A mysterious peace

Fifty-five years. Thousands of lives lost. Hundreds of millions of rupees down the drain. Divided families. Estranged brothers. Children orphaned. Friends lost for ever. Tears, suffering, hatred, enmity untold.

Fifty-five years and more of all of this. And all it took is just a month or two of common sense. The leaders of India and Pakistan took just a few weeks to do away with hatred.

Suddenly, everything seems as it all never happened. The guns have fallen silent. Not a bullet has crossed the LOC in the past few weeks. There has been violence in Kashmir and yet no one has blamed Pakistan. Nobody wants to utter a false word and break a peace that is as delicate as it is unbelievable. Emotional statements have suddenly replaced acerbic rhetoric. Where even a glance at each other was a matter of prestige among purportedly mature leaders of nations, a handshake has bonded like never before.

Politicians, like God, work in mysterious ways. We will never know what pressures prompted this turn of heart. Politics is driven more by the instinct for survival rather than the qualms of rectitude. But today, I understand the meaning of the phrase ‘political will’ and what it can accomplish in an incredibly short time. We, the common citizens, can rant and rail, weep and wail all we want but we are all nothing but puppets, slaves to this cliché, dancing to the flinty music of these two simple words.

There is punishment for not doing something. Why is there no accounting for doing something – so late? Are we going to tell all who have lost and lived to suffer that their loss was unnecessary, for nothing at all, for something that finally took nothing more than a mere handshake?

Why does common sense only work when so much has been lost? Be that as it may, it is still peace, a peace long awaited, long pined for, a peace with few protectors and many foes. And we must hold it close to our hearts like a precious, fragile treasure and cherish and nurture it and never let it go, not for anyone, not for anything, never let it go, never again, never again……