A thread. Warning: It's emotional. But no drama.
When I started my career, way back in 1994, I wrote a long-winding article on how there can be peace in the Indian subcontinent. Though my knowledge of Kashmir & geopolitics was limited...,
When I started my career, way back in 1994, I wrote a long-winding article on how there can be peace in the Indian subcontinent. Though my knowledge of Kashmir & geopolitics was limited...,
My ignorance didn't come in the way of proposing that national boundaries needed to be flexible, allowing for free movement of people for personal travel, trade and tourism. At age 23, I figured that if Kashmir had open borders, India-Pakistan could be friends...
And with Bangladesh, we in any case had no problem. Nepal was my model, as my school friend--whose father was executing a major MES contract in Gorakhpur--used to drive into Nepal every summer in their own car. I was invited once, but my parents didn't allow me. Anyway,
Coming back to my article, I was convinced that it was possible to have this 'soft-border' Nepal model in the whole of South Asia. I figured in some vague manner that it would ensure socioeconomic interdependence, and hence peace would ensue. 20 sheets down, I got ambitious.
I started thinking of one borderless world. Since I had studied modern European history in school, I felt I was in d position to figure out how Europe could be one. But of course, it required more research. So I turned to d Middle East. And just as I envisaged an open Kashmir...
I wrote of an Israel where Palestinians would be semi autonomous people, running their everyday affairs with a just, benign Israeli oversight. As I typed sheet after sheet on my Brother typewriter, I became increasingly ambitious. Finally, I presented my magnum opus...
To my editor in chief in Asian Age, the person I was confident would applaud it. Sadly, he threw it away with a terse: 'It's naive. You need to read much more before commenting on international affairs.' I was momentarily disheartened. I resolved to read more, and eventually...
Write a book on how to ensure lasting peace in the world by creating borderless, conflict-free interdependent zones. Unfortunately, life got in the way of my desire. But the fact I still remember it is proof that the desire remains. If not me, then
Someone else would devise a world free of artificial boundaries. A world where no one will have to suffer human inflicted misery. And hopefully when that formula comes, no one will dismiss it as too naive. Hope floats again.
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