Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Things left behind

This image of little Moshe is haunting me. I do not know what images the little boy has in his mind, but I pray that they are not terrifying to plague him through his life. Probably he is too young to understand what has gone wrong, but he surely knows something terrible has happened.
That makes me wonder, what are the children in India thinking about terrorism?
Post attack, my husband's organisation got expert help to relieve stress amongst employees. Probably they do not know how adept the 'developing country' people are in handling 'stress'. Surprisingly, the attendees of the programme were all curious to know not about themselves but about their children. Some samples of what children are asking -
a) Why are these people killing so many? You said killing someone is bad. Are they bad people? Worried parentsa are asking - Are we supposed to say they are terrorists? Then comes the questions who are these terrorists? Should I say that they belong to a particular religion? Do I say they belong to our neighbouring country? How should be explain to our children what is terrorism?
Sadly, the expert at the programme said that you have tell the truth to children.
Is that what you should do? Does anyone have any answer? I'd like to know. Please respond.

P.S. A word or caution for my women friends - If you are going to light a candle to show your solidarity, don't wear powder or lipstick because some stuck up guy in the BJP thinks it makes you less of an Indian.

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