The first Indian in Murree? Many people know that Murree and Shimla are 'mirror' hill stations on either side of the Radcliffe Line. But Sharmin Vohra may well be the first Indian visitor to Murree, the Indian hill station Shimla's twin in Pakistan.

The twenty-nine-year-old Barodian was struck by the warmth she received at this hill station at the border of Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where evenings are chilly even in summer.

"Because I had a reporting visa this time, I had gone to the police station at Murree. To my surprise, I was the first Indian to go for registration there. The officers weren't aware about the process for registration but they gave me a warm welcome when I told them that I am Indian," says Vohra, who was recently invited to Pakistan to chair the national conference of the international youth organization AIESEC in Pakistan.

"They (police) asked me questions about India - our food, the way we dress, our lifestyles, they compared similarities. To my surprise, they made a very heartfelt comment that India and Pakistan shouldn't have been separated," says Vohra, whose recent visit to Pakistan was third for her. In 2006, she had stayed in Pakistan for six months to set up Pakistan chapter of AIESEC. And later in 2007 when she was invited to chair a conference in Karachi, she walked across Wagah border instead of flying directly to Karachi.

With 'AIESEC Pakistan in 2015' as the central theme, 200 youth from top universities of Pakistan, attended the Murree conference.

"Earlier, I was unsure about how I would come across, how would they accept me as a chair. But, within no time they accepted me. They all used to come to me, just to talk about the family/relative connections they have in India, to share their utmost desire to visit India. And a 'why' always hovered in my head - why is there a border between us?" says Vohra, who is still love-struck with the beauty of nature at Kashmir point, Nathiagali and the chairlift ride at Murree.

- Prashant Rupera, TNN

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

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