HARBINGERS OF HOPE: The team of 46, including 33 students, sets off for a goodwill mission to Pakistan from Sealdah station on Tuesday. Picture by Amit Datta

There were hugs and goodbyes — and a few tears. But of joy, not sorrow. At Sealdah station, the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani departing at 4.35 pm on Tuesday was carrying a special group of Calcuttans. It was mission Pakistan for the 46 travellers. And the message on a friendship banner, signed by students from several city schools, said it all: “With love from India”.

The Telegraph in Schools initiative, in association with Seagull’s Peace Works project, to take schoolchildren across the ‘border of contention’ rolled out, as 33 students from over 25 schools in the city, accompanied by 10 principals and teachers, made their way to Delhi. The visas are due on Wednesday, after which they proceed to Amritsar to take a bus to Pakistan.

Leading the team is Shukla Bandopadhyay, a teacher at St Teresa’s Secondary School. On March 23, 2002, her 24-year-old son Anirban, a captain in the Gurkha Regiment, fell to a single Pakistani bullet in Kupwara. “I am going for one reason — to try and make sure no mother suffers what I have been through. I have no hatred or bitterness. This loss of life is a waste, and I am happy that these youngsters are on their way to make a difference, however small,” she says.

While the plan is to take part in the International Schools Educational Olympiad, organised by Karachi High School over a period of five days, where about 95 schools are taking part, the aim is to “spread a little love and propagate peace”. For each of the 17 and 18-year-olds, their teachers and their parents, the trip means something very special.

Fatehma Wahab from Birla High School will keep a personal tryst. “There is an old lady in my building. I don’t know her name, but I call her Amma. She is from Sindh, and still has the keys to her home there, which she hasn’t been to since the Partition. She wants me to go and see her home.”

Going to Karachi for Gangotri Bajpai and Vibhu Sharma, both from Army Public School, and Ansh Sahai, who is from an army family, was a fight won hard. “Nobody wanted me to go. They kept asking me why I want to go to Pakistan of all places. No one told me I was doing a good thing. But I am going and that’s it,” says Vibhu. As for Gangotri: “My father wasn’t pleased at all, and my entire family was against the idea. In school, too, only my class was all for me.”

It’s a trip to bring down walls of hostile perception and build bridges of hope. Ankita Ray, from Our Lady Queen of the Missions, says she grew up with an inherent hostility for Pakistanis. “A teacher in Class VII made me realise that my reasons for hating them weren’t really correct. Now, I will get to know people my age and find out for myself.”

She and friend Suneha Mitra, from the same school, are carrying letters from fellow students. One poster, from Class V, has a tree, with the message: “We are all leaves of the same tree, although from different branches.” Ankita Rathi, from Mahadevi Birla, too, is ferrying peace messages across, including one in Urdu, with names and addresses for prospective penpals.

Abhirupa Dan’s brothers are worried about her coming back alive, and Satwik Ghosh wants to erase such stereotypes arising from lack of interaction. Tuli Das wants to learn more about Mohenjodaro, while Nihar Jain wants our neighbours to “give us a chance”.

It’s a proud moment for all, says Michael D’Cruize, headmaster, National Gems school. “I am carrying about 300 questions from my students for the children in Pakistan, like ‘Is your syllabus as tough… How do you feel when you lose a cricket match against India…’ I hope to bring back some answers, and some penfriends.”