It was 23rd march. The day when Bhagat singh, Rajguru nad Sukhdev were hanged. Amidst the national turmoil, in the backdrop of beautiful kashmir valley, Rukhasar gave birth to a beautiful baby boy with deep blue eyes. He was named Rafiq a synonym to friend. The boy had every trait of a true friend. Just at the moment when Rafiq was born, Amit, with green eyes, was born to Rekha. The two grew up in the same surroundings and became close friends with time. They would spend most of their time together. Most oftheir childhood and teenage was spent listening to the stories from hindu and islamic mythology. Where diwali brought light to their life, Eid brought sweetened kheer and sewai.They would spend hours knitting every year and every day of their future together, never letting any one out of the frame at Bashir's tea stall. The tea stall was close to their heart. The earthen pots which held the tea, the stone slabs and withering Bashir chacha's beard were evident to every dream they spun together.But the destiny had something else in hold for them. Post partition the town which lay on the very pakistan india border was divided into two halves. Half of the town went to Pakistan and other half went to India.The two friends were parted as Rafiq went to pakistan. The tides of time had never stopped for anybody and it didn't even.Time moved and so did the earth but the relation between the two countries, with time, worsened. Together yet apart, the two saw the nations fight for the very land which once was their home. 55 years passed. Like many others they too grew old. Their hair now white and skin wrinkled, yet they had a hope of meeting each other someday.They met again. It was not india nor pakistan. It was Kashmir where they met again. At first, they couldnt recognise each. But then besides finger prints there are eyes and smiles that talk too. The deep blue eyes met the deep green ones and as if the time stopped and suddenly everything blurred. They hugged each other as tears welled out of their eyes. The two old souls met with the same childish excitement. The clock had just rolled back to 55 years as they stood together in humming market of town.It was the very spot where once stood the Bashir's tea stall.One evening as they sat at the very place where now stood a tall banyan tree instead of the tea stall.A boy came and stood near them and kept staring at them.As the blue and green eyes met the brown eyes of boy, he smiledThey asked him. "What are you looking at son!".He said, "I am looking at the bond of affection you two share". And then he told them that he too had a friend like them but he was shot a fortnight ago.The ease with which the boy said that left them agahast and despaired at the same time. They felt sad for the boy and hugged him and gave him a chocolate to eat.The boy ate the chocolate as if he had not eaten for days. He actually had not for days now. His thin frame and popping out eyes said his story for itself.Orphan now,after losing his friend and family to terrorism, and shattered. The sudden love took the boy with surprise. The tears that had relented for so long to come out, the tears which lay frozen because of shock and fear. They came crashing and splashing out of his eyes.The two old friends bewildered didn't know what to say to the poor kid. So, in order to console him they asked the boy," Would u like to listen a story son ?".The boy distraught until few moments back was more content now. He smiled and said, " i would love to."So the two friends begun."Once, the heaven lay on earth. For god it was the purest of all places, so he put heaven on earth. The trees, the Deodars stood high and mighty all along the heavensborder as if they were some guardian angels who had been asked to protect the sanctity of the place. The heaven remained there for centuries until the day when humanscame.They, the humans, had come looking for heaven and they found it. They named it Kashmir.Agar ruhe Zameen Asto, Ami Asto Ami Asto.If their is heaven on the earth, it is this, it is this, they said.In the beginning it was all fine they kept the place intact and adapted to heaven but soon the fine thread of human to human bond begun to wither.It grew from meagrequarrels to massive fights and finally as the humans always did, they divided the place into two. Yet the bloodshed didnt stop,it was followed by militancy.One side called its troops and the other kept sending wolves under the skin of terrorists. The bridge, of faith of love, that had for so long been intact begun to shake.Fear begun to surface. And the valley that was once heralded as heaven on earth, that brimmed with the music of birds chirping, people chattering and the thuddingsound of running kids, was replaced by sounds of bullets and gunshots. Soon amidst all the commotion it become difficult to know who the real wolves were.Then one day as the people sat, all saddened with the commotion and fights the pain the pang of loosing the innocents and there dear ones, moaning therelosses. A small kid addressed the crowd and called for everyone's attention. He said, "Look! Look up in the sky! " There hovered 2 eagles. The boy said again, "These arethe governments of the two countries. Look. how their eyes contain the greed and the lust for the people below. Look! as they hover in the hope of flesh.Flesh of those who had died, and the ones who would die soon, fighting the meaningless battle against their very own people. The infighting propelled by the adulteratedand ulterior actions of the two eagles."People saw everything right up, as the boy spoke. They knew what the boy meant when he showed them two governments. Yet they knew they couldnt reach them. "And so the two old man told the little boy, "That is how it has always been.", the boy looked up and he saw the two eagles still hovering not so high yet so far.The boy understood the reason behind all the hardships and now he knew the reason behind all the circumstances the true reason behind his friends death yet he couldn'tsmile because he knew. It was the problem he knew,like the old men said, not the solution. THE END!
