NEW DELHI, January 29: For 16 years Mohammed Iqbal's world was confined to the snow-capped mountains that surrounded his Gurez village in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.He spent the six months of winter huddled in front of his bukhara while his village was completely cut-off from the rest of the country. For the next six months, his routine was much the same, except that he went to school every morning.
So, when the army officials in his area asked him if he wanted to go and see what was on the other side of the valley, he promptly said "yes".
Like him, nearly 2,000 children from the Kupwara district, one of the worst insurgency affected areas in the Valley, said they wanted to go on this trip. The response was so overwhelming that small quizzes and contests had to be conducted to pick the 53 children who were to undertake the journey of discovery. The trip was organised so that the children could see the Republic Day parade.
"We were taught about the Lal Qilla and the Taj Mahal.But it can never replace what I felt when I saw these monuments for real. After all these years I was almost sure that what we were taught never really existed," says Rizwan Maqbool. Studying in class ten in Tangar, Maqbool thinks the Jama Masjid is the best thing he has seen on this trip.
His new found friends Ubaidh Maqbool, Modhsar Aziz Lone and Mohammad Azad Mapnoo have never known what a town looks like. They have never even been as far as Srinagar. Likewise, all the 53 children who went to meet the President yesterday have never been beyond the boundaries of their village.
They all come from villages which have faced the brunt of militancy and the firing on the Line of Control (LoC). Some of the villages they come from are right on the LoC and they are witness to the frequent firing there. But, there were no signs of the past as they stood on the lawns of the Battle Honours Mess in the Capital, waiting to meet the Army Chief.
They are happy talking about cricket, films and their ambitions, not tooeager to answer questions on militancy. "We didn't get to know much about what was happening because we had no access to news. It generally filtered in," says Anytullah Wani noncommittally.
Any awkward question and they all chant the mantra of how happy they are that the Army brought them in touch with the outside world. As the accompanying teachers monitored what was being said, the cherubic youngsters, all boys, were glad just to be there.
"When we started the trip, most of them never said a word. They were very shy and in Chandigarh they hardly spoke to the Army school children. But now, they are more vocal and were happily chatting with the NCC cadets they met in Delhi," says Major Ajit Kumar, who has been with the children throughout.
Their lives have changed. When they are back in their villages, they plan to share their new found world with the friends they left behind.
The tank ride and the fighter planes they have seen have inspired them to do well in life. They confidently tell you that theywant to be a doctor, an engineer or an officer in the Indian Army.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
