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Journalism of Courage
When Tahira stepped off the Sada-e-Sarhad, the bus from Lahore, she walked into the waiting arms of Maqbool Ahmed. They hugged. They blushed. And then they garlanded each other as surprised onlookers broke into a cheer at Wagah this morning. It was quite a public finale to a private romance spanning two countries and more than two years.
‘‘Finally, I am in India,’’ beamed Tahira, waving the tricolour with ‘I love my India’ scribbled across. But it wasn’t easy getting here. This 20-year-old BSc student from Faislabad had no inkling how tough it would be when she got engaged to her childhood crush and Indian cousin Maqbool in March 2001. They were to get married in December, but the attack on Parliament wrecked their plans. ‘‘Marriage visa to Punjab became almost an impossibility,’’ she recalls, telling you about the numerous rejection slips that she received from the immigration office.It was ditto for Maqbool, a 33-year-old journalist in Qadian, a stronghold of the Ahmediyas in Punjab. ‘‘I was doubly disadvantaged, for I was not only an Indian but an Ahmediya as well,’’ he says, recalling the agonising months he spent trying to get a visa to Pakistan.
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Bride from Pak at home
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Even staying in touch was a problem, for Qadian had no phone link to Pakistan. So, Maqbool chose a roundabout way via his sister in England. Skeptical relatives even suggested that they call off the engagement, but the couple was resolute. ‘‘I would have waited a lifetime for him,’’ says Tahira, her smiling glinting through her black veil.
She has come here on her own, leaving her parents behind. ‘‘I already feel at home here,’’ her eyes brim over as Maqbool hurries to tell you how his Sikh and Hindu friends have offered to be her guardians till the nikah on November 7. ‘‘They are so keen to have her with them, they are arranging all the ceremonies that have to be performed by the girl’s family.’’
Minutes are slipping by and it’s time for goodbyes again: Tahira can disembark only at Delhi, for the Sada-e-Sarhad has no stoppages in Punjab. ‘‘I wish she could get down here, Qadian is just 86 kilometres away,’’ says Maqbool.
‘‘Don’t worry, it’s only a matter of a few hours,’’ Tahira smiles away his frown. Ask her if she has any message for the two governments, and she nods. ‘‘Yes, please tell them to relax the visa rules to encourage more people-to-people contact.’’
