Hand across the border

It takes courage for an Indian, especially a woman, to agree to take up the post of a diplomat in Pakistan.

- NEHA KIRPAL

It takes courage for an Indian, especially a woman, to agree to take up the post of a diplomat in Pakistan. Ruchi Ghanashyam was the first Indian woman diplomat stationed in Islamabad, along with her husband, A R Ghanashyam. As was expected, the journey was not exactly smooth sailing. During their tenure from 1997 to 2000, the couple was witness to turbulent events that strained relations, such as the India-Pakistan nuclear tests, the Kargil war and the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC 814.

In her book, Ms Ghanashyam provides a first-hand perspective of her experiences in these three years as an Indian woman living in "enemy country".

Over the course of the book, she attempts to analyse the love-hate relationship between the two countries. She peppers the prose with many interesting stories and anecdotes of the local people she encountered and the conversations she had with them. Along the way, she also describes various tourist places in the country that she visited during her stay, such as Taxila, Panja Sahib, Rawalpindi, Murree, Lahore, Karachi, Mohenjo-daro, Swat Valley and Peshawar.