Darbhanga: Anam, a 22-year-old girl from Darbhanga, will be in Israel when that country celebrates 70 years of its independence.

Anam will mentor attendees about the role of literature in cross-border peace at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel on May 15.

The topic of her research is "Peace and Conflict; exploring the potentialities of reflective nostalgia in Israeli-Palestinian conundrum" with reference to The Lemon Tree.

Her father, Mohammad Nehal, director at the Women's Institute of Technology under Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, said her determination and hard work had helped her achieve a place on the international podium.

Nehal said she will stay in Israel for eight days. In the first four days, she will attend the international event at the Ben-Gurion University, while she will stay in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem the next four days.

Anam said her research was inspired by a childhood incident, when a lemon tree spike pricked her finger. Her grandmother told her a story then, which she remembers till date.

As luck would have it, she later got an opportunity to review a book called The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan.

"The book is an insightful consideration of the birth of Israel in 1948 and the Arab-Israeli conflict before and since that triggered my thoughts," said Anam.

Anam, the second child of her parents, did her schooling till Class X from Holy Cross School in Darbhanga. She graduated with honours in English literature from the Central University in Jharkhand and did her postgraduation from Jamia Millia Islamia university, Delhi.

At present, Anam is pursuing her PhD research in the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad.

"Overriding prejudices and organic inheritance of grievances in the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio, my paper is on a fresh lookout to explore the potentialities of human compassion and hospitable gesture. My dream is to unearth the intertwined histories of the Abrahamic descendents to lay down a future roadmap of syncretic legacy for the GenNext.

"Nostalgia might help in transforming this tragedy into a shared Blessing," she told The Telegraph over the phone while discussing her long-term goals.

Her father said Aman had also been awarded with a scholarship for eight months from the Israel government that will start from September this year.