My Journey to Switzerland

Peace International Council. The letter stated that the Award was presented to individuals and public organisations for outstanding achievements in strengthening peace among nations. It added, ‘We are deeply convinced that your unique personal contribution towards the cause of peace for many years fully justifies our choice.’ The following five people signed the letter: Anatoly Karpov (President of the Board), Andrey Bykov (Vice-President of the Board), Alban Brodbeck (Member of the Board), Otto C. Meier-Boeschenstein (Member of the Board), and Hans-Rudolf Wild. Thus, along with my companions, Dr. Saniyasnain Khan, Prof. Farida Khanam, Dr. Rajat Malhotra, Priya Mallik and Khalid Ansari, I set off on a journey to Switzerland. I had many different experiences during the trip, and I witnessed many things. Here, I briefly present an account of some highlights of the trip and some of my insights and impressions. I had visited Switzerland earlier too. My first trip was in 1986, which was for a conference held in Geneva. An account of that journey appeared in two instalments in the February and March 1987 issues of the Urdu journal, Al-Risala. My second trip to Switzerland was in July 2001, which was at the invitation of the