Syeda Hameed was nine years old when her first story was published in Shankar?s Weekly in 1951. It was the start of a prolific writing career that would include the translation and editing of four volumes of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad?s works, and translations of Hali, Ghalib, Faiz and Sarmad Shaheed. But the story, ?You Have to Learn to Make Friends?, also held within it the seeds of much that was to define her life in years to come. Born of an incident when she was boycotted by the neighbourhood children because her name was ?Syeda?, it made her aware of her Muslim identity for the first time and, in time, of the need for peace between Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis. To this end, she went year after year with iconic journalist Kuldip Nayar and others to the Wagah border to light a candle on the stroke of midnight on August 14/15, and in 2000, took a ?bus of peace? to Lahore, and met women who, like their sisters from ?the other side?, yearned to forge bonds of friendship.