In a bid to achieve the title of well brought up girls, our mother would expect us to be neat, clean and ready to help in domestic chores to Noor-u-din the houseboy from Beeru, Badgam. He was a born suspence story teller and with chill and thrill in his bones he could frighten us with tales of truth from Qabile’war, the tribal invasion. He was our first historian to inform us about our fractured history. A teenager at the time of partition of India in 1947, an eye witness to heart rendering incidents of gruesome mutilation, listening to his true dehumanizing terror tales would give us goose bumps with pins and needles in our tiny souls. He didn’t know anything about Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru or Patel nor could he pronounce Lord Mountbatten but he knew about Indian army and Qabalies, the tribal men from the other side of the border and the men in uniform.. Tale after tale he would tell us stories of massacre that took place around the area he lived, the burning alive of people in their homes and dis-honoring women folk beyond imagination. We had a cool serene fresh water stream running in the middle of our courtyard and Noor-ud-din’s story line would start with washing of utensils on the stream. Late in life I realized how impressed he looked by the daring acts of tribal people but at the same time hated the inhumane scenes that they brought with their presence in his area. He would often sing a song on the stream repeatedly and would ask us to join him in his jubilant singing mood “arm’e aayee kame tareeqo dum tareeqo ho”army is here to help us referring to Indian army jawans who had stepped on his soil. But after finishing the happy song, he would look up in the sky and with misty eyes and a heavy voice would say Wuh Khadai banav tum qabail , oh God make me one among the tribal men. He was a true aborigine, depicting the impulsive variability archetype, a trait of misbalancing ambition. He would love to feel secure with Indian army around but in his heart of hearts would like to merge with Pakistan.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 09:10:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015