These Kids are Also Kids
by Children all over the world are the same, but the conditions they live in are not.I wonder if I were one of them, then how would I feel?
Same sound of the Suzuki Van , repeated humming and burring of the engine , coming to a stop and the ring of the gatebell. ‘The van is here’ No one needs to tell me, as the lane is unusually quiet these days, and I can hear it I am almost ready to leave for the days work.A distance of eleven to twelve kilometers , both ways and a travel time of twenty to thirty minutes. Sometimes it takes more if the road is blocked due to a VIP crossing.The army movement is visible to the public.
The van stops and waits in the line.Suddenly a child appears at the window.Unclean ,face and dirty clothes, hand outstretched. I wish he would be away somewhere at some home where maybe someone would feed him.The van makes a move and the child is gone.
There is another stop and again a young boy appears , this time he has a small windscreen wiper in his hand.His look is unhealthy and pale.He tries to clean the glass.’No No, stop ‘.The driver shoos him away.
The van moves on.This time we cross a mini market.A few shops are open.people seem to be half asleep.
Passing by the road , heaps of rubbish meet the eye. A child, seven to eight years of age, carrying a dirty white bag on his shoulders is shoving and sifting the waste items. As he stands I see that his bag is quite full.He must have got up early, to grab the best pieces of paper, bags, bottles cans, etc…
Summer heat is at its peak, School gates seem dead ends. Deserted environment, creates a sharp depression. Where are the kids? What are they doing? Where are the real kids? and who are these kids- barefoot runners of the heaps’?
A BBC program on TV in the evening raised a question about the future of education in Pakistan.The school that they showed was a single one in the hilly areas of the North.It is not the whole of Pakistan.Though there are refugee kids not going to school, but the real kids are at home, finishing their summer tasks, and spending happy times , bravely with their families.
I wish there would be peace soon so that these kids may also go to schools and learn and make a bright name for their country.
It is a matter of giving nations a chance to LIVE?
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