Heart was saved that day. Have you forgotten? Yes, the heart was saved that day. Not long ago. But just eight years back on 26th July, 2008.
Not by the diabolical surgery, where some youths in uniform, doing their national duty of guarding the border fell to it, like some innocent trees in seasonal bloom get felled by the marauding axe wielders; but by the caring hands of a team of medical experts doing advanced clinical surgery on the heart of a tiny two-year old toddler.
Noor Fatima. She was brought to India by the first available bus from across the border by her worried patients. The valves in her heart needed to be mended quickly. So the date of operation was advanced by a day at a private hospital in Bangalore.
The school children in Bangalore lined the streets with placards of “Get well soon.” Many schools held special prayers for the toddler’s speedy recovery. India waited in bated breath.
After a six-hour-long grueling job, Dr. Devi Shethi, the head of the special medical team, came out with a smiling face. The operation was successful. She was recovering well. He said with a hushed excitement, removing his gloves, apron still in place. The hospital charged half of the normal rate it did for the other patients.
India erupted in joy. Noor’s heart was saved. Neighbourly daughter recovered.
India erupted in dismay in the wee hours of 18th September, 2016. 18 soldiers were massacred. Some hearts were bullet-holed, some burnt alive in their sleep.
The killers were sent by the neighbour where eight years back Noor came from.
Among the other ones “…army generals …are the main culprits in keeping the two countries apart……We need to live in peace in South Asia,” Tayaab Nadeem, the father of Noor, said after her daughter’s operation.
India should keep every door of all its lunatic asylums open for treating these loony army generals. Unless their heads are treated, India will continue to bleed, as it has been for the last seventy years after independence.