This evening I have a rather unusual appointment. Not with a producer or a publisher, but with a few respected members of the Jewish community here in New York. No, not to debate politics or discuss theology. But ones who have shown great interest in a play I’ve written—about solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But there’s one scene in the play that could fit into the present division and polarization in India: It’s a scene—my favorite—where waiters in a cafe with plates in their hands swirl around from table to table and happily break into a song I’d written: If the World Was a Café!

We wait at tables all day long and many a people see
Indians, English, Germans, French, even an odd Afghani
Sometimes we hear a language strange, most times it’s good ole English
But what we see all round o’er here is peace with ham or fish!

What need to kill, to shoot and fire, bombers and suicide killers?
What need to fight, these are real lives, not actors in movie thrillers!

Sometimes we have an argument, sometimes a loud debate
But never a time is love replaced by anger or dreadful hate!
Voices are raised, tones become brusque, some customers become tense,
But soon peace reigns, people laugh again at jokes and sheer nonsense!

What need to kill, to shoot and fire, bombers and suicide killers?
What need to fight, these are real lives, not actors in movie thrillers!

We wait at tables all day long and many a people see
Indians, English, Germans, French, e’en an odd Afghani
Sometimes we hear a language strange, most times it’s good ole English
But what we see all round o’er here is peace with ham or fish!

It’s time we had a leader, who’d unite and not divide,

Who’d tell the country ‘twas time for peace, to come in and abide!
And like this café, let us see, India becoming so,
O’ let peace reign, violence and hate, into oblivion go!

There’s something powerful about ordinary people saying what politicians won’t. These waiters, with aprons and notepads, have seen the best and worst of us. And they’ve realized one thing: we all drink tea when we’re tired, coffee when we’re confused, and we all want to feel safe while doing so.

For this article my song has been tweaked a bit for our country.

But today I’ll tell the Jewish group this: If war rooms are replaced with café tables, and our leaders could use peaceful methods to settle disputes, instead of finding opportunities to get votes in every argument or tension they see, then the world will move towards peace, just as we in India also need, like the waiters sang, to move in the right direction and stop fueling communities against each other.

Shalom…! Salaam….! Namaste…!

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