Bye For Now!

Sometimes it is hard to define one's feelings।

Just the other day we invited a family friend over to attend the Good Friday service and have lunch with us after that।She came to India some seven years ago escaping from the clutches of the military rulers of Myanmar (Burma) to seek asylum। She and many like her are in Delhi hoping one day to be transferred to countries like UK, US, Canada and Australia where they hope to build their lives all over again. Where they believe they can make a new start and build back their lives from scratch. Having spent some years in India under the aegis of UNO she became a refugee and thus given some kind of stipend to make ends meet. She told me this is not enough. It is also doubted that they are getting the whole amount due to them.

As we were having our lunch we reminscened the day I dropped them off at Guwahati Railway station to their uncertain life ahead। Now that she has been assigned to go to Australia she was upbeat and even enthusiatic about her new life ahead. We were also happy for her but at the same time one wonders if this should be an occasion to celebrate or be extremely unhappy about it. On the one hand she may be able to live a normal life which is not possible in her home town in Chin State nor in New Delhi where she is virtually an unknown face, an alien. She had, must have, undergone some very traumatic experiences here in New Delhi where the local people are not known for their empathy for outsiders. Yes we are happy for her to that extent that she can now do whatever she wants, go to college or start working and somehow live a better life. The whole experience of being displaced again was never an issue for her or others who have been transferred from one country to another। They prefferred some foreign country to their own home.

Why would anybody want to live in some foreign country? It must be sheer desperation and hopelessness that drove thousands like her away from their own country and start from scratch.

My sympathy to all those who are misplaced, displaced and disowned by their own country and hopefully one day there will come an opportunity to go back home। I also hope the elements that make people run away from their own homes be wipe out from the face of the earth and punished for their sins.

Someday she will invite us to her home and it won't be Australia or Canada or US but home where we all love and where our loved ones are. Where we live and build our own society with peace and harmony, where we practice our own religion and be a part of the government that provides for us and protects us from foreign forces. A home to die for and most importantly a home to live for.