Khalid Hosseini summed it up perfectly in The Kite Runner: Zindagi migzara (life goes on), unmindful of a beginning and the end. Crisis or calm, life moves forward like a slow dusty caravan of medieval history.
Life is the ethical energy of the despotic truth. The energy animates the bodies of all species and in illusion we think the organism is life. Nevertheless, the organism is just the automobile of the soul, and when the bridge of life ends, the soul moves on to another chapter and takes birth in another body. This is how zindagi migzara!
I dwell in a place which is referred to as Jannat and Jahannum in unison. I dwell in a prison where I am declared a free bird. Killings, blood, pellets, bullets are the hallmark of my land, where a mother loses her son but can’t afford to mourn over his death, where a son who loses his father can’t deplore the killing fittingly, where a wife who loses her husband is forbidden to holler. Yet, like in other parts of the world, life goes on at its own pace.
But I believe that life goes on for good. Sometimes, it is like a roller coaster ride. It is crammed with triumphs and duds. One day our faith is high, the next day it has dropped to the lowest. How will we tackle it, I often ask myself.
For me, the best answer hitherto is to trust God and carry on. Even when seemingly bad things happen, there is a purpose and wisdom behind that. Sometimes the purpose is known to Him only, sometimes it is obvious to all of us.
Likewise, in my land, I believe life goes on for good. Life goes on so that the mother can move on leaving behind the blues that hit her hard. Life goes on so that the son could press on and support his mother. Life goes on to give the widow a prospect to initiate a new life. It goes on because it knows forgetting is a blessing.
So many times, I have cried over my petty problems thinking this is the end. But once I wiped away the tears from my auburn eyes, I realized it was just a new beginning. As they say, “No sun outlasts its sunset but will rise again and bring the dawn.” Also, Allah says in the Holy Quran, “The relief will come.” We, in Kashmir, believe that dark nights will end and the sun will rise again. I can confidently say that one day, just as written in the chronicles of Kashmir, people will sit pleasantly on the Ghats of Dal with a cup of Kehwa in their hand.
