I wonder...

I had an Afghan neighbour till last summer, who had come from London. She later moved back to London to be with her huge extended family.

I have a Palestinian acquaintance whose Russian wife has gone to Russia for their first delivery...and this young man, could not get the visa because of obvious reasons.

My American-Pakistani friend does not want to travel to meet family in Pakistan anymore because she and her kids are scared that they can be abducted and ill-treated anytime, anywhere- and if not, they will be in constant threat of another bombing. Recently, however, she braved her fears and traveled to her Pakistani home...but stayed holed up inside the house for all the 15 days that she was there.

My Nepali acquaintance has to travel to Nepal next year but she is already worried that she will need to be accompanied by a male member of the family- thanks to the terror the Maoists have created there. Rape, forced arms training, destroying the common man's property and wealth- being just a few of their weapons.

Unfortunately, this mayhem is neither limited to these countries nor does it end here. Everywhere we travel, we have the terrorism quietly walking alongside, ghost-like .

I wonder,

one, why don't these people see that all a common person wants is peace, a chance to live life normally?

two, why were we not taught by our parents, teachers or schools how to tackle bullies? They force us out of our lives, out of our homes, out of our countries...we flee, we get scared- and that is what gives them happiness and satisfaction. What are they, if not another kind of big bullies??

Where are we heading? Will our children ever be safe from these threats? Is there any end to this nonsense? May be, after every terror attack they should go back to their moms and ask them if they did the right thing...because no one else can understand the preciousness of a life as much as a mother can. Or, what if all went to back to the old times when we lived peacefully in our own territories- the whole terror business started when we became greedy, for the other person's wealth, territory and possibly, woman. If we all stayed within our boundaries, no one will be unhappy, i guess...and hence, there will be no need to use force or terror??

I wonder...