'WE ARE FORCED TO BEAR WITNESS'

Before I start writing on my feelings about the shocking incident that took place in Mumbai, I must salute our brave Indian Army. I did not feel like writing about it earlier. But now I feel that if I do not express my feelings about it, I will be turning away from reality.

We all know that life is uncertain and anytime anyhow we will have to leave the world, but the trauma of going through living hell is inexplicably excruciating. As I was reading the interviews of survivors of this holocaust, I was completely shaken. I did not know how to react. The traumatic experience has left an indelible impact on their lives and the nightmarish memories would continue to haunt them in the years to come making them breathe in a life-in-death.


My fears can best be expressed in T.S.Eliot’s words:

“There has been minor injustice,
Yet we have gone on living,
Living and partly living.
Sometimes the corn has failed us,
Sometimes the harvest is good,
One year is a year of rain,
Another a year of dryness,
One year the apples are abundant,
Another year the plums are lacking.
Yet we have gone on living,
Living and partly living.
We have kept the feasts, heard the masses,
We have brewed beer and cyder,
Gathered wood against the winter,
Talked at the corner of the fire,
Talked at the corners of streets,
Talked not always in whispers,
Living and partly living.
We have seen births, deaths and marriages,
We have had various scandals,
We have been afflicted with taxes,
We have had laughter and gossip,
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
We have all had our private terrors,
Our particular shadows, our secret fears.
But now a great fear is upon us, a fear not of one but of many,
…………………………………..
…………..We
Are afraid in a fear which we cannot know, which we cannot face, which none understands,
And our hearts are torn from us, our brains unskinned like the layers of an onion, our selves are lost
In a final fear which none understands ……..”