Late seventies, I think. I don’t recall very well and none of those who recall are at hand for me to ask.
I think, it was the day Emergency was declared in India. So, maybe 1977. I was five or six, then, assuming it was 77. Schools closed in the middle of the session and we were all asked to go home. There was a general state of panic. Our school rickshaw (as against a school bus) obviously wasn’t there. My sister and I had an option either to stay back at school or find our way home. For some reason, we chose to find our way home. It must have been our response to the panic we saw in the school. We thought we’d walk back. I was confident, I knew the route. So we started towards home and somewhere in between I lost my bearings. The distance between our school and our home was not much; about 5 – 6 kms.
Suffice it to say, in the days when mobiles didn’t exist (we didn’t even have a landline), we walked a bit, flagged down a local rickshaw and made it home. Much happened during our way back home as my mother was calling our school, and my father.
We didn’t have enough money to pay the rickshaw, which was paid by the neighbours. Mom was out (looking for us) so we stayed a while at our neighbours’ house. After a while, our parents discovered we were home. They came back.
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For the life of me, I cannot forget the expression on my parents’ faces when we got home.
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I dare not imagine, what’s happening with the parents, in Peshawar, Pakistan. The words: wrong and senseless keep resonating in my head. If ever the phrase, “I wish this wouldn’t happen to my worst enemy” ever made sense, it is today. Our countries have had wars between us: direct and indirect; open and proxy. We have openly hated each other. And that’s fine. Yes, I said that. That is FINE. We did that as adults knowing where it will lead to and we paid the price and are willing to pay the price.
The incident has nothing to do with India and Pakistan as such, yet, whatever your grouse, take it to the people with whom you have the grouse.
CHILDREN SIMPLY CANNOT BE A PART OF IT.
4 thoughts on “CHILDREN SIMPLY CANNOT BE A PART OF IT”
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Gaizabonts 
I wouldn’t wish this to my enemy. But now that this has happened, I hope the “enemy” learns a lesson. So far the terror factory was mainly engaged in killing someone else’s loved ones. Just two weeks back their government facilitated an LeT rally by running a special train for it, among other things. This event should show them the consequences of creating these monsters.
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You are my dear friend. I will, however, invite you to think of one thing: There’s a time for everything. This is not the time to say “I told you so.” It’s almost 2 in the morning and I am unable to get my head around what happened. Let’s continue to dislike Pakistan for all that we can dislike about it. Boss, today is not that day. A hundred and forty children? Do you know how many that is? That’s like four classrooms full of forty children. I had forty students in the class I studied. at least half were good friends. I am sorry to say this, but take time off, and imagine. Say what you have to say on 17 December. Today, try and only imagine, what happened there.
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I wouldn’t wish this to my worst enemy. But now that it has happened, I hope the “enemy” learns a lesson. So far this terror factory was mainly engaged in killing someone else’s loved ones. Just two weeks back their government facilitated an LeT rally by running a special train among other things. Hope this incident makes them appreciate that the same terror infrastructure can also hurt those who they (hopefully) care about.
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This is so sad…
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