A prolonged Judgment Day the Partition was
Naseer Ahmed
1947, Dear Guru ji (The Guide)
My name is Kartar Singh. I am a 12 year old lad. I live in a village near Rawalpindi. I am watching the disgrace of a life from our rooftop while trying to hide myself from what is happening in our yard. There are plenty of people down there, people with angry faces and dangerous weapons. I see my Da ji (my father) is crawling and pleading for mercy. I see my ma ji (my mother’s) beautiful face drenched in blood.
I see my Didi (sister) being thrashed. It hurts me and I am crying. I know a few men there. They buy, borrow and collect the things we all need from our shop. I call them uncles and brothers. I do not know what happened to these good people that they are so horrible to my Da ji, my Ma ji and my Didi.
They are yelling in Urdu and Arabic a few things. They talk about a new country where Sikhs are not wanted. It is our home. Please tell me why should we leave our home? They are talking about some meanings too. Please tell me what are meanings of Pakistan? We boys have a book of words and meanings. We copy them and we learn them by heart. It does not hurt anybody. Why do meanings of a Persian word take away all that I have and all that I love? Please tell me.
1971, Dear Tagore ji
My name Shams ur Rehman.I am a 60 year old man. I live in a poor District of Dhaka.The soldiers have killed all my family, my wife, my sons and my cousins. They burned everything down too, my home, our street, your poetry and many other things. They raped my young daughters and murdered them too.
We all subscribed to some meanings long time ago. Meanings of freedom turned into murdering Muslims. Meanings of Pakistan a land of pure turned into killing Hindus and Sikhs.The beauty of life and poetry was lost in search for meanings and purposes.
The people with clear purposes and clear intentions have used meanings to confuse us all once again. I have lost everything but I am still looking for meanings. Could you please enlighten me what are meanings of Pakistan?
1984, Pir ji
I am a blind woman. Some violent men raped me. I went for justice and the judge says I must be stoned to death because I could not provide evidence for my victimhood. I am a blind woman but it seems justice is also too blind to see the devil in law book amended by a devil in power. Please guide me, I am blind and I cannot read meaning but my traumatic experience tells me they have lost meanings in the darkness of violence and lack of compassion. Please send some human to find these meanings of the Land of Pure?
Angels you sent last time came back with wrong meanings. Perhaps angels are too pure to feel the pain of humans. Perhaps there are no angels at all but I am a blind battered woman, I cannot be sure of anything but hurt and pain.
2012, Dear Imam Ali,
My name is Abbas. Wherever we get together; there is blast and charred bodies. Whenever we are on our own, they use our names and identity cards to shoot us. You are wise man, a sage and a fountain of compassion. Could you please enlighten us what are meanings that lead to such cruel and pointless violence?
1943, Dear Lord, our God
My name is Emma. I work in a factory where we make gas chambers. There is a story here that we all we work here would be killed in those gas chambers we make. We see so many people going somewhere never to return. The Swastika soldiers compare us to stinking rodents. It is just to make their cruelty easy on them. Life is quite horrible here, but we are living and life is a hope thing. Most of us are praying for death, but you know it does not come when you want it.
I saw a dream where some wounded, broken, battered and shattered people from some exotic land, perhaps India, were searching for meanings of some pure land? It seems what is happening here is also happening somewhere else?
It is future or past? I wish it is just past. What are meanings of the Land of Pure? Is it land of opportunity? Is it Promised Land? Is it land of democracy? Is it land of pure like this one? I hope it is not like that. But those exotic people were in the same condition we are here in these camps? Please tell me? If future is like that, I would lose hope too, and I am the only one who has hopes here, perhaps?
