Reflection

Yours or Mine?

Yamin Tauseef Jahangir

THE children looked happy. They were divided into two groups, where each group had five players. I don't know from where did they get the small flags of Brazil and Argentina, but they have marked their territory with the flags on each end. Standing at Tamabil 0 Km border, I could see the children playing on a ground to what the local people say “No man's land”, and according to them the place neither belongs to us, nor to our neighbouring country India. I looked at the Bangladesh Rifles personnel who was on high alert and totally focused on the horizon, fully armed and ready for any sort of action. May be he performs the same duty all the time, which indeed is tiring, but he performs it to keep our land safe from intruders. I then realised what we are actually doing amongst ourselves in order to claim our rights.

You open the newspaper and it is quite inevitable that you would find news on some big shot company which is under speculation of being a land grabber. You do not know how much of the news is true, and you go on searching for the truth. The roots of finding out the exact story are usually so deep that when you uproot it, you are almost taken aback by the other elements that are related. You make a sigh while reading the news and possibly even forget about it the next moment. But imagine a person, who has spent his entire life while saving to get a land where he can build his own shelter. But this person face such nuisance from a certain class of so called 'blue collar' people, explaining to him all the benefits that he can get by letting it go. The consequences that he gets to face by saying 'no' is out of the equation and at times the law gives a shrug and turns a deaf ear to the poor soul. Well you may wish not to think about it, but who knows may be you will be a victim someday. Can we justify the land filling on the riverbanks, or the lines that we draw and boast about being conniving in destroying someone's dreams? We can't, but we can twist our intentions and be as manipulative as we can be to make sure we get what we want.

Power is to recognise your abilities and also the responsibilities that come along. You can see how the border forces protect us because they take that responsibility with the power that they possess. But the difference actually lies within the people. It doesn't take much time for you to wear the mask of greed and show your performance to the world. Even from our early childhood we mark our own rights and when we are deprived of it, we are upset. The question of things being 'yours' and 'mine' can be dragged forever and one never bothers when he gets the upper hand. More so, from our societal view point we go on blabbering about being corrupt and laugh about it at times, but hey isn't that what almost everybody does behind closed doors? The moment you have the authority, it always turns out for doing the worst.

The children who were playing soccer on that no man's land don't have the knowledge on how the world works around them. They were on a land that was free and as I observed the juvenile spirits I knew the time is not far away when they will walk in the same shoe and footprints left behind will lead others to it. We need to have a broader sense and have enough wisdom to use our moral baggage. When it comes down to get our voices heard, we need that much of courage to fight against the wrong. So I wish we could be more considerate and be united to make a stand against those who conspire and put our foot down on them in the future.

PHOTO: Benjamin Rondel/ gettyimages