NEW DELHI, 16 July — Urdu poets from India and Pakistan came together here to hail the peace moves between the two countries in their own unique way — through verse.

Couplets penned specially for “Ek Shaam Indo-Pak Dosti Ke Naam”  (an evening for Indo-Pak friendship), hosted by the local legislator Shoib Iqbal, boldly sought to invoke cultural similarities and renew relations between the two countries that were partitioned along religious lines at the time of independence from Britain in 1947.

Renowned Pakistani poet Ahmad Faraz said “it was a bold initiative taken toward peace and cordiality by both the countries. Now we can not afford a war any more, nobody wants war now,” he said.

“It is difficult to know whether it is Pakistani or Indian tears that have welled up in our eyes in these five decades of separation,” said Munawwar Sultana, a poetess from Pakistan. “We have to light up each other’s lives.”

Said India’s Javed Akram: “If you want to be friends, remember we have a big heart. Let us end this enmity and be friends again.”

The poets’ gathering inevitably exuded optimism over yesterday’s summit at Agra between visiting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. 

It was an occasion for the poets to vent the feelings of the two estranged peoples about each other, detailing both betrayal and longing. Even former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, also an amateur poet, caught the bug.

“We adopted the easy path of enmity. Let us now try the difficulties of friendship. We have talked enough wearing our crowns. Let us now take them off and hug each other,” V.P. recited as the audience clapped.

For many both among the audience and on stage, the uncertainty over the outcome of Musharraf-Vajpayee talks was a non-issue. A few said the talks had lifted the psychological barriers that separated the two peoples for 54 years.

Said Azhar Javed, a leading Pakistani journalist and Urdu poet: “This is a historical day because of the talks between India and Pakistan. We have to pray that it begins to bring us together once again.” He then used poetry to back his opinion. “We have but one song and refrain: that the new wave of the new era is peace, love and friendship.” For Anand Mohan Zutshi alias Gulzar Dehalvi, 79, a Kashmiri Hindu renowned as an expert poet of Urdu who chaired the session: “This is a new turn in our lives after 54 years. It needs all the love and caring in our hearts to be made a decisive change.”