Son of a shoe mender, a very brilliant guy at studies and a good striker of a taped tennis ball, Jindu Raam enjoyed the prestige of that wrapped in poverty childhood we passed together.
A very shiny day, Jindu reached school later than he ought to be, his face was covered with moisture of his tears, We all took him in a tight circle and he went on weeping, he said just two words by cleaning his face by the foothills of his shirt, My father passed away in early morning.
Only three of us were left behind, rest left one by one and I asked him surprisingly, so why are you here? They are having him prepared for the rituals, I have nothing to do there, there are about four dozen guys around his body, a lot of women at home, I cant find a way, I love you brothers, so I came here.
Poor Jindu Raam, our boy was in tears but he did not know the result before moving to school to gather some sympathy, here we were a bundle of hate, He is a Hindu, so let them burn his father, is that our business for today guys? One of us chanted from behind.
We were told and taught hatred, so we practiced it, I remember a teasing joke we all were use to talk about, Some friends called him openly that he is not Circumcised, he was pressurized to think that he is different from the rest of all, we were use to gag at him and that became a daily business for him to bear it all.
After a day or two, I asked his cousin the way to his home, I came through a long way of cotton fields and entered into a mud house, there was my friend Jindu Raam along with his family, he embraced me like never before, he said things are going to be normal soon, the ritual has been done this early morning , they took my father far away, and I even do not know what they did with his body and there was a sudden call of his mother, the saddest face I had ever seen , thank you for coming, thank you for your sympathies towards us, but let me ask you one thing, does anybody know that you are here? At a Hindus house? I hugged her and said Maasi (Aunt) do not bother about it, my mother knows where I am and she had let me take the steps out of my house to come here
Would you come to play next evening Jindu? I asked departing his doorstep, he nodded his head and said I must help my mother, and most probably I wont carry on my studies, you see except some of you all school hates me, they call me a Hindu and my uncle knows that well, so he wont let me get back to that hell again.
Back there in the grounds near water tanks, my friends were geared up to play without me and Jindu Raam, I joined them and we went on playing all the day long on next day but we really missed our striker, our friend the Jindu Raam.
The last time I saw him, he was subordinate to a gold smith, and when I moved to Liaquatpur Commerce College, there was another Hindu Lachman Raam, the friendship of us saw a deep criticism of my late father. Having known that he is also a Hindu, I was deeply concerned about his way of life, nothing differentiated us excluding our beliefs, I still miss you my friends, Jindu and Lachman.
Apart from beliefs we have social barriers in Pakistan when it comes to minorities, the thing which must get eliminated, hatred must be replaced by love and sympathy that is not a call of mine, its call of Islam.
A very shiny day, Jindu reached school later than he ought to be, his face was covered with moisture of his tears, We all took him in a tight circle and he went on weeping, he said just two words by cleaning his face by the foothills of his shirt, My father passed away in early morning.
Only three of us were left behind, rest left one by one and I asked him surprisingly, so why are you here? They are having him prepared for the rituals, I have nothing to do there, there are about four dozen guys around his body, a lot of women at home, I cant find a way, I love you brothers, so I came here.
Poor Jindu Raam, our boy was in tears but he did not know the result before moving to school to gather some sympathy, here we were a bundle of hate, He is a Hindu, so let them burn his father, is that our business for today guys? One of us chanted from behind.
We were told and taught hatred, so we practiced it, I remember a teasing joke we all were use to talk about, Some friends called him openly that he is not Circumcised, he was pressurized to think that he is different from the rest of all, we were use to gag at him and that became a daily business for him to bear it all.
After a day or two, I asked his cousin the way to his home, I came through a long way of cotton fields and entered into a mud house, there was my friend Jindu Raam along with his family, he embraced me like never before, he said things are going to be normal soon, the ritual has been done this early morning , they took my father far away, and I even do not know what they did with his body and there was a sudden call of his mother, the saddest face I had ever seen , thank you for coming, thank you for your sympathies towards us, but let me ask you one thing, does anybody know that you are here? At a Hindus house? I hugged her and said Maasi (Aunt) do not bother about it, my mother knows where I am and she had let me take the steps out of my house to come here
Would you come to play next evening Jindu? I asked departing his doorstep, he nodded his head and said I must help my mother, and most probably I wont carry on my studies, you see except some of you all school hates me, they call me a Hindu and my uncle knows that well, so he wont let me get back to that hell again.
Back there in the grounds near water tanks, my friends were geared up to play without me and Jindu Raam, I joined them and we went on playing all the day long on next day but we really missed our striker, our friend the Jindu Raam.
The last time I saw him, he was subordinate to a gold smith, and when I moved to Liaquatpur Commerce College, there was another Hindu Lachman Raam, the friendship of us saw a deep criticism of my late father. Having known that he is also a Hindu, I was deeply concerned about his way of life, nothing differentiated us excluding our beliefs, I still miss you my friends, Jindu and Lachman.
Apart from beliefs we have social barriers in Pakistan when it comes to minorities, the thing which must get eliminated, hatred must be replaced by love and sympathy that is not a call of mine, its call of Islam.
