Indian soldiers manning the newly repaired 'Aman Setu,' the Indo-Pak peace bridge, had a surprise in store this week when a very familiar figure - that of Mahatma Gandhi - walked towards them from the Pakistan side greeting them with the traditional namaste.
It took them a while to realise that it was Sir Ben Kingsley, the British actor who played the Oscar-winning role of the Mahatma in Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi.
Sporting a clean-shaven head but without the famous Gandhi spectacles, Kingsley has been touring areas in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir and North Western Frontier Province hit by the October 8 earthquake for the past week.
The actor, who is half-Indian, walked up to half of the peace bridge, recently repaired by the Indian forces after it was damaged in the quake - to revive his memories of the land that had an emotional attachment with Gandhi.
"I walked up half way, greeted them shouting 'namaste' and they responded," said Kingsley, while interacting with the media in Islamabad on Wednesday about his week-long tour to the quake-hit areas, where he made a television documentary to raise funds for rehabilitation.
"We must work to create bridges of friendship and humanity among people wherever and whenever we can," he said without directly referring to India-Pak differences. Touched by the very 'emotional' welcome in Pakistan despite the fact that his identity was attached to the lead role in Gandhi, Kingsley unleashed the Gandhian ideals in a land that more passionately revered Jinnah, perceived to be Gandhiji's political rival.
"We must respect differences and embrace similarities," he said, reacting to concerns over the perceived clash of civilizations, especially in the wake of protests sweeping the Islamic world following publication of Prophet Mohammad's caricatures in some newspapers. "Say goodbye to differences and say hello to similarities," he said.
While touring quake-hit areas, Kingsley virtually re-enacted the very scenes he played in Gandhi, walking along broken roads with rubble of concrete strewn on either sides to greet people and share their sorrow. "I am going to raise the consciousness and empathy among with western audiences with my television documentary," he said.
Kingsley also said he was pleasantly surprised to hear slogans 'NGOs Zindabad' besides 'Pakistan Zindabad,' which highlighted the role being played by the international non-governmental organisations, who were bitterly criticised by the Islamist parties.
