The other day, I deviated from my normal routine of walking in the park. Strolling down the lanes and by-lanes of our colony, I found myself in a predominantly Muslim area. Boys in round caps, women swathed in black and bearded men in long white kurtas thronged the streets. The realisation that I was not one of the crowd made me a trifle self-conscious.

However, any sense of being alien to the environment was dispelled by the sound of a cheery, “Aunty, aunty!” A little boy, perched on his mother’s knee, at the entrance of a modest dwelling, was calling me. I moved towards him and asked him his name. His heavily veiled mother, whose eyes alone were visible, was equally welcoming, and repeatedly urged me to step in for a cup of tea. Promising to visit on another occasion, I  waved goodbye, with a warm glow in my heart.

This incident took me back to the early 50’s, when I was shopping at Bedford in the UK, with an English friend. A gentleman came up, and, introducing himself as so-and-so from Pakistan, started conversing with me like a long lost friend. He recalled the years he had lived in India, and the relatives left behind, when he moved away during the partition.

Meanwhile, my friend had gone far ahead. Turning to see a stranger beside me, she rushed back protectively. My new acquaintance smiled and assured her that he meant me no harm. He and I had sprung from the same soil, he said, adding that he was catching up on news from home!

Years later, I had a similar experience. My husband and I were in Singapore, at a party hosted by an American company. Since the latter had dealings with several countries, the invitees were from all over the globe. While we mingled with guests of various nationalities, it was those from Pakistan and Bangladesh who gathered around us eagerly, thirsting for news from India.

I have come to the conclusion that people on the whole are friendly, and not overly mindful of caste, creed and religion. Why then is there so much bloodshed just because people happen to be on different sides of man-made borders, or belong to faiths and communities other than our own? Will the time ever come when human beings can live as one large family with the almighty as their head? It will if man has the will! Let me end by adapting a line from Rabindranath Tagore: Into that heaven of freedom, my god, let our world awake!