Courage it takes...

Courage it takes to live under oppression,

Courage it takes to live under occupation,

Courage it takes to stand against tyranny,

Courage it takes to stand for the oppressed,

Courage it takes to see the funeral of a son,

Courage it takes to see the cold gleam of a father,

Courage it takes to attend the funeral without a tear,

Courage it takes to say, "My son is a blessed martyr",

Courage it takes to bear the tears of a mother,

Courage it takes to bear the sobs of a sister,

Courage it takes to get killed without a word being told,

Courage it takes to see injustice, but still with a hope,

Courage it takes to even see in the eyes of the martyrs,

Courage it will take to even remember the martyrs!

"Aes te tcha Zaelim?" - Are we too, oppressors?

It is one of those rare Fridays when nothing bloody happened in Pakistan, only a few people died in Syria (not enough to get 'featured' in news) and none of the newspapers published anything about the continuing plight of the Rohingya!

Irfan and Faizan have just deboarded the school bus and are strolling back to their respective home a few metres away from the bus-stop! As they pass by the Martyr's graveyard;

Irfan: "How many graves are there in Shaheed Mazaar?".

Faizan: "I dont know but two graves are empty! We are getting late for Jumah Namaaz!"

Faizan: "We have a cricket match at 3 O'clock. I'll meet you after Namaaz. When do you complete it, ours gets completed by 2:30".

Irfan: "I'll be back from Imambara by then! I'll meet you at the ground!"

Nowhatta Greens Vs Rainawari Stars

Rainawari Stars win the toss and elect to bat first. They go on to score 134 for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.

Nowhatta Greens need 135 to win. Faizan will write down the score on that SS Scorebook with his Reynoldspen. The batting order has already been written, on the scorebook. Mohammad Irfan will come in at No. 7 and Faizan Ali, being an allrounder, will follow in at No. 8. Faizan stations himself at the square leg position near the umpire and scribbles the runs on the scorebook. Irfan sits besides Faizan amid a lowly protest by the players of the Rainawari Stars  who insist that the Scorer  should sit there alone!

Five overs have passed and Rainawari Stars players ask for the scores. Faizan announces, "27 for 2"!

Faizan: "Do you know? It is Pulwama Chalo on Monday."

Irfan: "I know. These oppressors have killed another young man!"

Faizan: "Yem che saeeri Zaelim!" (They are all oppressors!)

Irfan: "Khudai karin Raham!" (May Allah have mercy!)

Faizan: "Irfan, Do you know? Pakistan won the T-20 match vs South Africa! Hafeez scored 92 runs before getting run-out!"

Irfan: "I dont get to watch cricket these days, at home. Abu always watches Geo News, Al Jazeera, Press TV. I couldn't even watch the WWE Royal Rumble on Thursday!"

Faizan: "Natte kus chu wutchaan. Be chus wutchaan score espncricinfo peath!" (You think i watched the whole match? I check the scores from Cricinfo only!)

Irfan: "So, you too are fed up with the news, like me? Somewhere, it is the genocide of one community and somewhere else, it is of the other!"

Faizan: "God knows what is in store. Every Friday we have to see news from Pakistan with ever increasing numbers of killings."

Irfan: "And then there is war in Syria as well. People are dying in thousands there!"

Faizan: "Preth kunni jai che sirf Musalmaan maraan! Khabar yem Zaelim koune maraan kanh?" (Everywhere it is Muslims who are getting killed. Why doesn't anyone among the oppressors die?)

Irfan: "Aes te tchi  naa Zaelim! Yemis ne insaan sund aar yeyi temis wanov zaelimie" (We are oppressors too! One who has no compassion for fellow human being IS an oppressor!)

Faizan: "Aes te tcha Zaelim?" (Are we too, oppressors?)

Down and Dusted - HOPE!

Irfan: "Faizan! We require 76 to win in just 10 overs. It is very difficult!"

Faizan: "Get your pads on. We just need to understand each other while batting and running between the wickets. See how we lost 2 quick wickets to run-outs only due misunderstanding."

Irfan: "You are right. We just need a partnership to win."

Faizan comes to the crease with Greens still needing 56 to win from 7 overs, with 6 wickets down. Armed with his BSM bat which he has bought last spring from Sangam, he walks upto Irfan at the non-strikers end and says, "We shall overcome. We just need a partnership! We just need to understand each other. We just need to tolerate the mistakes and correct each other in a sensible way!"

"After 19 overs, Nowhatta Greens are 128 for the loss of six wickets. Mohammad Irfan is on strike, playing on 29 and Faizan Ali is batting on 24", the scorer announces.

Irfan misses the first two balls and takes a single on the 3rd ball.

Faizan hits a six on the 4th ball and the Greens win, with Mohammad Irfan and Faizan Ali contributing 30 runs each.

Picture © Getty Images
P.S: Isn't a game of cricket a lesson for us. Isn't tolerance and mutual understanding need of the hour? Can't we just consider each other as humans, if not anything else? Or do we waste the whole life killing each other while as the enemies make partnerships to win over us!

“We live in a wrong place”

“Uncle, I have deactivated both my accounts, Facebook as well as Twitter!”, said Tassaduq to his uncle on phone. This was after he was told by his parents and uncle not to indulge too much in discussions on social networks, these days! Tassaduq wasn’t sad as, in any case, he won’t be using it for the next few days as internet access is blocked. Well, he had called his two friends to deactivate his two accounts!

“Beta! We live in a wrong place”, lamented his uncle. “We all know what is happening isn’t justice but what, at all, can we do? Our generation has seen it all for the past 40 years!”

“Even Basharat Saeb, your youngest Uncle, despite being a Police Officer  felt restless when he heard the news, on phone, at midnight that police had been deputed all over the valley! He too feels his pain and said that it was grave injustice. But what, at all, can he do? We are all in solidarity with the family.”, adds his mother!

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Tassaduq was very fond of reading and writing Op-Eds for newspapers. It had been five days since he had read one. Earlier, his newspaper vendor would never accede to his demand of fetching him a National newspaper as he was the only one to demand so — the newspaper vendors fetch a particular newspaper only when there are at least 10 sure shot buyers! As a result, he would view the internet version of the National newspapers. It had been five days since he had read an Op-Ed in a National newspaper!

So here it was, his 8 year old cousin came to his room with a newspaper in hand. “Where did it come from? Who brought it in curfew?”, Tassaduq asked his cousin. He replied, “I don’t know who brought it here but tell me the Kashmiri translation of the news written on the newspaper!" He added, “  heard at the Kandurwaan (bakery) that one another man has been hanged after Afzal Gooer”! (A rumour it was!) Yes, he didn’t say ‘Guru’; not because he was being obedient to Baba Ramdev who said "calling him 'Guru' is an insult to real gurus and saints"! But it is a commonplace farce in our society that we can’t even pronounce the names of those whom we consider heroes, properly. The other day, it was a Hurriyat man in the Mosque who repeatedly said “Afzal Gooer” while extolling his sacrifice from the pulpit.

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Aamir is an orphan who lost his father in the heydays of the Armed Struggle in the late nineties. Practically, with no source of income apart from the Aanganwadi center which is housed in their shanty single story house, his family barely makes ends meet. He passed the Secondary School Examination, recently, with Distinction and enrolled in a coaching institute for Pre-Medical coaching. It has been a week since he last attended his classes at the coaching institute. And yes, they don’t pay back for any missed classes!

Tassaduq always keeps asking him about studies, advising & guiding him when necessary. In fact, it was on his advice only that Aamir enrolled in a local coaching institute than going to Srinagar for coaching. This time when Tassaduq asked Aamir about studies, he replied, “It has been a week now and there isn’t any surety when will the classes resume. If you could tutor me in Physics for some days, rest I’ll do myself!” And thus started Tassaduq’s teaching career!

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The situation in cities and in villages is a case of distinct contrast these days. People in cities virtually live under Z-security cover with a policeman or two allotted to each gate. The only difference between a politician with Z-security and the common man, here, is that the latter can't venture out of his home! On the other hand people in villages, except that they can’t visit the main town market, seem to see very less difference. The elderly sit by the roadside discussing vague issues apart from lamenting the fate of 'that poor fellow who lost his youth in jail'!

Boys play cricket on the deserted link roads and keep some space on the side for that one-off car that may pass by.When that one-off car/lorry approaches, the cricket match doesn’t stop! Boys keep playing & sometimes play with death too, when there is a mismatch; with balls (read Stones) on one side and bazookas on the other. The match doesn’t stop and the sentiment doesn’t stop. The sentiment doesn’t stop and the resistance doesn’t stop. Resistance never stops and injustice never seems to stop, sadly!

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Meanwhile, Tassaduq accidentally clicked on the Twitter bookmark in the Speed-dial of his web browser while he was checking availability of hall-ticket for his exam as soon as Internet was restored! As a result he was back on Twitter, albeit accidentally.

He now tweets under a pseudonym!

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P.S: All the characters are fictional but the narrative is factual!