A team of 21 Indian students is leaving from Mumbai and Delhi for Karachi on Tuesday night to attend a workshop organised by the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy.
The students are in the 15-20 age group and come from various parts of the country. They will exchange views on culture, art and other issues with their counterparts in Pakistan.
The thrilled students discussed their trip with mediapersons at the Bombay Press Club on Tuesday afternoon.
"We are the same people and it's good to get a chance to understand each other through this forum," one of the participants, Rashmi, said.
Sarika, another student, said though they had heard a lot about Pakistan doing vile things to India, it was quite possible that the Pakistanis had a similar view about India.
"So it is good to interact and understand each other's point of view, which may play a role in bringing peace to both nations," she said.
The parents of the students were also present. They sounded quite confident about the safety of their wards in Pakistan.
"We are very happy that our children are working for peace. We know what we have heard about Pakistan is not totally wrong, but [a lot of it is] propaganda," a mother of one student said.
According to Admiral L Ramdas (retired), former chief of the Indian Navy and now president-at-large of the forum, "We fought three wars with Pakistan, but nothing came of them. [Prime Minister Atal Bihari] Vajpayee said the same thing."
"So it's better to work on people-to-people contacts because they will be very helpful in bringing peace to both countries."
The forum has been working on such people-to-people contacts for the last six years.
Some time back, the forum had organised a workshop for Indian and Pakistani students in Singapore.
Besides that, it has organised five conventions at which intellectuals from both sides had discussed various issues concerning the two countries.
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