People like Javed Akhtar, Kuldip Nayar and myself can't stop dreaming of peace, everlasting peace between India and Pakistan. Whenever I go to Alliance Travels (a bus stand in my beloved Chakwal), my eyes long to see a bus with the route plate of 'Chakwal to Amritsar' on it. Ah, if wishes were horses, every one of us could ride them. On August 14th and 15th, we the people of India and Pakistan, celebrate the 62nd day of our independence (I call it the 62nd day of our parting) but in reality we are still slaves. Slaves of politicians, slaves of bureaucrats, slaves of our dreadful intelligence agencies. I am sure that the souls of our great leaders, Jinnah and Gandhi, would be in great pain in heavens seeing the present plight of their great Subcontinent. In 1947, the tragic partition had become inevitable due to plots of the wicked British and the Hindu/Muslim extremists in our midst. A lot of innocent blood of both Hindus and Muslims was spilled. Even greater pity is that the blood of innocents, Indians and Pakistanis, is still being spilled. -NABEEL ANWAR DHAKKU, Chakwal, via e-mail, August 9.