Afghan ‘issues’ began to bite on me, when as Provincial of Calcutta, I initiated the process  of sending two talented young Calcutta Jesuits to the Afghan mission. Eventually Maria Joseph and Sahaya Jude joined the mission and rendered yeomen service.

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Afghan issues started to become a passion when I read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  That passion turned into a concern as my plan to visit the Afghan mission progressed. The visa process got delayed. A crude shock awaited me in Kabul. On a cold winter night in December 2009, at the Immigration Department, my passport (along with that of 10 other Indians) was snatched by an unknown person, who shouted at us to go back to India. After protracted negotiation into late night, the passports were thrown back to us.

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All that changed next day. Standing in line in the open air to procure a boarding pass to go to Herat provided a golden opportunity to chat with Afghan men in my broken Bangla-Hindi. They were delighted to talk about India, Bollywood films, and Sharuk Khan and others, all along munching dried pumpkin seeds to keep themselves warm. It was a delightful food to combat the cold, for me too, all the while reminiscing Tagore’s Kabuliwala!

Herat welcomed us warmly, in the company of young Jesuits. Jesuit engagements in the university marked a qualitative difference, especially in providing education for girls. Visiting returnee settlements on the Iranian border (from where Prem was kidnapped later) brought home the fact that borders harbor the disowned.

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Later in 2017, at the ‘Katholiken Tag’ in Munster in Germany, I presented a paper on two Gandhis – Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Gaffer Khan – the Frontier Gandhi – a forgotten Pashtun hero of this ancient civilizational land. Will the non-violent army of Frontier Gandhi be revived to bring abiding piece in that land? Fifteen years of Jesuit engagements in a mission of reconciliation continue unabated and remains a challenge!