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asifzschool · 6 years ago

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A War is Coming

'86 corpses have been taken out from the rubble of last night's fire in Dhaka today', said I.

People in the room did not seem to get it.

'Did you understand what he just said'? Asked Mohini.

We were in our classroom.

'No'. Zariha replied.

I had to say it again, whether it made a difference in the world or not.

I did not expect them to give a damn. Because who said I give a damn myself?

Miss Alia went to bring the projector which was not working. Now she was back. It still did not work.

DVD was trying to fix it.

That's what we call him, DVD. His full name is Dayal Varun Divyacharya.

It was 21st February, the clock was at 12. This was our news writing class.

The morning class did not happen. We waited three long hours before the next class starts.

Inside, I was bursting out.

I went out to the corridor for a smoke, when Miss Alia left. I was checkeing Facebook. People were uploading those nasty pictures, the burnt dead bodies.

The kind of fetish Bangladeshi people have. A dead body they can not spare. A dead body is a hot product in my country.

Some stories were in circulation now, husband and wife died together, husband refused to leave pregnant wife and burned to death together, etc etc.

It was the national martyrdom day in Bangladesh. It started off with fresh martyrs, though I wasn’t sure if the fire has came from Pakistan!

But I knew too well - something was being hushed up. Something else was in the news.

The day before, we were talking about the Kashmir issue.

It was Kashmir which had the suicide bombing, a week ago. Almost 50 Indian military personnel were killed.

In Bangladesh, people were celebrating it. They love it every time Indians get killed.

Makes it perfect. Ignorant, poor fools - are bound to celebrate, aren’t they? We know God blessed Modi, and just how blessed he is. He always has those ignorant fools to show the world, because fact is a fact. And the fact is, world needs Modi.

Everything has a long background history.

The reason behind this Bangladeshi hatred towards Indians has a backstory, too.

India has been messing with Bangladesh from ages. If you kill somebody and expect he would thank you for killing him, you would be making a mistake. He would, instead, like to kill you first, before getting murdered by you himself. That’s human nature.

For Bangladeshis to feel sensitive towards India, the biggest country of South Asia has to start by showing sympathy towards Bangladeshis.

It is India who decides who shall come to power in Bangladesh. It has been 50 years of Indian puppets in the government in my country.

Bangladesh shares a lot of common phenomenon with Kashmir. As example, border killing. The most famous case was a girl named Felani. In Kashmir, she took a different name. Her name was Asifa, a child who was raped and murdered by Indians.

The undeniable fact is, Bangladesh and Kashmir also share the same religion. Both of them have a Muslim majority population.

Things always become about religion in this subcontinent. The politics, the bomb blasts, even in the Pakistani Sufi Shrines - it always is about religion, which is dirty enough as it is.

These stories are from the Indian subcontinent. It is a place where people have fought wars for religion, where things are always getting heated up over religious identity, where fundamentalism thrives in all its countries more or less.

But mostly, two countries. India and Pakistan. Bangladesh is nothing more than India’s back up party, which is why it was created. Kashmir is a disputed territory, both India and Pakistan has been claiming it ever since 1947.

Right now, there was a suicide bombing in the newspapers. Along with the Taliban terrorists hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, India has its fare share of Hindutva fanatics. They were threatening Pakistan, giving war mongering speeches on a daily basis.

The suicide attack was a boon for India. The whole nation woke up from their bed again. They were sleeping from so long! They now had a chance of war.

But we were waiting for it from a long time as well. All of us were involved in this, the Bangladeshis, the Pakistanis and the Indians. All of us wanted to see an end to this.

The moment was here, finally. The war started. We all knew by then, a war is coming.

III

I was emotionally involved. I wanted to fight the war myself, with India. So did the Kashmiris. They have taken enough shits. We too have taken enough savagery. Now we wanted to break free.

It was a chance for us to fight for our freedom, too. We too wanted a war.

But physically, I was in Malaysia, having my class.

The news did not reach here. It was not Malaysia’s concern, either.

Life is way more different here. All the religious communities, Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists are living in peace in this country.

But that's not how things are in the part of the world where I came from. Hindutva fundamentalism was at its peak in the last few years. It affected the Bangladeshi Muslims as well, because our government is India-sponsored.

We were waiting for a war. People started to celebrate the deaths of Indian military. As people do, in war camps - when the enemy castle has fallen.

US was playing a good boy, pretending like they were taking the Pakistani side. China was giving its Veto to Pakistan, and the whole India was boiling.

We all knew, a war is coming.

This was the situation when a building caught fire in Dhaka, which is the capital city of Bangladesh.

The day before, it was Kashmir in the social media. The day after, it was the fire.

We are students of journalism. We know too well how news items replace each other, how it shifts the focus from one issue to another.

People were not talking about Kashmir now. They were talking about the fire.

Kashmir is definitely a Muslim issue. We might try our best, it wouldn’t make the politics of religious identity go away. Because, how dirty it is! Yet we will always be questioned about our identity, ‘which religion’, we will be seen through that lens.

And we Muslims, we will be showered with stories of fanatic Mullahs, misogynist fatwas and communal Muslims - the moment we attempt to speak up against rape in Kashmir.

Especially in Bangladesh, it is taken for granted. Only Pakistanis can rape, Indians aren’t capable of raping. Indians don’t have dicks. And in case when Indians have dicks, they don’t work. Simple as that.

How to talk about it and not to sound communal? I have spent years trying to figure out, I couldn’t. When it comes to Kashmir.

The communal Muslims are definitely there in Pakistan and Bangladesh. But so are Hindutva fanatics.

In the post 9/11 world, stories of Muslim fanaticism are always taking the central stage, while Hindutva gets excused.

BJP is a Hindutva fanatic party. Hindutva fanatics get their worldwide discounts. US media is not interested about them. It feels more threatened by the Muslim terrorists, and it expects everybody to feel threatened by the same monster it fears.

But this time, things were different. This time, the global press had to give a damn about all the Kashmiris getting raped and killed by the Indian military.

But Almighty saved us with Miss Alia. She came back, with her laptop.

She was trying to fix that wretched projector she had. Her laptop wouldn’t let her, it was from the year 1998. We started laughing.

We were six people in the class. Me, Zariha, Mohini, Trina, DVD and Kritika. Trina left after a while, for some emergency reason.

Now she started telling us about our assignments.

We have to write two articles, both of them would hopefully go into print for the school bulletin.

‘But remember, you cannot criticize Tan Sri Limkokwing, the founder of this university. Criticize me as you want, don’t put a word against him.’

She said.

That sounded like something different to my ear. Something from my country.

‘You cannot criticize the government. If you do, you are solely responsible for what happens next.’

That is the rule in Bangladesh.

‘Are we expected to do things like that, mam? The stuffs and the teachers?’ I asked.

'You can criticize, but be careful. This is Limkokwing, not utopia.’

- ‘Well.’

That’s how it started.

Miss Alia।। So, how are things, guys?

DVD was replying to that question, when I interrupted.

Me।। What do you think about too much pro-government news, mam?

Miss Alia।। Well, it happens all the time in countries where there is a tight control on the Press. It is as it is.

Me।। Yes, mam. But what are people supposed to do when the press is covering up the crimes of the government?

Miss Alia।। You cannot hide the truth. That is against the ethics of journalism.

Me।। There was a fire in my country last night. So far, they have taken out 86 dead bodies, more are coming.

I told myself a thousand times that I would not talk about this, since I entered the class. I would not talk about Kashmir, I told myself. Because I would burst out, I knew.

But I couldn’t help it.

‘What I suspect is, the government is behind it. They are hushing up something.

Two days ago, people were talking about Kashmir. You know about the suicide bombing that happened............’

She came closer to my desk at this point, tiptoeing towards me, with hands crossed behind her back.

Me ।। In Bangladesh, people were talking about Kashmir until it happened.

In my country, they were more leaning towards Pakistan. Now the whole topic has changed. Now they are talking about the fire.

The thing is, I hate it. We are a fascist country. I know that. We love dead bodies. That’s our main news item. We hush up the dead with the dead. But I hate it.

I hate that 86 people had to burn to their deaths to cover up something for the power house. I don’t know the reason why.

Here I stopped. I tried to change what I was saying from Kashmir to ‘my country’, as I was already loosing myself. In reality, I don’t give a shit about ‘my country’.

Now she started to talk back.

- ‘Well Asif, I am very sorry for what has happened in your country.

However, things are happening everyday in the world. As journalists, our duty is to be objective about it. You have to be objective, because you are a journalist.’

- ‘I agree, mam! Still I would say objectivity does not give people license to kill.’

- ‘Nobody has the license to kill.’

Everybody agreed.

Then I started again.

- ‘These people had to die for things they had not a clue about. You know mam, the Indian election is coming. Some are saying that Modi, the Prime minister - staged the whole thing himself.

We don’t know who did it. But he’s certainly benefiting from it.’

I kept saying.

After a word or two, what I remember is, I said this :

‘First they had mass murder and mass rape. First they were raping the Kashmiri women. They were murdering them.

What's happening to Kashmir right now is mass blinding.

They are throwing pellets to their eyes...

DVD ।। What?

He interrupted.

Me ।। I am not talking to you.

I said.

Me ।। This is the first time it is happening, in the entire history of the human race!

All the Kashmiris now have holes in their faces. They have been shot with pellets, most of them lost their eyesight, thousands of them have gone to the hospital.

People in my country, were naturally angry.

It was getting out of government's control. They have came to power through India. People don't support them.

To hush it up, they have set fire on that building, killed those people, and shifted the focus of people from Kashmir to this.’

I think I was waiting to say these things, though I was not sure about it. Because DVD is from India.

But I said it all.

VII

Mohini was the first to response.

Mohini ।। Asif, I don't know how much of it you said are true.

What I noticed it when you told DVD that you were not talking to him, it was very rude of you.

Me ।। I am sorry for that. I just wanted to complete what I was saying.

Miss Alia took over.

‘Well, you have to be objective.

Most of the times, journalism lacks objectivity these days.

Every day, we have a new massacre.

Every day, we have a new genocide.

You can not be emotional about it.

When you're reporting about it, you must keep a distance from the events.

Me ।। But mam, the Indian military is raping the Kashmiri women! How can we stay silent about it?

VII

DVD interrupted again.

DVD ।। What did you say? Who raping who?

Miss Alia was scared. She tried to stop him. I was scared myself, too.

Miss Alia ।। When you are talking about your culture...

Me ।। It is not about culture mam!

DVD ।। What.... what?

Me ।। I don't mean to hurt somebody. But how could you justify raping women from a certain ethnicity...?

I did not want to utter the word 'Muslims'.

Before I could, she spoke the word.

VIII 'No religion supports raping!

All religions prohibit it....’

Said she.

Me ।। But mam, they are doing it! And it has been largely ignored by the media until now.

DVD ।। Asif, Asif! Who's doing it?

Me ।। The Indian military, DVD. The military of your country, I am sorry to say.

DVD ।। What?

He said again.

This time, I did not reply him. I turned to Miss Alia.

Miss Alia ।। The military there has been deployed to suppress the revolt of Kashmiris. They are raping the Kashmiri women because the Indian government told them to.

I have nothing against the Indian people. It is not the Indian people mam, it is the government. They do it to keep the military entertained.

DVD ।। What?

This time, Miss Alia and DVD asked in chorus.

DVD ।। No country in the world do it, Asif! Not a single country in the world do it!

Me ।। Well, yes, they do it. Because the Indian military is doing a hard job, too. Being blown up and all that...

Things were already out of her hands.

DVD stood up from his desk and left the room.

To where, I don’t know. I had a spine-chilling feeling that he was going to complain against me in the faculty. If this was Bangladesh, he would.

It happened so quick, that I myself did not have the time to notice where were things going. But I could not help it.

Mohini followed DVD. Probably to bring him back.

Now I was trying to sound impartial, unbiased - whatever you would call it.

‘.....This has happened in Bangladesh, too. When we had a war with Pakistan, they raped Bangladeshi women, most of whom were religious minority. The Hindus...’

Mohini went out of the door before I could finish.

Miss Alia ।। But that's no excuse! You cannot rape women from a different religion because they have raped your woman before. You can not take revenge...!!!

By this time, everybody who was talking in the room was doing it in a high pitch tone. Everybody was pretending that they were surprised, which was probably the best mask to use right now.

Me ।। They are doing it, mam! And we all are involved. The Bangladeshis, the Pakistanis, the Indians - everybody!

Donald Trump is saying it would be wonderful if things between India and Pakistan gets better and they become friends with each other. But that's impossible.

People in my part of the world kills others over a cricket match. When India and Pakistan is playing the world cup, it is the most dangerous day of the year.

And they shoot the Kashmiris when they celebrate Pakistan's victory, when Pakistan wins...‘

So it went for the next few minutes.

Then Miss Alia went out herself.

Me, Kritika and Zariha were left in the room.

For a while, we did not talk. Then Kritika spoke up.

Kritika ।। Asif, I understand you are not happy about it. But whenever you talk about your country in the class, you always bring the other countries. And you always get DVD into it.

There is a different place and a different time for saying these things, Asif! This is classroom, for god's sake!'

Me ।। I know.

Kritika ।। Please don't say these things in the class Asif!

Me ।। Well Kritika, I did not want to. But DVD has this tendency to react strongly against me..

Kritika ।। That's because you are asking for it.

Zariha ।। Besides, how do you know these things are true?

Asked Zariha.

Me ।। Because I know!

Zariha ।। How do you know?

Me ।। Why do you think people has been pushed to the extremes?

Kritika ।। This is our classroom, Asif! We have to study!

Me ।। I agree with that.

Then I said, 'Let's skip it for now.

Kritika ।। After all this, he says skip it for now!

We were silent for a while. Then Kritika too left the room.

Now it was me and Zariha.

But they came back shortly. All of them, together.

All of them went back to their desks and took their seats again.

Miss Alia started her lecture.

We resumed the class.

Miss Alia।। Guys, what are the qualities a news must have?

Proximity. Accuracy. Brevity. Timeliness. Human interest.

Everything is not news. News is something people are interested to read. You getting to Limkokwing is not a news. It will not interest people.

We were having the class again.

XII

The lecture was finished in the next fifteen minutes.

Then Miss Alia started talking.

'Journalists are so stupid because they think people are stupid. They think they won't understand. But people do understand.

As you know guys, I come from Yemen. We have three governments there, and it is a mess. Believe me or not, we have three governments.

Do you remember the Arab Spring?

Me ।। Tahrir Square?

Miss Alia ।। A few years ago, we had a revolution.

There was an uprising in the Arab countries, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Libya - everywhere.

We were fed up with the governments exploiting us. So we fought, and brought those governments down.

Everything we planned did not succeed, and now they blame us for it. But we did it.

We were listening to her, silently. She was the lecturer. Nobody interrupted.

She referred to a riot in France. France, the word, that does not go together with Muslims.

‘...I remember a French woman during riot. She was shouting in front of the police : this is wrong! You cannot do this to us!

The police said, look at her! We are doing all this to protect them, and this is what she says!

But the woman was shouting.

So did we, in the Arab Spring.

All we wanted was our rights. We did not have it.

It was our future in question. Our future, hanging - in the middle of nowhere.’

She went talking. Bits and pieces of them, what I remember. I’m writing now.

‘Of course you may not want to know what people are celebrating in the other land.. (here she was referring to Kashmiris celebrating the victory of Pakistan, which I said earlier), but people still do.’

‘Back in 2011, thee was a war in Lebanon. It was Lebanon vs Israel. Fox news came there to cover the story.

A reputed media like Fox news, and you know what they did?

They described it all from the Israeli side! They highlighted what Israel had to say.

I mean, where is objectivity? Where is the other side's story?’

This time, DVD was listening to it.

Miss Alia ।। If you are a journalist, you must learn to get the other side of the story.

Something might be truth for you, but there is always the other side of the truth. Without combining them together, you cannot do it with honesty.

You can be dishonest. You can manipulate. But there is a limit for that.

Also, you will have to have a nose for what is news. You will have to sense it, that what's going to make news...

DVD ।। Like a dog?

He exclaimed. As innocent as it could be, freshening up the air. We would like to forget whatever has been said in the class a while ago.

DVD।। A news dog!

Miss Alia ।। Well, in America, they use the word 'dog' for people who are really successful.

They say, oh, what a good dog!

But in Malaysia, we understand something bad when we say dog, because of our cultural difference.

Either Zariha or Mohini said something about Chinese people having dogs. Then it changed to Halal and Haram.

Miss Alia ।। In Islam, we don't have so many Harams like that.

Haram - to kill.

Haram - to rape!

Haram - to...!

We knew she was supporting my statements, indirectly. Without mentioning India and Pakistan.

And we were listening.

Miss Alia ।। When you are a journalist, you don't convince people. You don't expect them to become convinced.

Let them judge.

Let them decide what is right and wrong.

Things that are right for you might be wrong to somebody else.

There's still a lot of struggle to do.

People are struggling, all over the world.

Sometimes, it is more dangerous to have one side of the story than the whole.

XIII

‘Mam, sometimes it really has a bad effect on us. Do you think some news still has to be controlled?’

I asked. Trying my bit of innocence, it it works.

Miss Alia ।। Like?

Me ।। Well, the beast sometimes just gets out.

She chuckled a bit.

'When it is about your culture, it might be very difficult to go against it.

But try to. Even if you are attacked by your own people.’

Me ।। Mam, this is something I wanted to come to.

When I was in my country, I did the same thing. I talked against my culture.

But then what I saw is, people don't care, unless it is the government.

These days, you can say everything in the social media. Nobody cares. I mean, you can even blaspheme!

But when you are criticizing your country's leaders - we had this man when we had a war with Pakistan, he is called the father of the nation......

Miss Alia ।। You have father of the nation, too?

Me ।। Yes. I don't understand the concept, though.

I already have a father. Why should I have a mandatory second father?

But people in my country is worshiping him. And talking against him is not tolerated.

You can criticize religion, you can talk against God, but not him!

From here, I changed it into something else.

Me ।। Surely it is wrong when you are telling people what they want to hear all the time. But sometimes, you should do it still.

Because when you are telling them what they want to hear, they are being deceived.

When you are telling them what they don't want to hear, it frustrates them.

Eventually, they feel like yes, we have to do something about it!

Zariha was looking at me when I was saying this.

And I was wondering myself, about if I have succeeded, after all, to disseminate the information about Kashmir.

This was a classroom drama, and by now, everybody in this class knew what was happening there.

We kept talking for a few more minutes. Then the class ended.

When Miss Alia was packing up her bag and laptop, she asked for some movie recommendations.

DVD straight went to her desk.

DVD ।। The Indian movies you can watch are Yuri, I am Khan, Chennai Express...

I went to her, too. With a smile on my face.

‘Mam, the best film I saw this month was About Elly. It is an Iranian movie, I forgot the name of the director and the actors/actresses.

Thanks for all your patience, mam!‘

And we left the classroom.

XIV

From what I remember, I was listening to Kashmiri music from last few days,. before the suicide bombing happened.

Ali Safuddin, MC Kash, Alif. I found them out. And I simply couldn't stop. I stayed up all night to download their songs, and then I kept playing them all day long.

It has been very long since I had a music collection. I unsubscribed from the Bengali music because I felt like it was coming from a culture being used for colonization. The dirty game around it, that happens in my country, I knew too well.

But then, there was no music left for me to listen.

After a long time, I suddenly found music again.

Then I heard the news.

A man rammed his car into the military bus. The car was full of explosives. Around 50 Indian military has been killed.

Although the Indian media called it a suicide attack, others had doubts.

Everybody knew Narendra Modi's government was losing in India. There was no religious riots happening. The papers were dry.

The bombing happened in a context like this. Suddenly, whole India was up again. They started threatening Pakistan.

But things didn't turn out as they should be.

India was mercilessly criticized in the International Press, and we thought India's history of human rights abuse in Kashmir was finally coming out.

We were wrong. Almost two weeks later, the International Press is as silent about the plight of Kashmiris as ever before.

But it was probably the first time in whole world's history when Muslims were not blamed and the word ‘terrorist’ did not close the conversation without checking the other dimensions.

At least I can't think of an example when people shied away from talking about 'war on terror’.

The war did not happen. But things have not improved since then.

The war might get started any day. We don't know when. We are waiting for it.

At least, I am. I am waiting for it.

That day, when we were leaving school, we were taking the stairs together.

My classmates were silent. I was smoking a cigarette. Others were not talking, either. But we were walking side by side.

And I was thinking about what happened just now, a while ago.

Was it a classroom revolution?

Nah, you always use those big words for everything you do, I told myself.

But I did it. I allow myself this intellectual masturbation, ‘I did it’.

I wanted to protest.

I even wanted to make a short protest video. I wanted to cast DVD in that as well!

I tried to visualize how it would be.

If we picked the backyard of our University to shoot the video, what should we use for smokes? Coconut shells?

I mean, smokes when fires are shot, from the guns.

I imagined how they would look like, if they were wearing specs. Their eyes went blind.

Pretend to be a Kashmiri, for one day!

Be a Kashmiri, for one day!

I would do my video!

But would they agree to take part in it?

I don't know.

Probably they wouldn't. Probably they would.

But I did it.

I protested. I did what was within my ability.

Even if it was in a classroom.

When we reached the plaza, everybody went their way. I went to the restaurant to have my launch.

I knew the story would get circulated. It would make rounds in the Whatsapp groups.

I don't care.

When I checked the news again, I saw several Indian politicians themselves were blaming Modi for the whole thing, alleging him of staging the suicide attack.

However, they were mourning it. They were not celebrating the deaths of their own military, definitely! They were not Bangladeshis.

I did not care.

I was busy listening to MC Kash.

Though I did not understand some words of it. I replaced the words with mine for a lyric.

It is a rap. MC Kash is a Kashmiri rapper, who sings about Kashmir.

Part of the lyric goes like this:

'I am a suicide bomber, more than a bomb I am the one who died for holy blood diamond.'

Asif Tamoso

25 February 2019

Rewrites : 25 May 2019

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#Kashmir #Pakistan #India #Bangladesh #War #Malaysia #Arab Spring #Revolution

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