A Scene From a Knife-like Day

We all go through some events in life that leave a distinct mark on our memory. I have a habit of clicking pictures with my mind’s eye.

Here is one of the most vivid pictures that I remember.

It’s a cold and cloudy October day. I am looking out of a window. This window has six panes and it is on 2nd floor. I am standing on a bed, sticking my nose to the window glass looking outside.

It’s a big open area out there. Full of people, hundreds of them. Men, women, children. There is a school building in the background. It’s collapsed. Most of these people are doing nothing. Just sitting there, silent and absent-minded. There are some dead bodies too. Dug from the collapsed buildings around them. But no one is crying. The earth under them is behaving like a living creature. Ready to shudder again.

There comes a truck. It is an army truck. It is full of stuff, mostly blankets and tents. In a minute there gather a lot of people around it. Soldiers start throwing the stuff over to people. Whoever is lucky would catch a piece and leave.

There is only one blanket left. Soldiers throw it and two men catch on to it. Now both of them are trying to snatch it from each other.

They would look like very respectable middle-class men on a normal day. They would greet each other in a polite way and call each other Sahib too. But on another day, on a normal day.

They were still fighting over it when my eyes got too blurry with tears and I couldn’t see anymore.