I am thinking..

I still remember that I was at my friend’s home where I saw the twin towers getting hit by planes. I was in class 11th then and it didn’t matter to me whatever it was. It didn’t matter to me what followed after that in Afghanistan. All I knew was that they attacked America and now it’s america who was taking revenge. I remember there were talks in India that time about America’s boldness and India’s feebleness - This is how America treat their enemies, does India have power to attack its enemies; enemies such as Pakistan who prepare terrorist against India. Well ! whatever, it didn’t matter to me.

Today I visited Afghanistan with Khaled Hosseini. The journey lasted 300 hundred pages which I traveled at a stretch. My longest journey till now which I experienced with ‘A thousand Splendid Suns’.

This journey has left me with myriad questions; questions about life, questions about death, questions about love, questions about freedom, questions about hope, questions about faith and questions about God. And I am sure that there are no answers to most of them. If there are they are all subjective answers, not objective.

Somehow I am feeling luckier today not to be born in few thousand kilometers west of where I am. Somehow I am cherishing the freedom which I exercise here in India and somehow I am thanking all those who made India what it is today. Somehow I am questioning God! (It’s too subjective about God, so I won’t write anything. I am not valorous like Bhagat Singh to pen down my thoughts about the Supreme)

I was aware about the pathetic situation in Afghanistan, about the Taliban’s brutal rules, but in this journey I saw Afghanistan through the people’s eyes. People who loved, people who made promises, people who dreamed, people who laughed, so what if missiles were penetrating in neighborhood, so what if the next time it could penetrate their own house, so what if life was all about fulfilling the basic necessity for survival. A paragon of Hope. I realized, hope gives purpose in life and strength to endure.

Huuhh.. so many thoughts are clashing in my mind and I am not able to write anything. Suddenly I am longing to see my family, to talk to them. And in such times I hate being so far from my family.

I am thankful to CAT because I started reading to prepare for this exam. I am learning so much about life. I really am!