Fawad Khan, star of Zindagi Gulzar Hai

Fawad Khan’s Bolly debut is still some days away but his was the name that rang out loud when a gang of girls from Saifee Hall was asked about the first thing that came to mind when someone mentioned “Pakistan”.

Fawad is to these teenagers — and to everyone glued to their television screens for an hour from 7.10pm, Monday to Sunday — what Imran Khan was to Indian women in the Eighties: the face of Pakistan.

Had the star of the TV series Zindagi Gulzar Hai and the upcoming film Khoobsurat been present at Saifee Hall on Thursday morning, he would have “blushed like a 12-year-old”, as confessed to t2 recently while talking about female adulation.

Swaleha Alam Shahzada, the Pakistani representative at the orientation for an exchange programme between Karachi and Calcutta, couldn’t promise the Saifee Hall girls a meeting with the 32-year-old, whose first big-screen appearance on this side of the LoC is due for a September 19 release.

What she offered instead was an opportunity to communicate with their peers across the border, including writing letters to each other, exchanging photographs and artwork and sharing oral histories.

The phased, yearlong interaction between 800 students of India and Pakistan is part of the Exchange for Change initiative introduced by a non-government organisation called The Citizens Archive of Pakistan in association with PeaceWorks — an initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, the Calcutta partner.

“Simple things like writing letters or exchanging photographs would achieve people to people contact between the two nations,” said Swaleha, executive director, The Citizens Archive of Pakistan.

“It’s a platform for our youth to appreciate the differences and celebrate the similarities.”

The partner schools in Calcutta are Abhinav Bharati High School, Saifee Hall, Chowringhee High School, La Martiniere for Boys, Modern High School for Girls and Lakshmipat Singhania Academy.

“Students in Karachi and Calcutta will conduct oral history interviews with their grandparents about early life in the subcontinent, street food, sports and lifestyle, and the videos will be sent across and shared in the classrooms,” said Megha Malhotra, director of PeaceWorks.

Class XI student Yusra Mohiddin got interested in the project because her paternal grandmother’s sister lived in Karachi.

“I have heard of stories that before Partition they would all live together in Karachi.... If we get to write letters we can ask our peers there more about life in Karachi,” Yusra said.

In the letter series, students are required to introduce themselves, share their interests and hobbies and ask questions about each other’s countries.

The photography series involves students creating and exchanging artwork on themes such as the Partition, cricket, festivals and street life.

Maybe a few girls will also exchange notes on Fawad.