The day before yesterday, Aysha and I had the most amazing conversation with a Marathi reporter from Mumbai. She had come to Solapur for a Women's Day function and at night, she came to see our campus here. She had begun her speech that day with a question to the Solapur slum women, "After the events of 26/11, do you think that we should go to war with Pakistan?" Only about 10% of them raised their hands, a far cry from the December newspaper poll which (I think) said that 80% of Indians were in favor of war with Pakistan.
Afterwards, she started telling a story about her son's friends on 26/11. Her son works for the Rotary Club in Mumbai and was hosting 2 guests from Pakistan, young men involved in Rotary Club who had come for a function with the Rotary Club of Mumbai. He invited his mother home for dinner with these guests so she left her office, which was close to the Taj Hotel. That night, as they were having dinner and chatting, someone from her office called and told her to turn on the TV. In total shock, all of them watched full coverage of the attacks on Mumbai. She said she could see the pain in these two young men's eyes as they watched people being killed in hotels and restaurants all over the city. She asked them what they thought about it, and they said, "Auntie, you have to remember that this is not the people of Pakistan. These people have also burned down our Marriott in Islamabad - the people of Pakistan suffer as much from the terrorists as Indians do. There is a terrorist attack in Pakistan every day." As they watched the attacks unfold, she told them that they had to stay with her that night, and they would see what happened the next day. For three days, as the terrorists fought on the streets of Mumbai, these two Pakistani boys were in her home, watching the news with her and her son and discussing what happened. She felt that she couldn't possibly let them leave - who knew what might happen to them on the streets? They were young, like the terrorists, and had Pakistani passports. They would be arrested and beaten up in an instant.
Others, however, did not feel the same way. No one from the Rotary Club called her house to check up on the boys or to offer their support. Finally, she called the President of Mumbai's Rotary Club and he told her to send them to Pakistan as quickly as possible in order to prevent any trouble. However, no planes were leaving for Pakistan and their return tickets were already booked for the 30th. She ignored his advice and their flight, amazingly enough, was the first one allowed to take off for Pakistan. As soon as they reached home, they called her house to say they had arrived safely. Their entire families got on the phone to express their gratitude, saying that she had taken better care of the boys than even a family member would have.
When she tried to write a story about it for her paper, they flat-out told her that they were uninterested in any pro-Pakistan pieces. The experience, however, was one to share and to help change the minds of people in India about Pakistan. The Pakistani people, the Pakistani government, and the terrorists are three entirely different entities and the Pakistani people are the ones being exploited.