literature and art. Nothing shocking would happen if the two get to talk on the table and open up ways of people to people interaction. But unfortunately the fate of this region – South Asia – seems to be sealed because of the bitterness between the two. Who is right and who is wrong, who is going the right way and where, and who is following the wrong track and where – this is not something that can be determined in a black and white manner. Even in the ordinary human interactions things are never clear like day and night. We spend all our lives in grey zone, and it works well. It doesn’t mean that politics should become a game of convenience and the peoples’ rights and the established international rules should amount to nothing; not at all. Those who promote wrong practices in the international sphere, or those who trample upon the rights of the people, must be told in the most clear ways that they should put a stop to wrong ways of doing. But it can be done by engaging with each other, not by going the other way round. After all we have seen that in the global wars the countries that fought against each other and devastated each other’s cities and towns, finally got to talking. These are the countries that are now in a Union that was unimaginable in the times of war and animosity. But the right thinking leadership on both sides, and a building up of a genuine atmosphere of interaction changed it all. And today Europe is where it is. If there are problems that we have witnessed in our political imagination, if the two countries have fought wars, if there is a long history of bitterness and animosity, all this can be left behind. All it needs is a change of mind. South Asia, nay the entire world, is waiting for the moment when the minds change, hearts open up, hands shake, roads open, and the the walls of hared come down.