War and Peace

Every morning after my two elder daughters leave to school, I have 30 minutes before my son wakes up to get ready for school. On most days, I lie down with him just to pamper him to wake up. This morning too, I curled up with him. But today as I felt the rhythm of his breath against my chest, my eyes welled up. I simply couldn’t hold my pain.

The reason for my pain was a video I had seen, of a child being pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Palestine and smiling as he emerged out. I can only imagine what must have been the mother’s agony if she was alive. Later as I dropped my son at the bus stop, I saw him joyfully play with his friends. Can you picture the last day the children in Israel or Palestine or any war torn country must have played freely, or joyfully?

When I come across posts heaping support for Israel or Palestine, I wonder! We cannot support anything but peace… The people living in those lands yearn for nothing more.. This war is in the name of territory, in the name of revenge. The human desire for power, to rule, to capture, to dominate; this is what drives the war. For civilians, it’s only their desire to live and to flourish. It pains to see some scream out ‘for the sake of God’. The God I know, in the Christ I believe, I AM SURE HE BLEEDS.

The Christ I Know said to love thy neighbour as Thyself.

The Christ I know said ‘But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’.

The Christ I Know touched and healed the ear of the man who came to arrest Him.

The Christ I Know bled, suffered, died and asked forgiveness for the people who crucified Him.

From what I know of the Quran, peace is a recurring ideology.

We are all about our own business. The war and its updates are sometimes casual comments in our conversations. The inaction of our daily life leaves me heavy hearted.

Why do our governments fail? In a world where there is poverty, lack of access to education, affordable healthcare, clean drinking water, housing, ; where comes the money for arms, ammunition and development of the military. I can't believe it to be nothing but misallocation of resources, inefficient policies and playing the common man for a fool.

The governments, policy makers and bureaucrats have been making us witness this cycle over and over and over again. A year after the outbreak of Russia- Ukraine war, we are still disillusioned. It leaves us nothing but the possible outbreak for more.

I wish our children and our youths knew more. I wish they became bearers of peace. Where the governments fails, can they bring peace - be ambassadors. Their little hearts would know no politics, no greed. They can stand up for their friends, for their brothers and sisters who struggle for food, water, electricity and as reports come in today, most school buildings in Gaza have been destroyed . And so their education too stands halted. A whole generation is left to suffer….

The picture I share below is a famous one from 1967 titled - ‘The Ultimate Confrontation - The flower and the Bayonet’. It was photographed when Ms Kasmir is seen standing with a chrysanthemum facing bayonet holding soldiers in an anti- war demonstration to end war in Vietnam.

Can our children, with their innocent hearts, send bouquets of flowers and heartfelt messages of love to the leaders and soldiers drowning in the anguish of war, imploring them to choose peace over conflict?