LAHORE: The third edition of the ‘Hamsaya Theater for Peace Festival’ organised by the Ajoka Threate concluded in Amritsar after winning the hearts of Indian audience for six days. Team Ajoka presented a Punjabi play titled ‘Anhi Maai da Sufna’ on last day, which mesmerised the viewers thoroughly. According to statement issued by Ajoka Theatre’s office on Monday, the team Ajoka received applause and appreciation from the audience as well as artists of the neighbouring country. Like two earlier editions of the peace festival in Delhi and Chandigarh, the 3rd annual theatre extravaganza created a huge buzz in Amritsar. On the last day of the festival, a seminar titled ‘Partition and Indo-Pak theatre for peace’ was also held at the Virsa Vihar Auditorium in Amritsar. The seminar was chaired by Pran Nevil, and was addressed by Shahid Nadeem, Usha Ganguli, Kewal Dhaliwal, Dr Parminder Singh, Ramesh Yadav, Dr Sahib Singh, Madeeha Gauhar and Nayab Aslam. Shahid Nadeem spoke about Ajoka’s theatre collaboration with eminent Indian theatre groups such as Manch Rand Manch and Rangakarmee Kolkata. He said that despite all political upheavals between the two governments, the journey of peace through theatre remained unaffected. Written by Shahid Nadeem, the play is inspired by some true stories of the generation dislocated and tormented by the devastating events during the partition of 1947. It is a story of shattered dreams and traumatic nightmares but also the resilience of the human spirit. It is set after the Indo-Pak war when relation between the two countries were almost suspended. The play is dedicated to all those who could never return to their homeland in both India and Pakistan The play talks about two people’s unrequited dreams in which an old woman, anhi mai, was forced to leave her Pakistan residence and settle in Amritsar, Sukhiram is an old man, whose family migrated to India and stayed back so that he could earn by dying churnis for women. She finally lost her vision with age but only one dream kept her alive – going back to her village in Pakistan one last time. Sukhiram, on the other hand, loses track of her family, converts to Islam and finally marries and settles down again. But he still dreams of meeting his original family again when he meets a friend and discovers that his son was now married in India and had became a grandfather.