Independence Day ’12: Specks of Green
As I walk out onto the roof, a wave of monsoon air welcomes me. I close my eyes and stand still to feel it for a moment. But this is not why I came up here…I have to move forward. I move towards the old cracked up wooden ladder in the corner. I make sure it’s in place before I start climbing…slowly and carefully…making sure to skip the broken step. My heart finally stops skipping beats as I step onto the landing above. I look towards the sky…it’s not completely dark yet; the sky’s an enticing shade of dark blue, stretching all around me… fading into infinity where my eyes can’t reach. I walk briskly towards the small wall in front of me, step onto a small pile of bricks lying right in front of it and heave myself onto the other side.
I’m now standing on a small square cemented slab, surrounded by hollow darkness on all sides. I look around and see the world around me slowly starting to light up. I stare at a Mosque on my side, adorned in golden lights, a flaming torch in the darkness…burning mightily in all its grandeur. I turn around and look at a street down below. It seems like a world far away from here, the people and cars nothing more than moving dots and the shops on both sides of the streets lit up like hot, burning furnaces. But that’s not what caught my attention.
Somebody has decorated the street with strings of lights, stretching from one rooftop to the other, covering the street like a blanket. I lean forward to get a better view. Yes… I see it now; Specks of green scattered here and there amid the blanket. Among the lights, stretch strings with small flags hanging from them… green and white… glowing in the lights, flapping crazily with the wind. Up here, I can’t hear the news telling me of the vices that haunt my country, I can’t hear the people complaining of their sufferings, I can’t see the pollution, the misery… I can only see the joy of people illuminated in the lights, I can see their love for their country in the fury of the flags flapping in the wind.
I want to say I love my country for the beautiful landscapes, for the wonderful people, for the wonderful traditions, for the scrumptious food but honestly I haven’t seen all the landscapes… I haven’t met all the people, I don’t know about all the traditions and all the foods, but I do know one thing… as long as those flags and those lights hover over that street, there’s still light, there’s still some spirit left, there’s still hope.
Recent Comments