Chibi rush!

 

“Where’s Coronavirus when you need it?” 

These are the exact words of a stranger on the internet when we are vaccinating ourselves under the facade of freedom. War zone is detested more than a virus in the 21st century!

I’m disgusted with what’s happening in the world; the resurgence of the Taliban. I’m not surprised, except at the fact that all these are happening in 2021 & not in 2001. I still remember when Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump, including those in America who were celebrating the same way when Imran Khan replaced Nawab Sharif in Pakistan. But today it all comes down to the question, “what for?” For hyper-individualism, toxic imperialism, or for degrading humanism? As Itachi would have said, “becoming the Hokage doesn’t mean people will acknowledge you, but when the people acknowledge you, you can become Hokage”. I think Mr. Biden stumbled upon the second part after what he has brought down upon Afghanistan. If I’ve to make an analogy with how our present education system is killing creativity, I would say that the educational institutions like 'schools' and 'colleges' represent Afghanistan, where the 'students' are dominated by extremist leaders including some 'teachers' and the 'principal' who are obsessed with bookish knowledge and degrees and the 'parents' play the role of American delegates who know what is right, yet they are too afraid to take that side. 

I was reading something and suddenly my attention was caught by a rather unpopular opinion by an American resident asking “why should America sacrifice for Afghanistan? It’s their internal matter, so they should resolve it by themselves”. This is where human ignorance stupefies me. They always discriminate until it comes down upon themselves. Yet, another unpopular opinion by a Kashmiri read as “read the ideology of the Taliban, it’s for the best”. A world, which thinks that sexual servitude of teenage girls, forceful female domination, extremist rule, terrorism, and other such vices are for the best, is surely doomed. What surprised me the most is that the word ‘Taliban’ means 'students' in the Pashto language (a native language of Afghanistan). You cannot unsee the irony here, can you?!

An analogy I've come up with reminded me of the character of Danzo from the anime series Naruto, with which most of you are familiar. Mr. Biden is much like him, though I'm not saying his intentions were all bad. Think of Afghans as the people of the Uchiha clan and that makes Afghanistan the Hidden Leaf village and the American troops staying there are the people of the village. Mr. Biden only thinks about rescuing his citizens, much like Danzo who never cared about the Uchiha clan (here Afghans). But can both Danzo and Mr. Biden wash their hands off the truth that they were responsible for the resentment and sufferings of those people that have accumulated over the years? They could've sought some decent ways rather than submitting to tyranny and violence.

The scene of the airport where people were rushing & clinging to the plane to save their lives was terrifying. A country whose president has fled can’t do any better, I suppose. But as I’ve always said, I’m sadder for the children, they didn’t even get the chance to choose between life & death. This reminded me of a book I read quite a few months ago whose setting was in Afghanistan, ‘The Kite Runner’. I remember Assef saying these words to Amir, “Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage.” Well, Assef was a member of the Taliban. Ethnic cleansing which is a deep-rooted problem in Afghanistan has been portrayed in this book through Hassan & his father. Though I would prefer not to indulge in the controversial issues regarding the author of this book, but I hope that it doesn’t turn to something as Amir has said “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood”.

I think we've to resort to the only way left as Huma Mia, whose family is stuck amid this Kabul chaos, has said "we have only one hope, and that is in praying". 

It's important for us to stick by our closed ones in their ups and downs. That's what we do for the things and the people we love. We learn to be patient with them by holding their hands, no matter how many times they slip. We learn to forgive them and cheer them up, no matter how many times they fail. Furthermore, we learn to be there for them, even if we're breaking from the inside. Don't be sad today, because I believe, your loved ones would revive their status someday. Maybe, we will witness their glory together. The world is an abyss now, but tomorrow will definitely be a better one.

Picture credit-: pho.tobar (https://instagram.com/pho.tobar?utm_medium=copy_link)