For a day and a night the esteemed leaders of two of South Asia's most powerful countries 'strut(ted) and fret(ted) their hour upon the stage', just to end up as a 'tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / signifying nothing." One could indeed be forgiven for thinking that Shakespeare, writing his Macbeth some five hundred years ago, was astute enough to have foreseen the debacle that was the Agra Summit!
And truly it has been a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions for the families of those Indian and Pakistani nationals who continue to be held in each other's jails without any hope of reprieve. Agra may or may not have been expected to determine the future of two nations, but it was fervently hoped that it would play a role in determining the future of countless loved ones on both sides of the border.