WHEN OUR DAUGHTER LOST HER LIFE ... TARISHI, A TRIBUTE

In this world of fratricidal feud, where man has forgotten that in killing brother man he is essentially killing his own self, where the infidel and the faithful alike suffer at the hands of savagery relayed through ages by transmission of culture that breeds barbarism, in such a world where we all suffer the pangs of a Tarishi being tortured to death for no fault of hers, shall we be mute witnesses to the gory spectacle round the globe and give in tamely to the forces of terror? Or, shall we as awakened citizens of the world fight back force with force, dogma with reason and falsehood with the superior power of truth and enlightenment? Passive piety is unbecoming of genuinely pious people for to be unconcerned about the safety and welfare of others in critical danger of being harmed in body and in mind by the forces of evil and to respond by way of securing self-security only when the threat comes close to one's own self is reprehensible. To eat of the fruits of national security for which the soldiers die daily --- literal senseless deaths so often at the hands of perfidious perpetrators of terror --- and not to water the roots of the national tree is calamitous for the country and woeful for the world for in such indifference to others' agony breeds the virus of violence whose horrors are no more alien to any of us. Shall it suffice to offer floral tributes before Tarishi's image and shed a few emotional drops in much the same way as we shed after 26/11 or is a greater commitment to the cause of eradicating archaic absolutism from the planet an imperative now? When shall we wake up? When a suicide bomber has careered us to the other world or when there is life left in us yet to take affirmative action to tackle this global menace? Educate yourself about this global threat to civilisation. Read, reason, reflect and reject irrationality, dogma and absolutism. Tarishi, my child, those ruddy drops from your innocent form shall not go down the cosmic drain. They shall transfuse into the hearts of heroic souls like Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain who did not forsake you in your hour of death but bore the horror of it all, manfully, valiantly and, why, spiritually too, and out of your sacrifice of your dear life, so very dear to all of us who mourn today the loss of the pulsations of your spirit, shall be born heroes like your friend in finality who will purge the earth of such barbarism that snuffed the life out of you.