Screengrab taken from YouTube video uploaded by Delhi Poetry Slam
"Look I'm not here to start a fight, I just wanted to say hi, how are you," says Delhi-based slam poet Shivani Gupta in a video to a stranger across the border.
The young poet has written a heartfelt poem titled 'Dear Girl From Pakistan' to young women in Pakistan. Through her poem, Shivani attempts to understand how this stranger perceives the world around her and if she is alike or different from young Indian women.
"I know nothing about you except that all that we are separated by is a border not created by us," Shivani says in her poem, uploaded on YouTube last week. She talks about the distance and divide that defines the two countries but also lists the similarities.
Shivani even goes on to apologize to her neighbour for treating her "unlike the long-lost cousin that you are but as someone I wouldn't even want to know from afar."
The poet's message is loud and clear. All she wants is to bridge the gap between the two and hopes that just like her, the young woman from Pakistan will disregard what she hears around her and extend her hand in friendship too.
Hear everything Shivani wants to say in the video below: