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Pratham hosted a group of 22 underprivileged children from Pakistan, for 2 days - 18th and 19th of December. The group was kept company by 28 Indian children. Aged 10 to 18, both groups came from diverse backgrounds - farm workers, orphans, street children, child labourers and lost and found children.
Called the Peace Delegation, the group is on a 3-week tour of India where they are to visit 7 cities. However, this delegation is different. They are here to promote peace by playing cricket matches in each city they visit. And no! You are wrong, they will not be India v/s Pakistan matches, because the competing teams will have players from both India and Pakistan.
Early last year, in the month of April, a group of Indian underprivileged children had visited Pakistan for a fortnight. Therefore the current trip could be termed as reciprocal.
 This reciprocal trip was made possible by Leap-Frog, a development organization, based in Delhi. Action Aid Pakistan in Pakistan and NGOs like Magic Bus and Child Line in India assisted them.
We thoroughly enjoyed being with the group for 2 days. Right from the time they got up in the morning till the time they went to bed, we were with them. It was a great learning experience.
Diminutive Mohsin, an 11 year old orphan, was the darling of all (especially of the fairer sex). A very keen cricketer, who wanted to play in every match, was nominated the "man of the match" for his hatrick and ended up on the winning side. He disliked being cuddled and treated like a child. The confidence exuded by him bellied his tender age.
A 15 year old girl from Kolkata, separated from her family and subsequently rescued by Child Line was part of the India group. Mercifully her parents have been found, but she cannot be united with them till she attains the age of 18, as per rules. A compulsive talker, who would break into a Hindi film song at the drop of a hat, confided in us about her total lack of interest in her biological parents. She visits them during vacations, she said, because there is nowhere else to go. She longs to be a pilot. We got so close to her that she always kept a place for us in the bus, once she even went to the extent of detaining the bus because we were not there. (It was 11 pm and we were not supposed to accompany them back to where they were staying). At the end of the stay, we exchanged addresses to keep in touch. We made her promise that she would fulfill her dream.
 The Indian group also had a 16-year-old boy, who had earlier visited Pakistan. He was a monitor of sorts of the current group. The same boy, earlier, had a foul temper, did drugs occasionally, and used to get into brawls with other children. Today he is a reformed boy and it was a pleasure seeing him take charge of his group.
The stories are the same from either side of the border; a 12 year old boy from a remote village of Pakistan with 5 siblings, who works in a farm, when asked whether he could read or write or had ever been to school, replied in the negative - because there is no school in his village. When asked what he would like most, he replied - he would like to own books. When we pointed out his inability to read books, with a cheerful expression he told us that he has heard that it is good to read books. Moreover, the elections being round the corner, all the contestants in his village have promised to get a school constructed in the village. He hopes to go to that school.
It was so nice to see the children from the two countries, playing as one in the combined teams. Unless specifically pointed out, a casual onlooker wouldn't have been able to differentiate an Indian child from a Pakistan child.
 Of course, when the Indian children were to go to Pakistan, they were told of how they would be mistreated, how dangerous it would be, and the hatred they would have to face. Likewise, when the Pakistani children were starting for India, they were told similar stories about India. The children on either side saw the situation being so different from what had been mentioned to them, that they lamented about the overall ignorance of the people from either side.
On both sides, the children met with overwhelming warmth and love, wherever they went. Even the shopkeepers played their part and didn't charge the children when they went shopping.
The Governor of Gujarat and the people from Sarkhej Roza Mazjid voiced the same message.
All good things must come to an end, so did these two days. And we were at the train station, running around to make sure we got the entire lot on train, in the right compartments, with the right luggage and without missing ANY one. The fact that the seats were spread out over 5 compartments didn't help. But we managed and well in time too - 20 minutes before the train was to depart.
 As we started our last rounds of each compartment, waving goodbye to the children, we couldn't help the tears glistening in our eyes. We didn't know if we were ever going to see them again. (The children though were changing into "night clothes" or trying to wangle a seat next to their friends. It was so late they were ready to nod off). The 2 days, they spent here, would perhaps be one more page in their memories of this trip across India. But for us, as we stood seeing the train leave the platform, we were left with a gamut of emotions - physical tiredness at 20 hours a day, the stress of things going wrong, the conversations with the kids, the fun we had together, the thought of missing them.
They had taught us a lot in 2 days - humility and to appreciate all that we have - the right to make our own choices, the right to education, family and friends who love us, resources and freedom to do what we want to.
Rohit And Stuti
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