It's not a video game Hi, I am Areen, a 12-year-old middle school student in Delhi.

Personally I have observed that a lot of children think that India and Pakistan are just like two kids playing video games. Games like Grand Theft Auto (GTA) perhaps. Two kids who like violence, destruction and basically want to do the maximum possible damage to the other. Probably it is true. Probably the governments of both countries and the leaders on both sides do think of all this conflict as a video game. Maybe a good way to resolve this would be for all of you, the people, to buy Xboxes or PlayStations to send all those leaders and officials so that they can play those deadly games on their console instead. Play the violence where it ought to be played, on their Xbox 360 and leave us the people, the real people and real countries in peace.

I believe that there is no difference between Pakistan and India. All of us are same and equal. India is a diverse country and comprises many religions, castes and creeds. Pakistan also has a similar diverse mix of people, something that I recently learnt from my sister who is studying at a university abroad and has many good Pakistani friends. I keep seeing pictures on Facebook of my sister chilling with her Pakistani friends, taking trips with them and basically having fun. I have to admit I have sort of made a fun game of trying to guess which one of my sister's friends is Pakistani and which is Indian, from her pictures on Facebook, and honestly a lot of the times my guesses go wrong completely. And that actually makes me smile and wonder that we really are similar.

I hope that we all get together soon and the boundary between us gets blurred. I hope I can soon visit Nankana Sahib and Lahore. It looks like a dream at the moment but if we work firmly towards it and believe in brotherhood, we will one day be there.

Thank you,
Areen Soni

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Wednesday, August 08, 2012

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