Kabuliwala...
Open any newspaper, website or a news channel and most likely you will hear about kilings beheadings and bombings by the terrorists. What is the damage they cause? to the property? No..that can be replaced. killing people? Unfortunately when so many are being killed, body count has become just another statistic we stare at for a while before getting lost in our own small world. But the greatest damage these terrorists cause is to the fabric of the society, basic trust on which the socity is all based on.
On one my journeys in a truck, the sikh driver asked me where I was from. On hearing my reply he remarked, when I used to drive truck to your state in late 80's everyone used to suspect me to be a terrorist from punjab hiding from police. I asked him how was the perception of people now, he said it took a long time for that to disappear. I was reminded of the Pathan, I had travelled with...
The train was moving to Guwahati and those were the days after Kandahar incident. A 6.5 foot hefty built guy walked into the compartment with a big bundle of clothes and was looking for a place to sit in the sleeper compartment I was travelling in. I moved a little sideways making place for him. He managed to squeeze his huge body into the small area with his huge arms and legs spreading to the path between the berths. There was a gentleness in his eyes and he reminded me of Kabuliwala of Rabindranath. Soon he was conversing with everyone hapily. He told us that he was a merchant from Afghanistan who sold clothes in some area of Guwahati. He went to Delhi to buy them and was returning. Curious passengers, when they heard he was from Afghanistan asked a lot of questions and he lamented the situation in Afghanistan (Taliban were still in power then). I was watching everyone and occasionally adding a nod or a smile to the conversation. After some time , the train entered Assam and a few policeman boarded the coach. They were looking for possible terrorists and explosives in the train(Which BTW is still very common in NE and was boringly routine for me) and one of the guys stopped and asked the Pathan about his business etc etc. He told him exactly what he had told us a few minutes earlier. I was watching the policeman, who went to the end of the coach and spoke to his colleagues. Few minutes later they appeared and questioned the Pathan again. By this time I was getting angry at the policemen as I suspected that they were after him just to get some money. They questioned him in detail in front of everyone, opened his bundle of clothes which had nothing but loosely tied shawls and blankets of various kinds. He told them with a little pride, 'saab hum do numberi kaam nahin karta hai' . At that point, my sympathies were with Pathan and I was angry at policemen for harrassing a poor man. But a few days later, I read a small newspaper report that a pakistani miliant was caught coming out from the same train I travelled two days ago with a huge cache of explosives and ammunition. I thought about the thankless job that police were doing too, they had to find these perverts while having to deal with thousands of innocents. We only heard of needle in haystack they must be feeling it everyday in their jobs. Dont we all have failed hunches? I could not decide who was wrong, Pathan for having come to NE in search of livelihood or the police doing their duty.
Even many years, I see the same pattern in India and the world again. The damage to property and people killed may not be the worst damage that Al Qaida or Jaish e Muhammad are doing. It is the destruction of trust giving rise to suspicion about a particular community that their henious acts have given rise to that are more damaging in the long run. Frankly, I do not see a way out. God, save this garden from pests!
@
On one my journeys in a truck, the sikh driver asked me where I was from. On hearing my reply he remarked, when I used to drive truck to your state in late 80's everyone used to suspect me to be a terrorist from punjab hiding from police. I asked him how was the perception of people now, he said it took a long time for that to disappear. I was reminded of the Pathan, I had travelled with...
The train was moving to Guwahati and those were the days after Kandahar incident. A 6.5 foot hefty built guy walked into the compartment with a big bundle of clothes and was looking for a place to sit in the sleeper compartment I was travelling in. I moved a little sideways making place for him. He managed to squeeze his huge body into the small area with his huge arms and legs spreading to the path between the berths. There was a gentleness in his eyes and he reminded me of Kabuliwala of Rabindranath. Soon he was conversing with everyone hapily. He told us that he was a merchant from Afghanistan who sold clothes in some area of Guwahati. He went to Delhi to buy them and was returning. Curious passengers, when they heard he was from Afghanistan asked a lot of questions and he lamented the situation in Afghanistan (Taliban were still in power then). I was watching everyone and occasionally adding a nod or a smile to the conversation. After some time , the train entered Assam and a few policeman boarded the coach. They were looking for possible terrorists and explosives in the train(Which BTW is still very common in NE and was boringly routine for me) and one of the guys stopped and asked the Pathan about his business etc etc. He told him exactly what he had told us a few minutes earlier. I was watching the policeman, who went to the end of the coach and spoke to his colleagues. Few minutes later they appeared and questioned the Pathan again. By this time I was getting angry at the policemen as I suspected that they were after him just to get some money. They questioned him in detail in front of everyone, opened his bundle of clothes which had nothing but loosely tied shawls and blankets of various kinds. He told them with a little pride, 'saab hum do numberi kaam nahin karta hai' . At that point, my sympathies were with Pathan and I was angry at policemen for harrassing a poor man. But a few days later, I read a small newspaper report that a pakistani miliant was caught coming out from the same train I travelled two days ago with a huge cache of explosives and ammunition. I thought about the thankless job that police were doing too, they had to find these perverts while having to deal with thousands of innocents. We only heard of needle in haystack they must be feeling it everyday in their jobs. Dont we all have failed hunches? I could not decide who was wrong, Pathan for having come to NE in search of livelihood or the police doing their duty.
Even many years, I see the same pattern in India and the world again. The damage to property and people killed may not be the worst damage that Al Qaida or Jaish e Muhammad are doing. It is the destruction of trust giving rise to suspicion about a particular community that their henious acts have given rise to that are more damaging in the long run. Frankly, I do not see a way out. God, save this garden from pests!
@
posted by atma_tripta at 2:19 PM
2 Comments:
when the london blasts happened, I heard a desi mention that she was travelling in a bus hte next day. And put her hand in her purse searching for something, and immediately everyone was looking at her. Must be wierd.. haven't been the outsider sometime or the other? and felt the animosity?
Others might have felt threatened by me, but Iam generally too lost in thoughts to notice that! But yes... on my walks at night I avoid walking behind strangers walking alone just to avoid being the suspect :)
@
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