Thru the tears in two eyes

Thru the tears in two eyes (collection of thoughts: 26-29 Nov 2008, Mumbai attacks)

Dear Moshe, and… well, Kasab!

Dear Moshe, you are two years old. The eve of your every future birthday will remind you that that was the day when you lost your parents with you hardly on your feet. You were more like a fledgling animal tottering on fours trying to make sense of the senseless world around. Why the hell did you lose them?

Kasab, you are in your twenties, and in a way, you too, have lost your parents for all practical purposes. You have lost your country, too, for all practical purposes, again; just think of what they would do to you if you insist on going back to Pakistan. You do have your life with you, as well, but what a cursed life it appears to be; all because you thought a short cut is the best way to life’s aspirations.

A look at the lives of Moshe and you, puts in my mind a phrase from the play Hamlet, ‘Look here upon this picture and on this, a counterfeit presentment of two..’ persons involved in the same Mumbai terror attack. You two are the opposite sides of the same spectrum that is terror, a skirmish of religious antagonism. Moshe has at least his grandfather, an old one, but still of his own flesh and blood, and a whole nation, his motherland, where fraternity is not just a lip service, who would help him grow big. He has something more, a very special relationship with India, whose heart is as big as its land, water and space above it, irrespective of the multitudes of religions it sports, including Islam. Kasab, on the other hand, you are the true loser, you say you followed Islam, but followed terrorism under its guise. You have lost everything for which your mother birthed you. As a mother is to a family and the child, religion should be to its society. The events in Mumbai should prove to you the difference between your kind of religion and your mother. It is doubtful, if your father is alive or not, the fate of your siblings, and if alive, the quality of life they would lead. The father in a family stands for the government, the provider, so his charges have proper livelihood. It has all been done away with, after you rejected a single piece of advice your mother bestowed upon your head when you wanted her blessings; but, you accepted the formula of hatred, that too, of another religion. It is quite ironical that you, too, have another kind of special relationship with India, one opposite to that Moshe has. Not only have the people of other religions but Indians following your own faith have denounced your kind of Jihad. I have mentioned above about the heart of India. This is, because the daughter of a brave and dutiful man whom you killed said you should not be killed in retaliation. Killing you would kill only one terrorist, but to change your ideology so that ideology of terrorism is changed and this would result in no more Kasabs and even Moshes. No more mothers losing their children and children losing their parents, families getting devastated and vacuums implanted in the families; all due to the warped ways religions are preached and get people to follow them. A religion which spews hatred is not a religion. This was the message given by Islamic people of India when you were being interrogated. The Bakr-Eid this year was a sad affair for them all. This could be the experience of your family as well. See, what your Jihad has resulted into. Just as a proverbial father would send his erring son out of the house rather than taking care of the aspirations of his progeny, the Government of your country is taking continuingly wrong steps refusing to own you up! It does not even want to give a decent burial to your partners who are dead and were led similarly along the wrong path by you own people. That is the religion and that is the government for perpetrators of terrorism. If you have not paid for your crimes, you are assured of not Jannat but Jahannum. Even against the will of this large hearted country, you are assured of suffering right here on mother Earth, in Pakistan, too.

And, Moshe, when you grow big, return to Mumbai, stay at Taj Hotel…as a great scientist just as Einstein was or a great artist, a composer, a philosopher! When you sigh, while reminiscing over the expanse of the Arabian Sea it would be a fine response to aspirations your parents had for you.

With blessings to both



Kalidas Sawkar


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Kalidas Sawkar
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k.sawkar@rediffmail.com, kalidas.sawkar@gmail.com



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