Enough is Enough

Dear Shankar

Its good to know that,some one in India has a realization of what will follow.I join you in your views.There is certainly a need to shun radical thinking.I am available for you to interact.

shankar #14: I don`t think this will escalate any furthur. It will go on until the elections in Uttar Pradesh, which I believe are in February. Having said that, I never thought we would see a day when either country deployed complete militaries across international borders.

It is hard to tell what India wants. It wants Pakistan to crack down on militants, and hand over a few of them to India. Yet it is not willing to corner Pakistan in any international arena, or publish any proof of crime. Pakistan has actually put most religious party leaders under house arrest (something the BJP would never do for Pakistan).

What else can Pakistan do? It cannot just start handing over its citizens to India, as and when India wants. Will India return that favor? What if tomorrow India puts my name on the list. Should Pakistan hand me over to India also? This is not only against Pakistani law, it is against Indian law, as well. All India needs to do is present evidence in any neutral international organization. Pakistan will have no choice but to act. It does not have the luxury of sidelining the ICJ like India did in the Naval aircraft case.

The second part is the moving of defence forces. India has launched the most massive force movements in thirty years. What should Pakistan do? It cannot leave its borders open. So it moved its forces to the border also. When India attacked Siachen, Pakistan moved its forces there also. When Pakistan attacked Kargil, India moved its forces there. Once India scales down, Pakistan will move back. But if Pakistan scales down, India has not agreed to scale down (otherwise why did it move its forces there in the first place). I suppose the other option for Pakistan is to not move any forces to the border, and let India walk into Pakistan.

The third case is the Kashmir issue. I think Indians need to accept the fact that Kashmir is separate entity from Pakistan. Pakistan cannot remote control everyone in India. Kashmiris have an indigenous freedom struggle going. That is what happens when countries try to occupy others against their will. It is only natural. Didn`t the Indians want the British to leave? It is beyond the point of no return. Even if they lose Pakistani support, they will just get crushed, but will not give up. According to the Indian Law minister himself on CNN, 61,000 people have died there. Indians need to get out of their state of denial on Kashmir, and at least accept the ground realities, or at least allow human rights organizations to explain it to them.

Pakistan isn`t the cause of every Indian problem, specially Kashmir. Everything cannot be blamed on Pakistan. And every problem is not a mutual problem. Many of India`s problems have been created by India. Why occupy or pressurise others in the first place? Should everyone just bow down to India, as and when it wants?

I have been in touch with my colleagues in Pakistan. They are all deployed on forward locations, ready to retaliate if attacked. They all seem very calm and there seems to be no war hysteria on their side. They don`t have any orders to attack India, and just want to defend Pakistan, from an Indian attack. As long as the Indian military also just wants to protect India from Pakistani attack, and not attack Pakistan, there should be no war.

There is two points I would like to make here:

1) Indians need to start some introspection, and start it soon. India just increased its defence budget by a yearly amount of $5 billion/year. I had earlier suggested this increase was not to counter China, but to threaten Pakistan, even furthur. I have been proven correct. If this money, in addition to the salaries of the soldiers that are there already, was spent yearly on Kashmir, the Kashmiris may have been more than happy to be with India.

2) The BJP is a Hindu Nationalist extremist party. Just look at their manifesto. It openly declares itself to be, ``the most prominent (www.bjp.org) ``member of the RSS. Did the RSS kill Gandhi or did Pakistan?

``The political and ideological forebears of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power today at the Centre, killed Gandhi.`` (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/52a/067.html)

Had Jinnah been assasinated, it would be beyond my wildest imagination to see such a party every being elected in Pakistan. The BJP is lead by exactly the same time of people that India accuses Pakistan of harboring. Pakistan has now sidelined these groups (they were never in the mainstream to begin with). India is electing them, again and again. Why are Indians following every command of the BJP, if they dislike religous extremists? Are we to belive that even India`s religious extremists are holier than Pakistan`s religious extremists? There is going to be another Ayodhya incidence in a few months. Will that be Pakistan`s fault also?

It is ridiculous for either India or Pakistan to initiate military action against each other. I was very critical of Kargil (even though it was a counter to Siachen). India has been attacking Siachen for 16 years, and now it is threatening all out war on the recognized borders. Why are all the Indians so solidly behind these actions? Why doesn`t the free Indian press not criticize India`s actions in Siachen, while the Pakistanis press has been all over Kargil? If Pakistan was to threaten India with a military offensive of any kind, I would certainly speak out against it. I did it during Kargil. As would a lot of other Pakistanis. I would not call it a mutual problem. I would blame it specificially on Pakistan. Isn`t it about time, the Indians blamed the current military build up specifically on India?

What else can Pakistan do but to move its forces in defensive position, to ensure India doesn`t carry out on its threats, and ask India to provide evidence for its accusations, and ask India to work out the problems jointly in international forums?

India is unwilling to play cricket in Pakistan. It is unwilling to talk to Pakistan. It is unwilling to recognize the ICJ. It is unwilling to allow Pakistanis planes to fly over India. It is unwilling to recognize the UN. It is unwilling to allow any mediators. It is unwilling to provide evidence for crimes it accuses Pakistan of (as a Pakistani, I find the accusation itself quite offensive. The Indian govt. hasn`t released any proof to the Indian populace, yet Indians are happy to believe the govt. This shows how evil Indians consider the Pakistan govt. and Pakistanis to be). Its Hindu extremist govt. is accusing Pakistan of harboring Muslim extremists (that would be like the Sipah-e-Sahaba accusing the Indian Congress of harboring Hindu extremists).

Everything in South Asia is not Pakistan`s fault. A lot of things are India`s faults. Indians need to convince themselve of that. Please listen to Pakistan, and let international organizations like the UN get involved, or you will get us all killed. If, despite all of the above, everything in South Asia is Pakistan`s fault to such an extent, that India can declare nuclear war against Pakistan, then all I can say is I have no answer to India`s complains. It is currently bent upon blowing up Pakistan and getting itself blown up in the process.

Re: Shankar:

``...Just look at the mentality of us desis--we are too insane to STOP a nuclear war...``

Yo Shankar! you are giving too little credit to the strategic genius that is Musharraf, or our own Vajpayee. What you see going on is an orchestrated crisis precipated by Vajpayee when the timing suits him. Of course, the stupidity of the LeT/JeM to have picked this moment in Pakistan`s history is all too discomforting for the General, and played perfectly into Vajpayee`s hands. For details, check out my response #261 to Dost-Mittar on the `Running Naked` by Anwar Iqbal board

Re: Romair to MacGupta and the `61,000 killed in Kashmir` broken record

Check out my response #230 on the `Running Naked` by Anwar Iqbal board

Which country are you talking about; when you say ``we`` & ``us``?! I assume India. The RSS & their political wing BJP have a good ideology?! Their ideology will DESTROY India!; just like the fundos in Pakistan will destroy their country. Are you saying ``our fundos`` are better than their fundos? There is fascism in both countries. But you dont solve that problem with a war--now that both countries are nuclear! Its like trying to eradicate the cancer by killing the patient!!

What the F ``great unified subcontinent`` are you dreaming about?! Sure--- it will be a great big glowing piece of radioactive wasteland, you fool. Go back under the rock you crawled out from--its glowing already...

__________________________________________________

Unlike hypocritical writer like you, when I say ``we`` I mean all the people of subcontinent with whom I share my thousands of years of roots.. I dont want national boundaries and flimsy ``two-nation`` theories to stop me from making those connections to my brothers and sisters of subcontinent. How come none of you shallow ``peaceniks`` talking of peace never talk about ``two-nation`` theory and how to undo the mistakes of past..

If you really get ``F-ing`` problems with ``united subcontinent``, what kind of ``F-ing`` peace are you talking about. Its a shame that when Europe which was inventor of narrow nationalism is moving towards unity, pseudo ``peacenik``s like you find problems with unity.

As for war, ``nuclear weapon`` is always a fake weapon... No one would ever use it.. There are atleast some people in Indian establishment who are now calling this bluff and know that whatever conflict takes place in subcontinent it will never be nuclear. Only ``peaceniks`` like who have special longing for ``fascists``, would rather sacrifice 20 kashmiri pandits a days rather than a war which cleans the subcontinent of all fascist religious elements. Believe me when Pakistan is no longer there, people like RSS, BJP or whoever they are would lose all their agenda whatever they have and that would be the end of it.

Sitting in USA surely you can lecture people about peace.. You are just same as pundits in somnath temple who thought lord shiva would save the temple and they did nothing but pray. Sorry but we know what did that cowardice and ``peace`` lead to. Only stupid cowards like you holed up cosily in USA fear ``nuclear`` onslaught. Sorry but believe me it would still be better than submitting to religious sectarianism, religious fascism. India may have its own internal version of such elements, but they get purged through our democratic process.. But we do need to help our brothers across ``border`` to get them rid of the communal forces and ``jinnah`` mentality for once and all. 1-2 Nuclear holocaust would be small price for a unified secular subcontinent clear of all the fascist elements and cowards and clear of ``americono-philes`` like u

chandan

{{One does need someone to purge the fascism and fanaticism out of this country.. Surely the end of fascism in Pakistan and end of India-hatred would take any agenda out of Indian hindua fascists.. So this war is necessary... Stalemate is already taking too much cost on communal harmony in our country.. We need this final ``manthan``, to finish of our leftover madness of partition.. Then only finally we will have that great unified subcontinent which we all dream of}}

Which country are you talking about; when you say ``we`` & ``us``?! I assume India. The RSS & their political wing BJP have a good ideology?! Their ideology will DESTROY India!; just like the fundos in Pakistan will destroy their country. Are you saying ``our fundos`` are better than their fundos? There is fascism in both countries. But you dont solve that problem with a war--now that both countries are nuclear! Its like trying to eradicate the cancer by killing the patient!!

What the F ``great unified subcontinent`` are you dreaming about?! Sure--- it will be a great big glowing piece of radioactive wasteland, you fool. Go back under the rock you crawled out from--its glowing already...

Romair :

I am under no illusion that a successful resolution of the current crisis will settle the Kashmir issue.

The current crisis is about the export of jihad from Pakistan. The matter of fact is that an enormous number of journalists and reporters have now visited Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last three months, and now they understand what is going on. This is not a matter of Indian propaganda, or poor PR on the part of Pakistan, or a Yindoo-Yehudi-Yankee conspiracy, though you are free to bury your head in the sand and believe so. Hitchens, de Borchgrave and Ahmed were conveniently available to quote, but look around and see the barrage of articles. Moreover, the articles tend to make liars of Rumsfeld, Powell, Bush, Blair, etc., so they are not sponsored by the governments.

There are articles about what is found in Pakistani textbooks; about what is taught in madrassas; about how Taliban still find refuge in Pakistan getting in with army connivance, even though the borders are supposedly patrolled, and so on. Not random allegations, but eye-witness accounts, interviews, etc. There are any number of articles on the thinness of support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and how Pakistani money and military support was necessary to prop up the Taliban.

It is not about ``Pakistan is evil, India is good``. The issue is that Pakistan harbors a core of fundamentalists that has hijacked the state and state policy, and that presents a threat to everyone. Presumably, when it is eradicated, its thinness of support will also be apparent.

I broke my own rule - I think all this people-people contact keeps Pakistanis from seeing the truth, and I advocate a boycott. So I will not argue further. I leave you with this from Barry Bearak in the NYT; he just visited the ``lawless`` tribal areas, where supposedly the writ of Islamabad does not run.

``While it is usually presumed that the tribal Pashtuns prefer that separation - and even pugnaciously demand it - the opposite may well be true. For certain powerful Pakistanis, it is good to have a territory uncontaminated by legal statutes. Smugglers, drug barons and arms dealers thrive under such latitude. Anarchy serves its purposes.``

``But most people in Tirah would like the benefits of hospitals, factories and utilities``.

-Arun Gupta

I disagree with your belief that reacting

forcefully to terror ``makes no difference``.

India is dealing with a country a large

part of whose elite firmly believes in the

use of terror and civilian killings in

achieving their goals. The Indian goverment

has done exactly the right thing by asserting

themselves forcefully and clearly. What

should they have done --- waited for the Indian

parliament to be blown up first?

To help you erase your innocence or naivete

I suggest you read this gem from the Pakistani

press:

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2001-daily/31-12-2001/oped/o3.htm

I particularly enjoyed the paragraph reading:

``The freedom fighters would be well advised to avoid any collateral damage to uninvolved civilians or any attack against innocent members of the minority communities.``

In other words, now that the world is watching us,

our ``freedom fighters`` should stop ethnic cleansing. Once the spotlight is off, they

can go and kill more minorities.

Keep in mind this writer is a ``respectable figure``

in Pakistan. It is this aspect of Pakistani

culture that has made the world come to understand

the debased nature of their politics and culture.

Do you seriously believe we can ``negotiate`` with

these folks without making clear that we are

willing to go to war?

shammi,

{{Shankar, is it also pointless to abjure violence?}}

This no ``ordinary`` violence--we are talking about Goddamned nuclear war. When sane people talk about ``limited`` war in a ``hot pursuit``; its INSANE! Just look at the mentality of us desis--we are too insane to STOP a nuclear war. It takes but 5 mins for a missile to hit a major city. There are NO safeguards, no checks & balances, no agreed upon system to stop a `` military chain reaction``, once it starts. Every ``expert`` says that India & Pakistan will ``use `em; rather than lose `em``.

Youre goddamned right I ABJURE it!

I dont give a damn if Kashmir is independant, or if it goes to Pakistan. Not if the alternative is the death of millions. A nuclear war in the subcontinent will kill more human beings than every single war in the 20th century. NOTHING, but NOTHING is worth this nightmare!

What baffles the heck out of me is that right now Indians are crazy enough to say ``we dont care!``

Are you praying for a miracle? I am! Not a stop gap ``miracle``--that will buy a billion+ people a few more months or years. A real miracle--the ONLY thing I can think of is make IOK ,POK & Akshai Chin (or whatever the heck they call it) an independant nation with a permanent UN peacekeeping force. NEITHER India or Pakistan or China should claim any rights on it (heck none of us deserve it).

Now do we have the COURAGE to do that? I think not--we will just jump up & down & claim ``MY DICK IS BIGGER THAN YOURS!`` Serves us right! I just wish my family & friends get out of that shitpot before its too late.

Romair,

#7

Sigh...are you listening to what you are saying?! I hope you are, `cause Indian ears have gone deaf. You are still trying to reason with people who are so angry, that they WONT listen. Not today, not tommorrow, they wont listen even if they are falling into the abyss. They will go to their vaporised graves saying ``it was the other guy`s fault``. It DOESNT matter if you think they are wrong or they will eventually lose.

Inshallah, if this crisis subsides, BOTH sides will declare ``moral victory``. Both sides will spin this by quoting foreigners who side with their respective views. Then they will accuse those ``experts`` of the other side of either being discredited or biased or a part of a larger conspiracy.

We will have lively debates on Chowk, in the media, in international diplomatic forums & neither side will budge an inch. This will go on & on until the next crisis erupts. Sooner or later there will be nuclear war in the subcontinent. Everybody knows that. Those who say it wont happen are deluding themselves.

Yeah yeah, the Pakistan military is brave, well trained, well equipped & has ``world famous`` commandos & airmen. They are not the rag-tag Taliban. Even India--esp India--knows that. Otherwise those banias would have attacked YESTERDAY.. So what are you trying to prove? All this means DIDLEY SQUAT. You soldier boys--current & ex-- are playing wargames & the end result is the same--nuclear war! Believe me, the Indian Generals, rusty & ill equipped as they are , also know that. The BJP knows that too. The BJP, IMO are mofos; but they arent stupid.

Since you Pakistanis are so mature & introspective an` all--introspect this: Indians are CRAZY enough to risk nuclear annihilation & world condemnation than give an inch of Kashmir. Now you guys can shout from the rooftops about how evil & hypocritical we are. The dominant discourse among Indians is ``F what Pakistanis think of us; for that matter F what the rest of the world thinks of us; we are going to keep Kashmir even if it destroys us!``.

Now shake your head & go ``tsk..tsk..ya Allah, what have we done to deserve such evil neighbors?!`` The Indian response would be ``we`d rather spend an eternity burning in hell than spend a second in the jannah with assholes like you!--so go F yourself!``

So please, Umairr, since you guys are the only mature, sane, introspective ones left in the subcontinent, at least consider this. The ``freedom fight`` of a 1000 cuts has`nt bled India. It has oozed TESTESTERONE & made them totally INSANE. There is NOT ONE Indian (on Chowk or in the ``real`` world) who is saying ``gee; maybe we should reconsider our Kashmir policy!``. There is not ONE protest in India about making the GOI give up Kashmir. The insane ``silent majority`` of India is shouting ``fry the Paki mofos--doesnt matter if we get fried ourselves!``

OTOH, sane, mature, introspective Pakistani commentators (that YOU respect, BTW) are saying:

1)gee--maybe OUR Kashmir policy is getting diminishing returns & maybe it will destroy US before we liberate Kashmir.

2) We have sacrificed our economy, our lives & our future to support, feed & free the Afghans. How come they hate us so? Goddamned INGRATES!! Who knows?!, maybe the Kashmiris in IOK will do the same thing! Ah! but at least they will hate the Indians more, like the Afghans hate the Russians more--BIG WHOOP!

3) Not a SINGLE country , not even our brother muslim countries, not even China is pressuring India to give up Kashmir. Today, when we need them the most, they are telling BOTH of us ``Please stop this madness!``. Gee, I wonder why they arent singling out India?!--after all the Indians are INSANE, we are introspective.

So please, my sane, introspective, mature brother of mine--could you at least consider this?! Maybe THATS the miracle we need!

Ref AAmir #: 12

[A piece of SANITY ,dispensed equally to fanatic lunatics like Harami..Ou .Sux Sena,Jay & Avr etc. on one side & Ali ,Ylh,etcon the Pakistan side]

Yo, pathetic idiot, can you point out where I have called for war between India and Pakistan?

[who have `my penis is bigger than yours complex`]

On our part, it is `our foreskins are intact` complex. Just being factual here.

[ever noticed why the missiles are shaped so Lol he he]

That is because the missiles will take less than 2 minutes to reach their targets... just as long as your shlong lasts.

[Lets give PEACE a chance at ALL cost .Even at the cost of territory .It aint worth it .]

Good to see a slightly sane Pakistani who wants his temptresses right here on earth.

Macgupta #6: You seem as sure of Pakistan`s evilness as you are of India`s virtue. You could be right. But if you are so sure, why not take all this information you have to the UN and the International Court of Justice? If you don`t have an answer for that, then perhaps the Indian stance isn`t as virtuous as you make it out to be.

You have quoted a lot of international correspondents. That is good. However, you need to take a look at the ones who point out hte mistakes by India, also. Primarily the ones from Amnesty International. And if you do belive in the international correspondents, then don`t you think India needs to lift the ban against them in IOK. If not, then why quote them.

Christopher Hutchins believes Lady Diana and Mother Teresa were crooks also. He has repeatedly stated that on TV. He thinks Henry Kissinger is a war criminal. He is a supporter of the Palestinian cause. Quite a controversial figure, to say the least. However, I believe he does strongly support the creation of the International Criminal Court. And that is where he would think the claims against Pakistan should be decided. I agree with him on that part.

As long as India continues to play judge, jury and executioner, nothing is going to change in South Asia. Either you need to realize you are in the wrong, or you need to get international organizations involved, and expose Pakistan.

The current war hysteria is going to backfire against India. If it starts a war, then both India and Pakistan can theoretically get destroyed, and the blame will go on India. If it doesn`t start a war, then it will have created all this fuss for nothing, and will not be able to create it again. Threatening all out war is like threatening to quit from a company. It is a one time deal.

What worries me the most is the brainwashing that seems to have engulfed Indians: Pakistan is the criminal, even if India has no proof. Pakistan is evil, even if it is India is unwilling to get the UN involved. India can run over Pakistan in a war (as stated by Georger Fernandes). Pakistan is being run by religious extremists, even though India is the country that is being run by BJP. Pakistan should accept whatever India says, however India should never believe what Pakistan states. The Indian law minister went so far as to say that it is Pakistan that has killed 61,000 Kashmiri civlians in India. I wouldn`t be surprised if most Indians believe him. This shows how out of touch the Indian mindset has become from reality. Logic seems to have gone out the door.

For the past two years, there has been a lot of introspection going on in Pakistan. It is evident here on Chowk. Pakistanis are slowly attempting to separate the goods of their society from the bads. Action has been taken against the beaurecracy, military, businesses, politicians, and now the religious right. Not due to threat from India, but due to self-evaluation. The top corrupt political leaders are in exile, and their deputies are now slowly making a place for themselves and are commenting quite maturely on Pakistani affairs. You will not hear a single Pakistani leader of politician stating that Pakistan should counter India`s threats with furthur threats. I can point to ten Indian leades who are threatening war. Can you point to one Pakistani leader who is threatening war?

Not counting its basketcase economy (much worse than Pakistan`s uptil the 90s), India had developed an intellectual standard that was more mature and realistic than Pakistan`s, uptil the 90s. It had been able to keep its religious extremists completely at bay. However, now India is going in the other direction. There seems to be no introspection, anymore. The extremist BJP is getting elected again and again. While the Pakistani intellectuals are calling for a control of parties like JUI and JI, and of the banning of parties like TNFJ And SSP (Musharraf did not even invite JUI and JI to discuss how to handle the current situation), Indian seem to be illogically following everything the BJP says. How can they not realize that one cannot unilaterally declare some other country a criminal and threaten war? While corrupt Pakistanis like BB, NS and Altaf Hussain are wanted by the law, corrupt people like Fernandes are back as Defence Ministers.

In three months, the BJP is going to build a temple on the Babri Mosque site. Vajpayee has called this, ``issue a matter of national sentiment`` (tehelka.com). If the previous Babri mosque incidents is a criteria to go by, this will result in furthur Hindu-Muslim conflicts, with many deaths. Will those be unilaterally blamed on Pakistan also? This combined with the current war hysteria against Pakistan is going to make South Asia more volatile than before. What happens then? What if along with this, the BJP loses in Uttar Pradesh?

The Indians would be well advised to stop worrying about the religious parties in Pakistan. They will not get elected, and their leades are in house arrest. Indians should be more worried about the direction their own country is going. And if they really believe they are in the right, they should have absolutely no fear of getting international organizations involved in these conflicts. If the UN and ICJ and AI declare Pakistan to be criminal, Pakistanis should accept the verdict wholeheartedly and take action. However, Pakistan should never negotiate on Indian terms, just because India threatens it with war. Pakistan should not attack the Indian forces, however if India attacks, Pakistan should defend its borders wholeheartedly and defensively, and immediately get the UN involved.

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War of 1971 - My Childhood Memoir

On that September evening of 1965 when jet planes roared overhead declaring the start of war, my mother along with the rest of the family was rushing towards a safer place, my nana’s (grandfather’s) home, 25 miles away. She was carrying all her valuables with her and I was also present in that family caravan - a few months old fetus in my mothers womb. So everything I have heard about the war of 1965 is hearsay but the war of 1971 left many images in my mind that never want to leave to this day. When I hear the military build up across the border between India and Pakistan, all of a sudden I feel like I am a 5 year old boy in December of 1971 and all those images play in my mind. I think about all those numerous 4 and 5 year old children who might be going through the emotions and imagery that I went through 30 years ago.

Punjab de jammeyan nu nitt mohinma - is an accepted truth of life by my elders. When Sir Radcliff sat down to draw the border of Pakistan and India between Lahore and Amritsar in late summer of 1947, my village - Naushehra Dhalla - became an injured casualty of his pen. It became part of India but its sister village - Bhadhaana (Padhaana) about 1 mile on the other side became part of Pakistan. That divided many friendships, relations and end of an era of my family history in that region. My father lost his High School in Bhadaana where he had just started as a 7th grade student that year. With that school he lost many of his friends, teachers, dukaan walas, he used to buy his lunch of chhollays and amroods from, and long walks in the streets of Bhadhaana that he never got the chance to see again although he spent rest of his life only 20 minute walk from it. Accepting all that and much more in the future has become a habit for us. One of those habits is dealing with the war between the 2 countries. I have experienced only one these wars, the war of 1971 on the Western front.

When the war became imminent in early winter of 1971 most of the villagers sent their children and other portable belongings to safer places. I along with my 2 sisters were sent to my grandfather (nana’s) home sometime in November while my dada ji, my parents and uncle and aunt stayed back. Every few days someone will come back from our home and give us the news about what is going on back home. I was not much interested in that probably because I hardly had any idea of India, Pakistan and war. I was happy being at my Naanke’s home and playing with my cousins. Then one day my dad brought the news that they have built a morcha in the front yard of our haveli. Although our village was close to the border, our land was on the Indian side of the village about 2 miles away from the border and we had just moved to the Haveli being built in the farm. Dad told that with the help of some army men they had built a very strong morcha (bunker) where about 15 to 20 people can sleep during the war. This idea got me interested and made me feel home sick for the first time in 3 weeks. I wanted to see our home and particularly see how our morcha looks like. Dad told me the location of the morcha in the haveli and I was using all my imagination to see how it looks like. Before that I had heard about fauji morchas being built around our area but having our own morcha in our haveli was fascinating. I wanted to go back and see my home and meet my dada ji whom I had not seen for weeks.

Hardly a few days passed that war started. Fighter planes started roaring during the night even over my nana’s home which was considered safe. My uncles had tinted all glass windows in the house with newspapers so that light does not pass through. When I asked why we have to close the glass windows my uncle told me - so that planes don’t see our house and bomb it. That scared the hell out of me. I started thinking our morcha back home might be safer than this place and I was kind of upset with my uncle’s aerial defense system of turning off the lights at night. I liked our morcha better. I remembered, dad had told us that fauji jawaans who built it said that this morcha won’t collapse even if a Pakistani plane crashes into it. Now I know it was all shoshaybaazi, but back then Fauji’s words were very assuring. We spent all night staring at the plane lights and flares of bombs dropping here and there in the far horizon towards the border. Next morning my dad and uncle also came from home. They were trapped in the morcha all through the first night of war but with the first ray of sunlight they left home towards where we were. My dada ji insisted on staying in the morcha. He had couple of cows for milk, plenty of chickens that we had at the farm and lot of rice and aaTa. He said he knows how to boil rice and fry a chicken. He insisted that with the stuff he had he can last 6 months of war - above all he did not want to leave his home in the safety of strangers. It was a matter of honor for him. He was not alone. Many other elders from the neighboring farms who were staying behind teamed up with him. They would cook their food during the day, water the wheat fields, milk the cows and as soon as golabaari started in the evening they will duck inside the morcha and listen to news on radio.

Next 12 days of war became a routine after couple of days. I don’t remember much about it other than watching golabaari every evening and after some time getting bored and falling asleep. Home sickness and excitement to see the morcha increased every day. After few days my parents and uncles were worried too about dada ji’s health. A week or so later someone went there and brought the news that Indian army has crossed over to Pakistani territory and our village is safe. Then before the last day of war the word came that war is ending. That afternoon my parents could not stop their eagerness to go back home. They planned with my uncle to go back and stay there as war seem to have ended. When they were ready to leave I insisted to go with them. I started crying and kicking my legs (my trade mark) creating a scene to blackmail them to take me with them. All through the journey mostly we saw army vehicles, checkpoints, army camps, etc. although civilians had gotten the courage to get their necks out at the rumor that war has ended. We reached our home couple of hours before sunset. I was so happy to see dada ji and morcha. I was going inside the morcha every few minutes and checking its strength by jumping over its roof. The morcha was really big like a room with only one small opening coming out next to one of the walls of haveli. I guess the idea was that wall was shielding any bomb shrapnel from going inside the morcha. Many other people in the neighborhood came to our place. Women cooked food and made roTis which dada ji and friends had not eaten for 2 weeks. They were complaining that they were living on rice, eggs, chicken and milk only like they were malnutritioned or something. Everyone has his own stories and mood was very festive. Finally the war was over and our homes and village was safe.

The festivities were very short lived. As the sun went down firing started again. Planes and bombs going all over the place. The cease fire was some kind of rumor that everyone believed to come home. About 25 men and women ducked inside the morcha. We had hay laid on the floor of morcha and bed sheets nailed on the sides. It was basically a big round hole in the front yard which was covered first with lot of heavy wood, mostly from the trees freshly cut, many layers of it and then covered with lot of dirt. Considering the bomb technology we had in 1971, this was probably not a bad morcha although nothing to brag about after seeing the caves of Tora Bora. I was the only child in that morcha. All night noise of planes, artillery bombs and firing went on. Dad was switching the radio back and forth between Jalandhar, Lahore and BBC. Every word was being heard by the elders in the morcha very carefully. Once in a while someone will ask for clarification. Every few minutes bomb noise will be so heavy that after it calms down one of the males will get out of the morcha and look over the wall and make a guess about the place where it might have hit. “eh te lagda ay bagh wich army de camp te digga ay gola”(looks like this one fell on army camp in the orchards) someone announced. When no cannon fired from the camp for few minutes everyone thought may be army camp about half mile away is really hit. But then noise of artillery blasting off bombs from near the camp was heard proving them wrong.

In the middle of night amid a calm of about half hour when everyone was relaxed the biggest explosion came. It sounded so loud and close that it shook the morcha, some dirt pouring down through the woods fel on our clothes. It was certainly a close call, it dropped only few fields away from our home. My uncle got out of the morcha to look over the wall to see what has happened. As he got his head over the wall another loud one few fields away shook us again. He ducked back to the morcha quickly while everyone was shouting his name. At this moment many started doubting their own wisdom to come back to the war zone. Someone mentioned my name. I was listening everything ducked inside the rajai(bedding) very quiet and almost pretending like I am sleeping. When everyone was talking loudly someone said “shhshhhhhh rolla na pao munda jaag jayega” (don`t talk loudly, boy will wake up). Next morning when it was over everyone thought I was sleeping all through the night. I told them I knew everything. I told them I was not sleeping but they said but you looked like sleeping. “Do you remember when the big bomb hit?” someone asked. I said in my trembling voice “haan mainu pata jadon tusi kehnday si rolla na pao munda jaag joo’ga”(yes I know when you guys were talking about me that I might wake up). Hearing that everyone cracked in laughter at my innocent remark. That was the last day of war. It ended for us and everyone was happy. To this day everyone who was in the morcha that night reminds me it whenever we meet.

Within few days everyone came back to the village. Village is sandwiched between the border line and the defense canal built by India. One has to cross the bridge over the defense canal to go to the village. The bridge was broken and a narrow one was used by army. Many people whose land was on Indian side of the defense canal moved to their farms. Only few months ago ours was the only haveli in the farms but now half of the village started building theirs. It was convenient to be close to the farm where men worked all day. Exploded bomb shells were all over the place in our fields. Many of us kids will go to the fields and collect the metal pieces in spite of our parents restraining us from doing so in case one of them blows up. We would sell this scrap metal to the chhabriwala (bicycle hawker) and buy pateesa (a mithai) from him. Some of these pieces were really heavy and amount of pateesa we would get was good enough to make up for the war damage to our childhood. The army was cleaning up the area and although war was over they were there to stay for a while. They built some checkpoints on the roads, cleaned our school, and had a big open door projection screen set up near their main camp about a mile from our home. There they showed movies to the army men and civilians for free. That was also my first introduciton to cinema and movies.

Looking at the way many other wars in history have turned out to be, our wars of 1965 and 1971 on the Western front were nicer ones. Very few civilians died and damage to property was also minimum. In the whole incident only one girl from our village lost one of her finger hit by a flying shrapnel from a bomb blast near by. Wars are not always like that particularly in the modern days of heavy explosives and fast technology. May God bless our leaders` conscience. May saner thoughts prevail and no children of my land have to see another war. Let us use free time of our armies to build schools, roads and bridges for the 5 year olds to look forward to something.

- Jagjit Sandhu

After the great flood, god promised never to visit man with such a deluge again. But he did promise ``the fire next time``.

Happy New Year.

IT seems the writer in his zeal to sound balanced does not recognize on all this war is going to be between people of India and fascist military setup of Pakistan. This war if won by India would be in the end beneficial for whole region. This would undo and purge the divisive forces.. This would herald the end of communalism anywhere in the subcontinent... Sorry this war is nencessary. One does need someone to purge the fascism and fanaticism out of this country.. Surely the end of fascism in Pakistan and end of India-hatred would take any agenda out of Indian hindua fascists.. So this war is necessary... Stalemate is already taking too much cost on communal harmony in our country.. We need this final ``manthan``, to finish of our leftover madness of partition.. Then only finally we will have that great unified subcontinent which we all dream of