Between the lines of conflict: a conversation across Borders
by, Yasser Chattha
The last night spent again in the head and eyes. Stopped following information and developments between India and Pakistan after 2:30 A.M and slept.
It’s my morning. It wakes me up through a phone call from abroad: younger brother Zaheer calls and shares his pain and agony about last night’s action.
The morning wanes into late hours. Sensational time runs fast.
Just a few moments before, I spoke to a dear friend from India—an experienced, seasoned journalist whose voice remains rooted in integrity and calm, even when the air around feels heavy with unease.
I, a Pakistani, found the conversation a reminder of something simple yet essential: that while our passports may differ, our memories do not.
Ours is a shared history—woven over centuries through languages, cuisines, art, grief, migrations, laughter, and ideas. No matter how many lines have been drawn on the map, the heart does not forget.
“I am the enemy you killed, my friend.”
Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting
And perhaps in fateful and agonising moments like these—April–May 2025—when hostility crackles once more between Pakistan and India, these inter-personal connections become not just important but sacred. In moments of such hysteria it has been soothing to see Karan Thapar and Najam Sethi on The Wire, but of late The Wire in India too has been banned.
Amid the noise, now only the inter-personal connections whisper the truth that gets drowned out: that we are not enemies. After all, and after every hysteric detail!
When tensions rise, something tragic happens: people forget they have hearts. We stop recognising faces and start seeing caricatures. Our smiles stiffen into straight lines for many, the majority’s agitation translates into frowns and foamy words.
We lose warmth in the name of defence. We dehumanise so we can digest the idea of war. And the cost? We become strangers to ourselves.
Today when last night and its morning has been another episode of abnormality, our family and the friend in India has had a conversation about all this. Our son, Fereydoun, who is in Grade 3, conducted a small survey among his classmates, he told us.
To our alarm, he found that a large majority of his peers—under the influence of media hype and classroom bravado—said they would “nuke India” if they had the chance.
Fereydoun’s eyes sank as he shared this. He was disheartened. “Why do they think like that?” he asked. (But in this questionable abnormality around, what convincing answers you can give. Everything is an answer and even a non-answer at the same moment. What molten and evaporated times, ah!
A child asking why children would wish death on other children. It shook us.
“My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory…”
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
Because this is what the media frenzy does. This is what jingoism breeds. It makes war sound like a game. It makes children speak like generals. It steals empathy and replaces it with slogans.
And it happens on both sides.
India is a country rich with civilisation, culture, brilliance and light. But some voices in power today speak in absolutes—black and white, friend or enemy, us or them. How can politics be so limited, shallow, hollow and shadowy when humanity is so vast?
It is not the states but the people—the humans of the subcontinent—who hold the antidote to this methodical madness. We were not born to be the firewood for insulated others’ war. We were not created to feed a fire lit by warmongers and carried forward by television ratings.
“War is hell and those who institute it are not the best among us.”
Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed
It is time to call it out:
- The war-mongering hashtags
- The theatrical rants by compromised media anchors
- The social media bloodlust disguised as patriotism.
- The toxic glee at the thought of revenge
These are not expressions of courage. They are betrayals of conscience.
We must walk away from this manufactured rage: step out of the frames held up by nationalist firebrands and instead walk hand in hand with those who believe in reason, care, and connection.
Because on the other side of every border is a person like you and me: waking up to the same sun, worrying about their child’s future, craving dignity, peace, and possibility.
“Say not the struggle nought availeth…”
Arthur Hugh Clough
Let us reclaim this beautiful subcontinent from the drumbeat of war.
Let us build a South Asia where conversations travel faster than commands, where curiosity replaces caricature, and where the only “nukes” we launch are notes of kindness.
“And when men ask what caused this war,
The answer will be: children forgot how to sing.”
adapted from Stephen Spender
The future will not be built by those who scream the loudest.
It will be shaped by those who quietly insist on seeing the human first.
