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Post-conference home-stays were arranged in Bombay. Our flight back to Karachi was on the 3rd, but we realized the strength of Indian allure merged with bonds of friendship and discovered airline agencies and ways of visa extensions. More than half of the group from Pakistan stayed back.
Bombay was absolutely wonderful, yet at times I found myself drifting off onto another tangent; reminiscing and re-creating the conference within the confines of my head: “Kashmiris can be divided into two basic groups of people; those born after 1983 and those before ’83 – those born after have never known even a moment of peace in their lives,” said Ritu Dewan, a lecturer at the conference. I was leaving Bombay in a few hours, I hadn’t finished packing and when I’d close my eyes I found myself unable to open them for exhaustion. I was at marine drive, and I remember the moon shimmering in the waves at 3.00am. I recall shifting shadows and the delicate sea-breeze...
Voices echo around me, infectious laughter reverberates around me; memories chase each other round and round within me. The movement for freedom, the fight for preserving beauty and holding on to ancestral heritage, the initiative for peace, and the struggle for justice – I found myself thinking of far pavilions, and smiling. For the magic that surrounded me and became a part of me for two weeks will somehow inspire and empower me, us, to get through. I remember a song from camp:
“Allah keh bandey hasde
Allah ke bande hasde
Jo bhi ho kal phir aayega”
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Writer Profile
Hira Nabi
for one day, i want to be a paan wala. just for one day. i want to stand behind the makeshift stall/counter, and have a zillion Lil vials, vessels and caskets in front of me, filled with oddments, spices, colourful condiments, old world scents, and indigenous flavours =)
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Comments
challenges and opportunities nadeem malik | Dec 28th, 2004
hira nabi a good writer.she has full commanad and full pay concentration of that subject and scriptes.she contoral words and her dynamic idea.we apperceate and best wishes
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