My first memory of War is the Srilankan War. The death of Mr Prabhakarar is what makes me say this. I could have been in my 3rd or 4th grade then; the whole of Tamil Nadu was thunder stunned along with the world. At that age, all I knew was that he was the idol of Tamil People there. He was defeated and killed brutally and his picture was censored on the cover of “Reporter”, “Junior Vikadan” and the other Tamil Weeklies my father used to buy. Peripa and Appa were involved in serious discussion about it, like any other Tamilan. They were suspecting that it could be another one of Mr Prabhakarar’s master plan, where he comes alive and shocks the enemy. I remember the following week’s Tamil Weeklies Cover Image depicting Mr Prabhakarar watching the TV; watching the news of his death being telecasted. I was so much into all these conversations. I naturally loved the discussions of Politics and the issues and the political figures. To be honest, I used to be an ardent fan of Mr Veerappan as well. I loved his mustache and how he had so much magnificence attached to his name. Everyone used to be terrified just hearing his name. Other State goons, terrorists and one againsts social welfare never entered Tamil Nadu’s Forest regions, it was his Kingdom, and he was the King; literally. The news of his death broke my little heart actually. My father read it to me from “Dinamalar.”
Since the death of Mr Prabhakarar and Mr Veerapan I haven’t had any such intense idols of pure class and mastery and courage. But I have heard other news of terrorist acts. Like, bomblast in Ariana’s Concert, a bomb blast in Coimbatore and many others. But what made me write this blog is the recent invasion of Afghanistan by the Talibans.
I have no intention to get on with the complete info of it. You guys might have already known about it. You would’ve seen the image of thousands of Afghans running for their lives, clinging onto the plane for survival, from which three fell off and two had already died. You would have also seen Afghan Women who are struck there fearing their lives, education, freedom and their dignity. Women send out their kids with the blanket off to India just so that they can “live.” You would have seen all this in Instagram and from the other Social Media platforms.
As just another human being I can do nothing of any sort that is going to stop this. After all, if the UN has nothing to do with this, who am I? All I can do, all I know, is just to write, to reflect my thoughts. But I have always had one thought lingering in my mind since the very day I heard of Srilankan War, and that is
“WHY?”
As in why this anger and evil plots to kill other human beings, why does one have to invade another’s home country? What’s with all the borders? The Military, Navy, Army officials guarding the nation day and night and many being killed in the due course… Why all this? I mean what for? Who are we to set the borders? Who are we to separate and name each Nation and to declare that other’s shouldn’t be allowed after a particular geographical area? Who the hell are we?
And what does it give us? What is the end result? We are certainly not going to take any material wealth that we earned during our lifetime to the graveyard. So why all this? I have known from a personal experience that life is bloody uncertain. Tomorrow is uncertain, next hour, next minute is uncertain.
So why can’t we just live our lives with love and compassion for one another? And leave the rest to the almighty’s hands?
Why can’t life be like that? It’s so simple. Why are we complicating it?
Why?
With so much more questions and thoughts,
Shilpasrecitals.
perception21 