Sacrifice
‘Oye’ A message appeared in my Yahoo Messenger. It was my friend Anuj.
‘Ahh van..k vo?’ I replied.
‘Aja college lagcha?’ he questioned. Since it was 27th of Chaitra 2063, and the agitation was simply called for three days, we were not sure if the college would open.
‘I don’t know, but my dad was saying it won’t, they have expanded the agitation now!’
‘Really? Are you sure college will remain shut down today?’
‘I am not coordinator’s son in law man!’ I said.
‘Okay, they are not even receiving the phone, I will go anyway!’
‘Hya, even if it opens, there is going to be less number of students today, and I am not going! You don’t go as well!’ I replied.
‘No yaar, attendance sucks! They send internal marks from there! And I was already absent for such a long time earlier!’ he replied.
‘You may be shot dead!’ I said jokingly.
‘Who cares? If I die, at least I won’t have to give exams…’ he replied.
***
After getting dressed up, he then moved towards school.
‘Hey, is the school open?’ An aged man asked to Anuj on the way.
‘I don’t know, maybe it is, and our school sucks! They open schools even during such strikes!’
Giving him a smile, Anuj moved towards school. On the way, he could hear various voices shouting ‘Hail Republic’, and various statements against king. He was certainly looking stupid in school uniform and bag at the back, but he didn’t care. He was enjoying the silent and unpolluted road after all. This made him walk for pretty long. The distance between his home and his school was around twenty minutes of walk.
So, he finally reached the school, simply to know that the school is shut down. Like him, there were other students who came walking, and were now returning back. Some with the confusion, regarding what to do entire day; and most with excitement thinking it a holiday. Anuj was equally excited knowing that it was holiday, but what to do was no way some specific answer. ‘Go directly to home, there is curfew beginning from next hour’, the gatekeeper said to all. Did Anuj hear that?
He therefore made up a plan to go home making a longer way, seeing what has been happening all around. He probably wished if I was there to company him, but my parents did not allow me to move out on that day. I had some bad feelings on them though. Making a longer way, he was walking when his eyes started trembling; he never had such experience before. As if someone was rubbing garlic in his eyes, he seriously was feeling uneasy.
By the time he opened his eyes, he could see peoples running all around. Anuj was excited seeing all these. Within next five minutes, his eyes felt some relaxation and he sat on the wall nearby to see what exactly was happening. There were police on one side with all their precautions, there helmet on their head, protecting thing on their hand and all in dress staying in a row. A gap of around twenty meters was there, and then another huge mass of agitated peoples with no precautions, but just with stone in their hand were there shouting:
‘Hail Republic!’
‘No king! No monarchy!’ and various other quotes.
Sooner, the agitated peoples marched their movement towards those police. Anuj was really excited seeing this. After all, he was sitting in the wall that was located back of those agitated peoples. He stood up to see the things happening time and again. Media persons were dancing here and there with their jackets on.
As the crowd marched their movement, one police lifted up his long gun and shot it in the air. Soon, the bullet got drop in street and huge gas started appearing out of it. People started running again, and his eyes could feel some uneasiness again. Later…Anuj understood that it was all because of that bullet. He then heard people shouting ‘tear gas’, and then he came to know that it was tear gas. He closed his eyes for some time, allowed the tears go away, and then opened his eyes.
Agitated peoples were now throwing stones to the police, and police were protecting themselves. A mike was warning them not to be violent, or they will not tolerate and reminded that they had authority to shot gun as well. Who would hear them? The stones were flying in the air continuously, as if the battle in Mahabharat was going on where the two sides were fighting.
Then, there was next tear gas thrown out. Anuj felt scared, so decided to return back home. As soon as he dropped down from the wall, the mass of people began running, and the police were following them. Anuj seriously had no idea regarding what to do, he was not the agitator to be beaten by police, but if he didn’t run maybe police would beat him. How would they know who were agitators and who were not? In the mean time, he got something hard in his back. Someone beat him with a huge stick, he fell down.
Still the mass was running, and Anuj woke up to run in similar way. With just few steps, he heard the sound of firing gun, and at the same time he felt like someone injecting him some injection. No it was not any injection, it was bullet in his back. He fell down there itself, no one was there to care for him. He asked for help from all around, but all the peoples were inside their home, some in their terrace watching the things happening. He heard few more round of fires, but still no one was there to help him. He probably remembered what I said in the chat then.
Within next five minutes, everything was silent, but no one ever cared for the boy in uniform falling on the street. An ambulance came running, but it was too late. He was declared dead on the vehicle itself.
***
By next fifteen days, everything was in peace. Those deaths on agitation were declared ‘Martyr’. I could see my friend’s name among all of them. I went to school alone….it was late…but I could hear Principal speaking on the assembly…
‘……Anuj made his sacrifice for the country, we miss him…on this sad time where your friend, our student has been missing, and will never be present, the school administration has decided to remain shut down for next two days…and sorry to say, we cannot run class today as well..’
I returned back home, after all it was a holiday. Again logged into my Yahoo Messenger account….Anuj Sharma…I could see in sad face with grey color…I knew that would never turn out smiling yellow now…
‘Oye’ A message appeared in my Yahoo Messenger. It was my friend Anuj.
‘Ahh van..k vo?’ I replied.
‘Aja college lagcha?’ he questioned. Since it was 27th of Chaitra 2063, and the agitation was simply called for three days, we were not sure if the college would open.
‘I don’t know, but my dad was saying it won’t, they have expanded the agitation now!’
‘Really? Are you sure college will remain shut down today?’
‘I am not coordinator’s son in law man!’ I said.
‘Okay, they are not even receiving the phone, I will go anyway!’
‘Hya, even if it opens, there is going to be less number of students today, and I am not going! You don’t go as well!’ I replied.
‘No yaar, attendance sucks! They send internal marks from there! And I was already absent for such a long time earlier!’ he replied.
‘You may be shot dead!’ I said jokingly.
‘Who cares? If I die, at least I won’t have to give exams…’ he replied.
***
After getting dressed up, he then moved towards school.
‘Hey, is the school open?’ An aged man asked to Anuj on the way.
‘I don’t know, maybe it is, and our school sucks! They open schools even during such strikes!’
Giving him a smile, Anuj moved towards school. On the way, he could hear various voices shouting ‘Hail Republic’, and various statements against king. He was certainly looking stupid in school uniform and bag at the back, but he didn’t care. He was enjoying the silent and unpolluted road after all. This made him walk for pretty long. The distance between his home and his school was around twenty minutes of walk.
So, he finally reached the school, simply to know that the school is shut down. Like him, there were other students who came walking, and were now returning back. Some with the confusion, regarding what to do entire day; and most with excitement thinking it a holiday. Anuj was equally excited knowing that it was holiday, but what to do was no way some specific answer. ‘Go directly to home, there is curfew beginning from next hour’, the gatekeeper said to all. Did Anuj hear that?
He therefore made up a plan to go home making a longer way, seeing what has been happening all around. He probably wished if I was there to company him, but my parents did not allow me to move out on that day. I had some bad feelings on them though. Making a longer way, he was walking when his eyes started trembling; he never had such experience before. As if someone was rubbing garlic in his eyes, he seriously was feeling uneasy.
By the time he opened his eyes, he could see peoples running all around. Anuj was excited seeing all these. Within next five minutes, his eyes felt some relaxation and he sat on the wall nearby to see what exactly was happening. There were police on one side with all their precautions, there helmet on their head, protecting thing on their hand and all in dress staying in a row. A gap of around twenty meters was there, and then another huge mass of agitated peoples with no precautions, but just with stone in their hand were there shouting:
‘Hail Republic!’
‘No king! No monarchy!’ and various other quotes.
Sooner, the agitated peoples marched their movement towards those police. Anuj was really excited seeing this. After all, he was sitting in the wall that was located back of those agitated peoples. He stood up to see the things happening time and again. Media persons were dancing here and there with their jackets on.
As the crowd marched their movement, one police lifted up his long gun and shot it in the air. Soon, the bullet got drop in street and huge gas started appearing out of it. People started running again, and his eyes could feel some uneasiness again. Later…Anuj understood that it was all because of that bullet. He then heard people shouting ‘tear gas’, and then he came to know that it was tear gas. He closed his eyes for some time, allowed the tears go away, and then opened his eyes.
Agitated peoples were now throwing stones to the police, and police were protecting themselves. A mike was warning them not to be violent, or they will not tolerate and reminded that they had authority to shot gun as well. Who would hear them? The stones were flying in the air continuously, as if the battle in Mahabharat was going on where the two sides were fighting.
Then, there was next tear gas thrown out. Anuj felt scared, so decided to return back home. As soon as he dropped down from the wall, the mass of people began running, and the police were following them. Anuj seriously had no idea regarding what to do, he was not the agitator to be beaten by police, but if he didn’t run maybe police would beat him. How would they know who were agitators and who were not? In the mean time, he got something hard in his back. Someone beat him with a huge stick, he fell down.
Still the mass was running, and Anuj woke up to run in similar way. With just few steps, he heard the sound of firing gun, and at the same time he felt like someone injecting him some injection. No it was not any injection, it was bullet in his back. He fell down there itself, no one was there to care for him. He asked for help from all around, but all the peoples were inside their home, some in their terrace watching the things happening. He heard few more round of fires, but still no one was there to help him. He probably remembered what I said in the chat then.
Within next five minutes, everything was silent, but no one ever cared for the boy in uniform falling on the street. An ambulance came running, but it was too late. He was declared dead on the vehicle itself.
***
By next fifteen days, everything was in peace. Those deaths on agitation were declared ‘Martyr’. I could see my friend’s name among all of them. I went to school alone….it was late…but I could hear Principal speaking on the assembly…
‘……Anuj made his sacrifice for the country, we miss him…on this sad time where your friend, our student has been missing, and will never be present, the school administration has decided to remain shut down for next two days…and sorry to say, we cannot run class today as well..’
I returned back home, after all it was a holiday. Again logged into my Yahoo Messenger account….Anuj Sharma…I could see in sad face with grey color…I knew that would never turn out smiling yellow now…
