SALAAM NEW YORK.(college-age South Asian Muslims visit New York as part of American Studies program)

Not a lot usually gets accomplished when future Prime Ministers meet with former Presidents, but there they were, Omer Chaudhary and Akbar Ansari, up-and-comers from Pakistan and India (respectively), being ushered unexpectedly into the Harlem office of Bill Clinton. They had just enough time to let him know that they'd devised a plan for establishing peace between their two nations, but not nearly enough time to spell out what the plan was. "I see future hope between you two," Clinton said, beaming. There were handshakes and hearty laughs and a few camera flashes, and then it was over.

Omer, a keen, lanky economics student from Lahore, and Akbar, a garrulous, barrel-chested zoology student from Bombay, were part of a group of twenty-one college-age South Asian Muslims who have spent the past month at Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, in an American Studies program sponsored by the State Department. The U.S. Embassies in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh had picked seven outstanding students--four women, three men--from each country, out of hundreds of applicants, and flown them over for an immersion in the American way of life (small-town variety): rigorous study, Dunkin' Donuts, Single-A ball.

The other day, the group bused up to New York for a two-day field trip. The program's director, Ted Widmer, a history professor and former Clinton speechwriter who is helping Clinton with his memoirs, wanted his charges to see, as he told them, "a typical government office building." He took them up to 55 West 125th Street, making no mention of the building's most prominent occupant. So it was a genuine surprise when a door opened and Clinton came forward to greet them. "Am I watching television?" Wajiha Tahar Ali, a tall woman from Hyderabad, asked herself.

Afterward, the students--the men in dark suits, the women in colorful shalwar kameez--gathered on the sidewalk and shared their impressions, as everyone photographed everyone.

"What a pleasant surprise!"

"For Clinton, I would have expected a huge lawn."

"It is a shock to see a former President, a white President, having an office in a black area."