18 Hours and Hope Beyond

Confusion, Profuse Gun fire exchanges, Tensed baffled faces, Air strikes, Rocket Propelled Granades, thick smokes, and even law makers picking up guns to retaliate through the night and into the morning. This looks like an intense Bollywood movie scene. You got to read the Morning Headlines and its details to believe it. Yes the real life drama was tiring and long. 18 continuous terrorizing hours spread across seven key sites including Parliament was their way of welcoming spring. The attempt was to scream aloud, "the tribe is not extinct". This firework was by far the biggest since 2001, a well coordinated attempt by the insurgents as the media reported.

Frequent loud booms of explosions, cyclic crackle of gunfire and wailing sirens interrupted my forced attempt to sleep whole night. It was something like a Diwali night scene of around 1 AM when some energetic enthusiasts refuse to let Diwali slip by. The only difference was absence of typical sulfur smell of fireworks.

Monday morning is unusually calm. No the air around is not serene and comforting. I see that even the fresh tender leaves of the spring have pretty fast learnt “white City”, “Grey City” terminologies of the UN security and are maintaining a terrifying silence. The birds’ chirping is noticeably missing. Traffic screeches and horns have suddenly evaporated. Kabul, the 3500 year old city of now 3 million, that has seen many empires battling over the valley, is continuing its battle almost in each corner huddled and cornered. The only silence breaker is the sound of the clock in my room intermittently overpowered by message and incoming call ring tones on my phone inquiring about my well being.

Tonnes of our tax payers’ money will again go in preparing reports based on “careful analysis” of the “security lapses” and topics of similar genre. Symptoms will again be discussed and brainstormed. But why this violent way of seeking solutions that has predominated Human history, will not find answers. Ask the commons and fingers would be pointed to leadership. Aah leadership that is an interesting aspect. Seen historically, every society leader is expected to protect its tribe and has been its source of legitimacy and power. The tribe that we individually identify ourselves with have always found comfort in our little cocoons. And the rivalry to outsmart each other continues. I guess the Time has come for “citizens of the world to unite” to lead their leaders for a change. Lest, all profound knowledge of peace, love, care contained in those hard bound cocooned literature said in different shades with which we identify ourselves will continue to fail  us generations after generations. History Teaches But we have failed History at least till now.

Just pondering....How shall we unite the “citizens of the world”?