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REFLECTION

THE BRAVE SOULS

Zamal Arslan
—. N real life we never ask a
J mother of a dead son | how she feels about not bavins ’ blm arounl anymore. Nor do d'Part«1
soul's k U.ster, brother or his father h much they miss him and * ^ much they had loved him. 8onf happen.
tQ be a r‘ °’ a road
accident wc ' not carry the mother nor L fathcr to lhc place of occ u. "rence to show the spilled . of ‘he
deceased pert« " »ut then-never is i fat ^hed word which some p.* do not follow. And it is b e °f this
reason some peop le ’ ‘hlnk and believe that a very lose rc,a" tive should be asked to express her or his feelings ab ,ut a “7 who no more moves around the house or the city 1 1C on“ lived in. They ought 10 be shown the place of accid ent as well the spilled blood ' vhere the son of the soil me 1 his tragic end.
There arc times when wc get carried away by emotic >na* thoughts and feelings, tho u^h not quite impossible to c trot but enough to do or m ®*e us perform things tl 1)81 ordinarily would not be considered to be normal. After all we are human beings and our emotions do betray our true feelings sometimes. Then there can be also the reason where a person might himself or herself voluntarily tend to do certain things which In an ordinary case would never think of doing.
About more than a year back in our locality a mother lost her elder son in an accident where the victim was run over and crushed under the wheels of a bus. His bones were broken and there would have been no means to put them together even if he had lived. This however has been kept secret from the mother. The fact that at the hospital when 'postmortem' was done his brain' and 'liver' were supposed to have been taken out by the working doctors or doctor claiming it to be the regular practice for any body' that goes through that proceeding could in no way be revealed to the mother.
The stiches on the forehead was visible for which the mother was told a He by the relatives. I dare say she would have suffered a fatal stroke had she been told that the 'brains' of her son now lay with the doctors at the hospital and that ft might not be buried ever along with the boy or in accordance with the Muslim custom. The death of this boy did not take me by surprise. Why, I can never explain. About half an hour before his fatal accident I saw him. Young and strong. And an expectant father. He had stopped to chase a group of naughty children who were making a row near my window and spilling muddy waters all over. Our eyes met for may be a fraction of a thousandth second. He left never to return alive. What followed the next few days and for several months is difficult to believe. The mother often ran towards the road 'stark naked' and the other children (not the boys) ran after her with her sari, caught her and took her home. I used to think why they did not cover her since the sari was with them. Later I assumed this 'wonderous thought' of mine to be more abnormal than what they repeatedly did or what the mother continued to do for several months. After all I had thought mothers do lose their sons in the same manner and all did not behave the same wayll' Soon I realized I had not seen any mother so closely as did this one nor did I know any mother so closely as I did this mother and her son. -
When the son was taken for burial or to be precise his body was being carried away in a truck to his village home the mother did not move a bit nor did she cry. 1 presumed she had- become tired and exhausted after three days of crying and running about In search of her dearest son. Two days passed very peacefully making me believe the mother had recovered from her shock. But soon afterwards I was proven totally wrong. When the men folk returned after the burial the mother was once more attacked with the sadness of losing her son. She walled and took off her cloth Ings offering herself to be buried with her son. That she had four more sons and two lovely daughters did not matter or at least not then. It took her more than five months to become what wc may say normal'.
I came across a mother once who wanted to visit the place where her son was killed in a motor accident. She even insisted on seeing the car which had caused her son to die.
All those people whom she approached could not bear the thought of doing so and she never got the chance of seeing the two things she so much desired. I firmly believe she should have been given the opportunity and taken to see the place of the accident as well the car. At least ft may have given her some consolation.
What her relatives thought or believed hardly matters here. She should have had the right to her 'wishes' but alas, she was never given that chance. I hear even today she cries and tells people she could not sec what she wanted to see only because no one would care to take her. If she could she would go alone by herself.
Brave sons of the soil do not die in road accidents only — they embrace martyrdom while fighting for the country or for Justice against their enemies.
The mother who gave birth to these sons must be twice as much brave as their sons and must also have the courage to meet any kind of situation tn any kind of consequences. So what If it may sound too ghastly for a mother to sec the pale blood of her son on the pavements of a city road or the remains of a mutilated body that can hardly be recognized! Or to sit for hours at a place where her son had met his 'death' — only to become a martyr. At least she must be finding some kind of solace which no living being could give her nor can anyone know how to bring 'peace' to the soul of the mother or the soul of the departed one. Who knows, the son living beyond' may himself find peace watching his dearest mother sitting near the place he embraced martyrdom’
Unless our religious customs forbid us to do a thing In the Holy Quran, why should wr on our own account believe In something and deprive olhers of the peace fo mind' they may have had If only wc listened to them? The mother whom I knew very well and the son who got killed under the wheels of a bus did not want to visit the grave of her son for more than a year. On the other hand, relatives and neighbours tried to play all sorts of Tricks' to force the mother to visit the grave of her son. I fall to understand why they fell ft was her duty to sec the grave of her son or that she was comft-ling a 'crime' by regfustng to sec the grave. Is not a contented mind In its 'normal form" better than an un-quenehed soul?