"There, I saw HIM. HIS Big soft footsteps fell on the top, top of that dome and made it beautiful... HE has chosen me, us to claim his territory, the territory which has been stolen years back. It is time." A preacher announced his dream to the followers of the deity. Then the creatures decided to gift a piece of land to the creator HIMSELF. They placed the idol of the deity in the mosque. And what happened next is a history no one wants to turn and see. For years several lawsuits, politicians and the legal authorities tried to resolve the matter and failed. Then! The followers from all over the country gathered to do the justice and they demolished the piece of land they had once offered their deity. The event left humanity dead when the mob itself killed thousands and divided way for two religions for thousand more years…

Tara gazed her own words for a while and then mailed it. It was 2:30am. Next day the office was as usual for her till the time she was summoned by the boss. “Tara, your article summary itself has impressed our clients, and they are satisfied with the full story. Congratulations! For the great work and now I am going to get you more engaged with your next assignment.” Boss applauded Tara that overwhelmed her, “Thank You boss. And what is the next assignment? “, “You have to continue with the after effects of the mosque demolition, for that you will be sent to Mumbai for your next research work.” boss explained. “That would be great. When do I have to leave?” asked Tara.

Days in Mumbai kept Tara excited to the fullest. Meetings with different people, unfolding facts, and new theories kept her intact on her work. That day after meeting the Police Commissioner, after a long time she chose to write something for her own blog. 

I was then serving as DCP in Mumbai police department when my whole surrounding got changed in few hours. One blast, then the other, and then another. Form BSE, Mahim, Hotel Sea Rock, Air India to Juhu, Worli... every place.  Every place I visited had turned into a death post. Smoke, blood, dead bodies and cries drenched my senses. But what was more frightening was yet to come. Our investigation unfolded truths that were hard to swallow. Surely, the act was a well-planned destruction by the underworld and was an answer to the mosque demolition by them. But the demolition not just lead to this blast but had given wings to a Home grown terrorism. Yes! We kept inspecting every section and we were shocked to know that most people involved in the execution were Indians. From a reputed family to poor boat holders, from a film star to police constables and from underworld to common man, hundreds were convicted in the case. It took us decades to punish the ones involved and it’s a shame that not every person has yet got punished for this inhuman activity. The ones who planned the blast are still absconding. Yes! It took time because it had involvement of hundreds, because it left hundreds dead, because the executors were more powerful, because neighbouring countries were involved, because….. There are hundreds of reasons. But! It doesn’t change the fact that... we lacked, we lacked to do it on time, and we lacked to serve justice to the one event that originated this act.

Mumbai days were near to end and the research satisfied Tara as a columnist. But then an idea struck her, “How could I miss it.”, she murmured to herself.

She went to meet common people of Mumbai, who were not involved in the blast, were not the victims of the blast, but were just a resident of the city. The only thing that mattered for her was their religion, whether it is the two religions who clashed or the others.

And now she was set to write the conclusion:

Before reading this article, you will have to keep your religious sentiments aside. And if you can, then may be some day this war of religions will end and we will breathe in a real democracy. It all started with a belief. A preacher, a minister or may be someone else from religion A, concluded that there shouldn’t stand a mosque on the land of a Hindu God. And they placed His Idol at the mosque. It will sound ridiculous to the atheist but then I said you have to keep your religious believes aside. They claimed that their Mughal Emperors had constructed a mosque on the place where temple existed. It is okay for a country to have a mosque at the place of temple because it had been under the rule of outsiders for several decades. But it is not okay to forcefully change the culture of a place in a democracy. And being a democratic country that offers equal rights to all religions, it took us decades to resolve this one issue where only few hands were involved and we could not do justice even after decades. And then in this democratic country, devotees around the country appointed them to do justice by demolishing the 450 years old mosque. Now it became a national issue with 2000 plus killings and the political involvement in huge number. A justice system that failed to settle regional issue decades back was now unable to do justice to this national issue for sure. And then religion B took a stand. Next year people from religion B helped execution of RDX blasts in a metropolitan city of their own country. That left 200 dead and hundreds injured. It was an international issue now with involvement of neighbouring countries and the underworld. But the most important term that we got after these blasts was Home grown terrorism. But we lacked the fact that killing 2000 people and demolishing a building by a mob should have also been termed as Home grown terrorism. And then, for no surprise, it took us two decades to reach conclusions for the issue and the case is still running in the court. Yes! It is tough to solve issues like blasts and mob killings where thousands of people are involved. It takes time. Maybe because we lack in appointing enough judiciary persons to handle the hearings on time, maybe because we don’t train our police to handle these major attacks, maybe special forces and army need approval from politicians before acting, maybe because we have politician who are so corrupt that nationalism comes after money and religion for them, maybe because we need education and non-criminal background for any other sector but not for being a politician,  maybe because we lack in infrastructure and technology to monitor our security, and maybe because we are so anti-national that entering our country and attacking us has become so frequent for terrorists. We should realise that killing is not a practice that any God offers for their follower. No holy book, whether of religion A or B or C or D or any other, teaches inhuman and terror activities. They just recite the act of humanity, love, giving, doing everything that is good for nature. We claim to follow our creator but we are killing its creation for our own believes. Bring in your religious believes now and ask yourself, do you practice dos and don’ts from the holy book that your religion offer? We lack because us, all of us, lack humanity.

My father is a religious person. He believes that mukti yatra cuts down the impurities and cleanses the soul.  He always wanted to do this yatra through which he gets to visit lots of mosques and dargahs. His 60^th birthday was approaching. December is a cold month. So, I decided to take him on this yatra myself. It was supposed to be memorable, and ultimately it was.

I planned a 12-day trip over 3 states of the North, covering 16 of the important religious sites. Abbu’s birthday was right in the middle of the trip- on the 6^th day. We left home with a bag full of anticipation and good hope. The first 5 days went exactly as I planned, but not Abbu’s birthday.

On his birthday, we were to explore the city which had a great importance in the Hindu mythology. We thought of taking the essence of a sister religion and some extra blessings from the Hindu Gods too. There was a 16^th-century mosque that Abbu wished to visit. We reached the place early in the morning. Abbu said he would sleep sometime before going to the mosque in the afternoon. I tried sleeping too but a weird feeling kept me up. I went down for some tea. There was a small stall which served tea, coffee and snacks. There were three people other having tea there. I asked for a cup and sat on the bench.

“Munna ka tabiyat bigad gaya, nahi to hum jarur jaate.” said the slim guy wearing a kurta.

“Abhi bhi time hai, aap ja sakte hain. Program 3-4 baje se pehle khatam nahi hoga.” Said the chai-wala.

“12 baj gaye hain, ab jaane ka mann nahi.” The slim guy replied.

I was keenly listening to what they were saying. I started getting interested upon hearing the word ‘program’.

“Muaf kijiyega, kis program ki baat ho rahi hai?” I asked.

“Aap kahan gum hain, bhai- sahab? Itni badi rally nikli hai aur aapko nahi maalum? Kal ki ghoshna nahi suni aapne?” the other guy in a kurta asked back.

 “Ji, mai aaj hi aya hun. Yatra par hu Abbu ke sath. Masjid jaane ka iraada hai kuch der me.” I clarified.

There was a sudden silence amongst us. The two guys in kurta looked at each other and then looked away. They had finished their tea.

“Chal chotu, hum chalte hain.” the other one said and they both walked away whispering.

“Aaj masjid jana aapke liye theek nahi.” said the chai-wala.

“Kyu, bhai?” I was getting anxious.

“Yeh masjid vivaad me phasa hua hai.”

“Itna to hume pata hai, bhai. Par log to aaj bhi jaate hain na wahan?” I wanted answers.

“Haan, Magar aaj ki rally wahin ho rahi hai, aur aadhikarik raay iss masjid ke khilaaf jate hain. Aakhir hai to yeh sheher ek Hindu dharm sthal.” The chai-wala’s words were making no sense to me.

“Kya isse ye maalum hota hai ye yahan masjid ka hona galat hai?” i asked.

“Hamare kehne ya sochne se kya hota hai? Hai to raaj satta ka.”

“Satta? Kya yahan ki satta sabke liye baraabar nahi?” I was confused.

He jolted his head and looked away. His silence was making me uncomfortable. I wanted to see the rally. I wanted to see the mosque.

“Masjid ka raasta kis taraf hai?”

.......................................................                                                    

Crowd, a disturbed crowd was all I could see in front of my eyes. I kept on walking. I could hear them chanting. Those chants were piercing through my body like little needles. I could sense instability. I could sense insanity. I went closer. I could now hear the bhaashan that the politician was giving.

“Iss bhoomi ko hame samtal banana hoga, baithne layak banana hoga. Taki yahan samoohik kirtan ho sake, bhajan ho sake. Yagya ka aayojan hoga....”

‘What is this man trying to say?’ I thought in my head. The mob kept cheering and chanting.

“Jai Shri Ram! Jai Shri Ram!”

When I went further and got the first sight of the mosque from a distance, I stood there perplexed. It was right in front of my eyes- the wrecking. The domes were being hit, the walls were attacked. It was hard for me to digest what I saw. The main dome fell... then another... Just then I saw something flying towards me and hit me.... I realized I was sitting on the ground, full of dust, when I came back to senses. The mosque was not standing anymore. My neck hurt, but it did not matter to me.  

People had started returning to their homes. I returned too. On the way back to the hotel, I could not stop thinking about what had happened. They said it was essential, as it was an important Hindu site. The political leaders were smiling. The people were dancing in victory, chanting slogans and celebrating their win. Did they actually win? Who won? How can anyone justify the existence of a Hindu site? How does demolition of a religious building define their sanity? The security forces ran away. Further, there was no effort put to stop them. Why? My head was full of questions.

Abbu was awake and really worried when he did not find me in the room. He had already gathered the information about the demolition but my absence was a bigger concern for him then. When I reached, Abbu was watching the news on the TV with widened eyes. He ran to me and held me by my shoulders.

“Khairiyat hai?” he was shaking.

“Han Abbu, mai khairiyat hu, magar ye desh bahut beemar hai.” I replied.

He had tears in his eyes. I was broken. There was nothing that we could do.

“Chal, laut chalen.”  he said, still shaking.

.......................................................

It is February. About two months passed... and riots, commotion and deaths are all that we saw. Every other day we woke up with the death toll rising, new cities being engrossed and more hatred in the air. The fire had struck. Temples, mosques and other random buildings were targeted. We too were invited for a meeting to remove people of the other religion out of our locality. Ordinary people had turned into activists. People were dying. But, what could we do?  

Whenever there is a state of disagreement, why is agitation and anger the first and the last option? Why do people think that destroying a monument of killing the people would solve or pacify an issue? Why does a positive ground, the religion, become the reason for the unending negativity? Why ‘co-existence’ is no more a word with a meaning? But, what could we do?  

I suddenly felt like a culprit. I never thought anything beyond my family’s happiness. Who thinks about the country’s happiness? Who thinks about its integrity? Lots of our countrymen died, about 2000 of them. Are our countrymen, our extended family? If no, then why do we share the same land? If yes, then why are we still silent? 

I decided, I would not sit silent anymore. I will do my part. I will propagate my questions, and I will derive the solutions. I will.