The terrace is strewn over with placards, banners, posters, flags...and the young members of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Chandigarh, are busy giving final touches to their thoughts and feelings and getting geared for a cause — a candlelight march and hunger strike in support of their people back in Tibet. Anger, fear, helplessness, revolt, each one of them is going through a sea of emotions, “and it’s nothing less than complete independence that we want now,’’ Tenzin Thinley a student of Government College introduces you to other members of the group. “We are about 50 of us here in Chandigarh and it’s a close-knit group that we have,’’ Tenzin is disturbed at the turn of events back in Tibet and the rising violence. It’s a tough time for Khenrab Dhutsel, who came to India from Tibet when he was only eight years old and hasn’t met his parents and family for almost 12 years now. “They are in Lhasa and I’m so scared for them. I can’t reach to them either through the phone or e-mail and don’t know when I will see them again. I miss my 90-year-old aunt, who fears I will forget her,’’ Dhutsel hopes to go back to Lhasa some day and take care of his parents in a “free” country.
Sonam Tsering is full of both anger and hope when he talks about the ‘’uprising’’ and feels this is a turning point in the history of Tibet. “All over the world people can now see the injustice that is being done. So many people have died protecting their country and we just hope to get more support from all quarters and let people know what’s happening inside Tibet,’’ Sonam rues the fact that they are prisoners in their own country and the restrictions are for them. Culture, religion, identity, Tenzin Dhasel, a BA-III student fears that they are losing it all, “we want our space, and want to preserve everything that is ours and why do we have to fight for something that is our own. Why are we outsiders in our own place,’’ Tenzin poses a tough one...
