transcripts of Afghanistan

I just updated my pic...well, dont i look right from the 'Taliban' regime??? ;P Guess I have been too fascinated by how and what happens in Afghanistan...Its quite a topic I believe. After hearing about (not that America was bombarding the entire nation already torn apart by talibs) but about debates whether Aussie troops should stay there or be pulled back, after reading Khaled Hosseini's (Ref: wikipedia to get the spelling right) both the books, after seeing the bollywood flick 'kabul express', after seeing infinite discovery channel series on Afghanistan, after reading stuff about Daniel Pearls' murder (infact the word is 'slaughter'), some other books here n there and basically after reading so much about that country...I was convinced the country is in ruins and conveniently formed a barren mental picture of the place and the people. Infact, my vision of the place was so sad that all i could associate with the place was 'lots of sand' and people wearing dirty grey or mud shade colours (this just reflects that I could not associate any vividness what so ever with the country and its people).
The other day it so happened that I was sitting in the library and trying rather pretending to study...and behind me were a group of under grads chit-chatting and also discussing their assignment. A very pretty girl in their group looked Indian and since i am still of the 'desi' school of thoughts that I have to ask every indian i meet where is he/she from and what is she/ he doing....and then may be continue with the same old stuff of "oh you are from xyz place...nice.. a friend of mine is from the same xyz place...blah blah blah" Ok now getting back to the girl, when i put up the same old rotten ques 'where are you from in india? " I got an unexpected reply, ' well, i am from kabul, Afghanistan'. Whoopsi!!! a bell rang in my head...series of thoughts which then went in my head were something like in this order
-NOooooo she cant be!!!!!!
-How can she be...she is dressed up so well.
-what is she doing in sydney...and how come!
-She is soo fashionable unlike how it is supposed to be in Afghanistan!
-She is even wearing a short skirt with long boots - its not allowed!
-She is wearing Bright purple and yellow - they wear only dull colours!
-HOw come she is wearing her hair open!
-She is so smart and talkative - afghani women are supposed to be sad and timid!
-How come she is so educated!!!

bringing my sense back to her, I was quite stunned....and i behaved as if i have just at that moment met the 'Mr right' of my life! I was simply so excited to finally meet someone from the land i had read so much about...I was sooo happy and curious to have eaten her head for the next 115 minutes! Well she told me she had been in sydney only for the last 4 months and her parents were still in kabul...which just proves that by no means she could have become so hip all of a sudden just by landing in the aussie land and ya above all, she was a medical student - which stated furthermore that she was a bright girl.

I had so many queries about life in kabul and in other parts of Afghanistan that i actually ate her head with them. She laughed at me, but answered all the questions i had in my mind...at the end of the discussion, she gave me that look which said "You dumb woman, go and work upon your basic IQ..you have no freaking idea about my country....I am sure you dont even know how is it geographically placed!'. And she indeed made me feel so ignorant and unaware and most of all stupid! Infact, she kept giggling for the next 10 minutes after the discussion was over...

A million words, so many books, 1000s of people and their opinions, talks and talk shows about the atrocities of people in Afghanistan...all this for a span of last 7 years, post Kandahar hijacking episode in dec 1999...all this was successful in creating a picture which was observed by many and written about by many more - Afghanistan in turmoil. ...yet just 2hours with someone who had lived that life- washed away all the Afghanistan related data and pictures that my brain cells carried...well, she made me see and associate happiness with that land, she made me realise how people have hope and cherish good and bad times, how children dream and plan their education, how women there too love shopping and know which clothes and dressing style is in vogue...she made me associate colors like red, fuchsia and pink with Afghanistan..people aim and strive hard to establish a career and make an effort to be global citizens..boys check out girls..teenagers hang out together..late night coffee happens too...she made me live and believe in what her eyes had seen and observed...her knowledge and tastes of cookies n cakes were far better than mine...no reflection of pain or loss in her eyes just sheer happiness and pride to belong to her country...Its now that I can smile thinking about Afghanistan and imagine people going to parties and basically having a nice time...Infact then I even googled and found out that kabul has business centres and malls...Afghanistan afterall is not just barren, it has a modern life too! Thanks to her, I now believe that after a sunny day in the rains, a rainbow rises there too :)

P.S : oye yeh to serious ho gaya!