India Pakistan relations come into focus again with the 7th annual Peace Calendar launch of the nonprofit youth initiative Aaghaz-e-Dosti (Start of Friendship) this Sunday 20 January, 2 pm at the India International Centre, New Delhi.
The launch includes a seminar on ‘Hopes for peaceful coexistence’ between the two nuclear-armed neighbours who continue to be at loggerheads. The speaker lineup include Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Padma Bhushan awardee and founder of the Center for Peace and Spirituality; Sudheendra Kulkarni, former head of the Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai, Brig (retd.) Anil Malhotra of the India Pakistan Soldiers’ Initiative for Peace (IPSIP), Maj. Gen. (retd.) M. A. Naik, Arjuna awardee and Secretary IPSIP and Rezaul Hasan Laskar, former PTI reporter in Islamabad now Editor Foreign Affairs Hindustan Times.
The Aaghaz-e-Dosti calendar includes as always paintings on the theme of India-Pakistan peace by school Indian and Pakistani students, besides messages from reputed personalities expressing their support for peace between India and Pakistan.
This year’s messages for the calendar come from Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Rana Safvi, Nandita Das, Major General (retd.) T.K. Kaul, Dr. Happymon Jacob and P V Rajagopal from India, and Prof Ayesha Jalal, Dr. Ruksana David, Hussain Naqi, Mehmal Sarfaraz, Amarnath Randhwa and Dr Ashok Kumar from Pakistan.
The organisers urge members of the public to join in support of “the voice of younger generation” who are expressing themselves through their artworks for the peace calendar.
To contact Aaghaz-e-Dosti, email: a[email protected]
