ludhiana tears welled up in the eyes of jabbar gujjar member of a theatre group from pakistan when he meet his uncle karamdin at ludhiana on saturday a resident of sahnewal district of pakistan he had come to india for the first time for taking part in bharat pakistan theatre festival2011 at gujjar wala guru nanak khalsa college jabbar 30 said his grandmother was separated from her brother during partition but the families soon reestablished contact and kept in touch through letters the theatre person said his grandmother hashmat bibi was so devastated by partition that she lost her eyesightthe artistes visit is a symbolic reunion of two siblings living in two nations when his grandmother came to know jabbar was coming for the festival she asked him to bring soil and water from her brothers village so moved was karamdin jabbars uncle and a resident of khadoor sahib village of amritsar district on meeting him that he found it difficult to express his emotions though i have spoken to him over the cellphone this is the first time i have met the boy it was a memorable day for me and i wish ties between our families remain as warm and strong the elderly man saidi want to visit the village of my uncle but cant do so due to visa restrictions rued jabbar around 33 artistes came from pakistan and 4 theatre groups are taking part in this festival it kickstarted with hum safdar chogh kusumbe di happy over his visit shafiq butt executive member of lok rahas troupe said i have brought my children along and bought them cycles from ludhiana dr nighat khursid punjabi scholar and journalist from pakistan said theatre was developing gradually in her country and art and culture has suffered a lot due to the radical elementssome of the visiting young artistes were delighted over the similarities between the two countries dr rehan ul haq said he could see little difference between the markets of ludhiana and lahore his colleague adnan said he had loved shopping on the mall road not so fairsobia a young female artiste said she was surprised at the liberty and lifestyle enjoyed by women in ludhiana they are free to drive and go anywhere back home the condition of majority of the women is a far cry form this they arent even able to express their ideas freely