India-Pakistan train arrives in Delhi under the dark shadow of Pulwama

New Delhi ,February 20 (Indian Express): How fair is it to ask a woman to choose between her ‘mayka’ and ‘sasural’? Or a teenager to pick between MS Dhoni andShahid Afridi?

Under a light drizzle on Old Delhi Railway Station’s platform 1, a mother and son grappled with these dilemmas, amplified after the attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama that killed 40.

Residents of Karachi, Salma Munavvar (48) and Shayan (16) were among the 86 passengers, including 14 Pakistani nationals, on the Samjhauta Link Express, which reached Delhi from Lahore, via Attari border, around 4.05 am Tuesday.

As the train arrived 45 minutes behind schedule, the platform stood witness to a gamut of emotions: Two sisters reuniting after three decades; a grandmother embracing her grandson for the first time; a new mother returning home with her infant; a large family returning from a wedding in Multan.

Ye do mamooli mulk hain, mamooli logon ke. Humein ek doosre se kya taklif? Kabhi Pakistan jaake toh dekhiye(These are two ordinary nations, with ordinary people. What issues can we have? Try visiting Pakistan once, you will understand),” said Abdul Hasan from Faridabad, back from a month-long Lahore trip with his wife.

“Wo (Pakistan) sasural hai, ye (India) mayka hai.Who doesn’t like coming back home?” asked Salma, who last visited India in 1991. On Tuesday, she returned with her son Shayan, who is on his first visit to the country.

Embracing Salma after ages, tears streamed down the wrinkled cheeks of her elder sister Saulak Jahan (75). “Our mother had one last wish — to see Salma. But it was not to be,” Saulak said. Their mother, Asmat Jahan, died 10 days ago at the age of 95.

Shayan, meanwhile, was surrounded by several cousins who had come to greet him. “Back home, among friends, the buzz word is brotherhood. There’s no animosity whatsoever against India. We have shared heroes in cricket — I like Shahid Afridi as much as I like MS Dhoni,” he said.

Saying goodbye to a passenger going to Lahore from Delhi

His cousin Uzair Khan (28) rued how the “entire kaum (community) is tarred for acts committed by delinquent individuals”. “Aap ye batao, India mein Pakistan sezyada Musalman hain ya nahi?We love our country.Toh ye sab sawaalbaarbaarkyunuthta hai?” Uzair said.

Mohammed Zaki, who had gone to visit his wife in Pakistan, said he has gathered from visits that “unlike what is shown to us on channels”, Pakistani people want to explore India, but are “suspicious of government agencies in both countries”.

“It is not as if India is all they talk about. People are busy leading their lives, just as we are in India. I can vouch for that after having spent two months in Multan,” Rabiya, a housewife from Meerut, said. She was travelling with her husband, Mohammed Chaman.

The Samjhauta Express, a bi-weekly special train operational since 1976, has made two trips to Delhi since the Pulwama attack. The service was suspended for two years, between 2002 and 2004, after the Parliament attack. On February 18, 2007, at least 68 people were killed after a blast, near Panipat, ripped through the train, which was on its way to Lahore.

On Tuesday, neither the twelfth anniversary of the blast nor the Pulwama attack were talking points on platform 1, which had no security presence. However, there were hushed apprehensions and grievances.

(The featured image at the top shows the Samjhauta Express from Lahore arriving in Delhi from Lahore in Pakistan on Tuesday)

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