LAUNCH OF AAGHAZ-E-DOSTI CALENDAR AND THE SHARING OF HOPES FOR A PEACEFUL AND FRIENDLY CO-EXISTENCE

LAUNCH OF AAGHAZ-E-DOSTI CALENDAR AND THE SHARING OF HOPES FOR A PEACEFUL AND FRIENDLY CO-EXISTENCE

At a time when the border clash has spurted fresh waves of jingoism on both sides of the border, with people challenging the peace activists and advocating a stronger or more inhuman reaction, a people’s initiative, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, will launch the “Calendar for Peace and Love” with paintings of hope collected from youths of both sides of the border. 

An initiative of Mission Bhartiyam, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, targets to create unwavering bonds of peace and friendship between India and Pakistan. The bonds that will survive the vagaries of such troubles times. But these bonds are not artificial ones, they rest on the belief and claim that people of India and Pakistan not only share the same language, culture, values and challenges but also the desire for peace and friendship. It rests on the belief that if there are people on both sides of the border who cannot and do not want to forget the past and do not want others to forget it, there are also people who want to forget the past and not just move on but move along to create a new chapter in history…of friendship and brotherhood.

And so, Aaghaz-e-Dosti is set to launch “Calendar for Peace and Love” that  would remind us every day about these people. The Calendar with the paintings of an innocent and apolitical mind will remind us that mindsets have been constructed. The six paintings narrate the restriction of ‘freedom’, the ‘desire’ with the birds flying across borders and peace and friendship for a better future. Together with the beautiful dreams of the young and innocent, the Calendar also has messages from people who have been actively working to nurture these dreams. This calendar is a collection of these shared dreams of peace and friendship. It serves as a hope shared by people who are just like us, in habit and struggle. With the turn of the pages to start a new month, the hope shall be renewed.

For this calendar, we had collaborated with two Pakistan-based organisations, Center for Youth development activities(CYDA) and Imov Humans.

The Calendar launch will also have a small discussion or a sharing of hopes for a peaceful and friendly co-existence. People who have been working to strengthen the relations, students from Pakistan and anyone who has an experience or a hope to share will be sharing their thoughts. The main speakers include Shri Pankaj Singh (Eminent Hindi Poet and part of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature), Prof Dhananjay Tripathi (Department of International Relations, South Asian University), Shri Sirish Agarwal(Founder of India Pakistan Families Solidarity Association) and Shri Pankaj Chaturvedi (Noted columnist in many newspapers and Co-editor at National Book Trust) and some Pakistani students studying in India. 

The details of the program are:

Date: 27^th January 2013

Time: 6:00 to 8:00 PM

Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi

We invite your presence as we share our hopes and desire to create a new history of peace and friendship.

Aaghaz-e-dosti: Messages for peace and friendship sent out during Indo Pak match

Aaghaz-e-dosti: Cricket fans from Pakistan supported the initiative

A popular nazm of Sardar Jafri " Tum aao gulshan e Lahore se chaman bardosh, Hum aayein subeh e Banaras ki roshni lekar, Himalay ki hawaon ki taazgi lekar, aur iske baad yeh poochein ki kaun dushman hai" was re-iterated to many today. 

Today when people were rushing to enjoy their most favorite "Muqabla" of Indo-Pak Cricket match at Firoz Shah Kotla Stadium of New Delhi, some youths under the initiative of Aaghaz-e-Dosti (for indo Pak friendship)gathered outside the stadium with their face painted in colors of peace and love. They distributed pamphlets with messages of Peace and friendship to strengthen bond of India Pakistan relations. 

Aaghaz-e-Dosti is an initiative for strengthening Indo-Pak relations and develop unwavering bonds of peace and friendship through efforts by youth of both countries. Aaghaz-e dosti is an intiative to enhance people to people communication under the South Asian Peace and Harmony objective of Mission Bhartiyam, an India-based NGO.

Aaghaz-e-dosti: A volunteer distributing pamphlets

Convener of Aaghaz-e-Dosti campaign, Devika Mittal remarked that, "all this hate and suspicion are just result of misinformation and misunderstanding. We share the same culture, language and values. People of both nations do not want conflicts and desire for love and peace. We are just bringing this inner desire on the surface".

A research scholar from AIIMS, Pankaj Pathak said, "We ,the people of both the nations, must come together to form a bond of trust. Our dialogues can work in making our nations more prosperous. We must have to come together to recognize our real capability. "

"Cricket is a very popular game in both countries, however  like in any inter-countries games, instead of taking it as a way to develop harmonious relations, people only take it as an issue of national shame and national pride. We also insist this mindset should be changes and a game be seen as a game, to entertain, to share the joy. We believe that the fight through cricket is actually a fight for love and competition to make the bond stronger and to live the sportsmanship. We are competitors not enemies.", remarked Ravi Nitesh, founder of Mission Bhartiyam.

Mansi Rastogi, an engineer by profession and a volunteer, who had done the face painting was happy that apart from her college festivals and exhibitions, she never did face painting activity for such a cause but today, she remarked, "it all became so meaningful after practicing the same for a great cause of love and friendship between the countries." 

The response from the public was excellent or to rightly put it, hopeful. In the very beginning, when the volunteers had just started to move towards the line, with posters clipped on their jackets and face painted, three people from Pakistan came forward. They introduced themselves and asked the volunteers about their objective. They took the posters with messages of peace and friendship from the volunteers. 

Similar response was seen by people from Pakistan, both youth and the elderly. Some of them themselves asked for the pamphlets. A group of people from Pakistan asked us for our posters of peace. One of them remarked, "I deeply appreciate these efforts by youth and i feel that these can change the popular mindsets on both sides and force the Governments to talk peace" 

The youth from both countries responded positively and some even asked us the details to join in. We didn't come across a single negative thought. 

In last month, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, in collaborations with two NGOs from Pakistan side had invited paintings on the theme of Indo Pak Friendship for a calendar. The calendar will be publicly launched later in this month. But some of those entries were used in the posters. 

Others among the volunteers in this event were Sulabh Srivastava, Abhishek Shukla and Shadaab Bashar, Aman Sheikh and others. 

Aaghaz-e-dosti: Volunteers outside the kotla stadium

http://www.facebook.com/groups/aaghazedosti/ 
Contact: missionbhartiyam@gmail.com