We, the students of National College of Arts Lahore, were facilitated by Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy, to visit India for a study tour as architectural research, especially, research on "Vastu Shastra".
Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum facilitated the our trip including to get visas, accommodations at all the places we visited there, and also our hosts recommended by the forum to help us at all the times.
We started our trip from Lahore on 3rd August 2001 by train. That was very tiring experience because of the long checking routines on both borders Atari and Wahga. We reached at Delhi by 3 a.m. next day and welcomed by our host Miss Nandini Oberoi with her perfect smile though she had to wake up all night to wait for our train and to greet us. She was working as a teacher of Economics at College of Vocational Studies Delhi University and also run a newspaper for children called "Newsjoy" in a voluntary capacity. That was the moment when we realized that we had just arrived in another friendly atmosphere.
She took us to "Gandhi Peace Forum", which was a very comfortable rest house. Our bookings were made there a few days before with the help of Pak-India Forum. After that she introduced us there with all the staff, we filled the prescribed forms and then she left. We were so excited that even though we had come after a long journey we freshened up and went for sightseeing straight away and we enjoyed till night.
Next day was the Diwali festival in India and all the people were celebrating their festival. It was a wonderful experience for us to witness it. So in the morning we visited historical places in Delhi and after that we saw the Art Museum. For lunch we had invited by our hosts at the "Habitat Center". It was a great place with perfect architecture. All our hosts arranged by the Forum greeted us there. They were all nice ladies having much professional experience especially Nina Rao who was the teacher of Tourism at College of Vocational Studies, Delhi University, a writer of travel books on Himalayas. She was also active with an NGO, "EQUATINS", deals with tourism policy and development and an active member in the Women's Trade Union Movements. We had a lunch at Habitat Center. After that Nina took us to Shubha Mudgal concert, which was arranged by a society called "SEHMAT". It was a wonderful experience for us as I may recall this day was the best day we all had in India.
Main purpose of our trip was to visit many colleges and other institutions and to meet students for exchange of views and ideas. So our hosts had already arranged meetings with teachers and students at various colleges for this purpose and we got fruitful results.
Visit to St. Stephen's College, Delhi
We went to St. Stephen's College with one of our host Mr. Navjotbir Singh who was a very enthusiastic and helpful person. We had a lunch with Principal and the Staff members of St. Stephen's College and those students and teachers who visited Pakistan a year ago. They were all very excited to see us and were very eager to ask us about our views about India and our experience there. That was really a great experience. They all warmly welcomed us. We had good discussions with them. After that we had an interactive session with the students of St. Stephen's College and they put so many questions about our views of India and its people. We straightforwardly answered and after that conclusion we decided to share ideas to each other for improving good relations and betterment of the two countries.
Visit to Delhi College of Arts
Nina Rao arranged our visit to Delhi College of Arts. As compared we were the students of National College of Arts, Lahore, we were so exited to visit Delhi College of Arts. So the trip to Delhi College of Arts was a great experience. We got the chance to see the quality of work of those students and we learned a lot.
Visit to School of Planning and Architecture
We made many visits to School of Planning and Architecture and we had the chance of meeting with Nalini Thakur, who was the Head of Architecture Department. We were also permitted to visit their library and introduced so many students and had a wonderful time chatting with them.
We also visited the famous Taj Mahal at Agra. This made our trip even more special.
At last, I would like to say that the trip to India was our best experience and it would not have been possible without the help of Kamran Islam sahib from Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum, Pakistan and of Nina Rao, Nandini Oberoi and Navjotbir Singh from India. We just do not know how to thank them for all their hospitality, care and help.
