19-12-14
By Kartik Lokhande
I
am innocence. That day -- December 16, 2014 -- I was gunned down by
Taliban terrorists. I was dead -- in five-year-old Khola Altaf, in
14-year-old Hamza Ali, in 13-year-old Gulsher Nasir, in any and all of
132 children who fell to the bullets fired by demons at the other ends
of the guns.
But, was it for the first time that I died? No! I died
several times before, and, who knows, may die for several times again.
For, if innocence is not killed, it is crushed and crumpled and sucked
out and polluted and clouded and thrown into the vast swamp of the
conspiring, lying, cheating, violent, brutal, deceiving, and so-called
mature elders in the world outside the sphere of childhood. As these
‘mature’ elders are everywhere in the perceived vast expanse of the
world, I may die anytime, anywhere, in any child, in the left-over small
room.
Why have things come to such a pass? Were not these elders of
today, children in the past? They were. However, probably, they also
faced the same problem as I am facing today. I am born crying, but find
the most beautiful expression called smile in the warmth of the mother’s
tender-yet-tight hug. The uncorrupted smile, sheer joy resounding in
laughter, unpolluted vision of goodness in human beings -- known and
unknown, firm belief in barrierless humanity, and nothing but beautiful
ideas about the world and life.
Unfortunately, as I start growing up
from a toddler to a school-going child, the elders try every trick to
erode my innocence. Some try it as parents. They come up with a lot many
‘demonstrations’ of emotions -- anger, love, hatred, indifference,
carelessness, etc. If parents are good, then some other elders try to
corrupt my innocence under the garb of being teachers. They teach me how
to start believing in barriers of age, gender, class, language, caste,
religion, score, positions etc. As I grow up, still others of the elders
try to stress upon me that barriers of caste, creed, religion, colour,
riches, poverty, power, sex do matter a lot in the ‘outside’ world as if
it is full of wolves.
Throughout, elders make every effort to erode
and corrode me in every child in their reach. On way to a child
becoming a youngster, I am lost or frozen deep inside his/her
personality. Without me, children continue to grow and adorn all the
artificial characteristics. They compete. They win, they boast, they
celebrate. They lose, they blame, they react. In short, they grow older.
They start following the barriers. Some live in those barriers, some
want to push their own confines beyond the barriers of others. And, when
this desire to push (read, impose) own corrupt confines is driven by
the fuel of religious supremacy, terrorists are created.
These
terrorists may be Talibans, Chechens, anybody. They may have different
identities -- geographical, religious, political -- but they all are
demons. Then, these elders start ‘demon-strations’. They are so blinded
by the so-called ideology that they do not mind killing me in children
like the ones shot down in Army Public School in Peshawar (Pakistan) on
December 16, 2014. Shooting me down in these children has definitely
evoked strong emotional reactions the world over. The world, as I am
grasping with my little understanding of the term, is shaken.
However,
sadly, again the elders are, and will, come into play in days to come.
There will be condolences and tears for a few days, and then the routine
will follow -- geopolitically motivated statements, blame-game, strong
warnings, military action, killings, attacks and counter-attacks, and
more killings. The so-called world of the so-called mature elders will
be back to inhumanity in the name of saving humanity. The theatre may be
different, land may be different, but once again, I will be the
casualty.
But, let me tell you. I can not be finished so easily.
After every death, I shall be born. I may live on in Baqair, in Johny,
in Rohit, in Jaggi, in any and every child. Provided, the elders do not
just flaunt the tag of being ‘mature’. They need to be mature in real
sense, and above all, they need to be ‘human’. For that, elders
themselves will have to start the process of ‘de-monstrations’.
I am hopeful that this will happen.
For, I believe in all good things.
For, I am innocence.
(Published in 'The Hitavada', on Opinion Page, on December 23, 2014)
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