The race to nowhere
By: Eijaz Mir
The people were busy in making finished products, tools at the factories and industries. The smoke was spreading in the atmosphere coming out of the big and giant chimneys. The hustle and bustle in the markets caught my attention towards a little girl who wa sitting at the doorsteps of a shopkeeper.
I was watching her actions and suddenly I noticed that she was whispering some unusual words and sounds from her mouth. So out of the curiosity, I came near to her and asked her to utter bit louder what she was uttering? To my astonishment, “She couldn’t speak clearly because she was stammering and I was unable to get her.
I enquired, “Is she alone in the market or anybody else accompanied her? She tried to talk in a stammering voice, nay nay, nay… So I half heartedly tried to guess that she was all alone in the busy market.
The sellers in the market were catching attention of the customers towards themselves by raising their loud voices and inviting people to buy from them. In the meantime, some people were busy in buying groceries and some were buying other stuffs for their families. While watching all the activity, the little girl murmured something unusual. So it puzzled me not to get her ascent properly.
I felt depressed and emotionally broken because the little girl who looked so beautiful was shivering. I sat down on the dust and gazed at the other children who seemed lost in the world of their own imagination. They were busy in playing traditional games and some among them were singing the songs.
My sparkling gaze on the little girls face seemed to be the antidote for changing her behaviour. She voiced in a stammer, “uncle where is my father, mother and elder brother, my little doll…?
The question she put up and her little stammering feeble voice tore my heart into infinite pieces. It was Eid-ul-Fitr, the festival of Muslims celebrated after the completion of 30 days of holy Month, Ramadan. Yester Night, there was a heavy artillery in one of our nearby villages.
The firing of the heavy machine guns continued for about four hours in which a man, woman and a little boy lost their lives. The little girl was the only survivor in the family. She was the same girl who was sitting all alone shivering with fear, aghast, terrified and half insane.
The tears started running down from my eyes and I gave her a tight hug. In the despair and traumatized moment, I could listen to the sound of her innocent heart. I took her to my home, but could give her a lost doll only, not her Abba, Amma and Baya.
Wars have a deep effect on the lives of people. It snatches the peace of minds and leaves us in the hapless situation. It takes the precious human lives and makes us helpless, tattered and broken forever. It is not easy to overcome from the traumas caused by these dreadful wars.
The unending destruction arising out of these wars leave us awed, shocked and traumatized. The heavy artillery and race of arms breakdown us physically, mentally emotionally and psychologically. With the result, thousands of children become orphans and tens of father’s lose their sons and daughters.
We can’t live within the pangs of such huge catastrophe caused by us in greediness of power and authority. The power and authority doesn’t mean to denounce the security and freedom of others. I could hear the cries and sighs of people everywhere, in the cities, villages, streets and even in the small corners.
We have not left any stone unturned in mutilating the peace, relief, freedom and security of others. This is all what we have achieved so far in the race for artillery and guns. The smoke coming out from these machine guns and the horrible sounds produced by the bullets have turned us mentally sick and physically lean and unhealthy. We are not able to survive for the good cause because sense of insecurity and lack of peace has mentally retarded us. We have turned mentally sick and tired.
As a columnist, I would like to enquire that greediness of insane power and undue authority over others will destroy all the good aspects of humanity. If such power continues like this, in near future we are going to witness a human catastrophe. At the end my opinion on this take is to eliminate the race of insane competition of arms and artillery.
The human lives matter the most and we should take utmost care of this precious resource for the sake of humanity. All the humans on the planet are same. We breath same, we wear the same, we eat the same food and so on. We are one body wearing one uniform. Then why this bloodshed!
(The columnist is a freelancer)