The Human Bond!

A very disgusting, disgraceful and dreadful thing happened in Mumbai on December 7, 1992. Babri Masjid was demolished and Mumbai began burning due to riots! I was studying then and was almost caught in the crossfire between the warring communities. Luckily, by God’s grace, I returned home in one piece. Taslima’s (this character was used by me before and is a real person and a very good friend of mine) telephone booth was burnt during the riots and she had to rebuild the whole thing from scratch. I wrote this story after the riots were over for an additional course I was doing then. I am sharing the same here:
“Bombay (Mumbai) is burning,” Aakash exclaimed. “Mr. Iyer has asked all the girls to go back home.”
“And you guys will have all the fun!” Radha said sarcastically.
“Radha, there is no fun in riots,” he replied seriously. “I lost my elder brother in the Bhiwandi riots.”
“I am sorry. But, I could do a couple of reporting assignments.”
“No. You and Asha are going straight to the hostel,” Mr. Iyer’s firm voice startled them.
“Ok, Sir.’
“Aakash will drop you there.”
Finding a rickshaw was a problem, but, finally, pitying the girls, one driver got ready to take them to their destination.
“Isn’t that Taslima’s PCO?” Asha spoke up as they neared the hostel. She was pointing toward a manned phone booth, which was being set afire by a group of hooligans!
To be continued…