Pellets have pushed the sizzling sun behind the horizon for many people once for all. Those who either lost their eyesight completely or partially have to live in the world of their own which unfortunately is governed by dense darkness, favoured by misfortune and challenged by time. These little innocent kids of the valley have to adjust their life style to cope up the challenges which their blindness has openly thrown before them. It is estimated that five hundred young men are at the verge of losing their eyesight. About fifty people have lost their eyesight completely. A good number of people have lost their one eye and hundreds are still lying in hospitals with the hope to retain their eyesight. The doctors are yet to plan procedures for hundreds of pellet victims. It is thought that the procedure may not help the maximum cases to see the sky again. In some cases doctors are hopeful to save either one or both eyes but in most cases it is believed that even after procedures nothing can be said with certainty. Even experts in many cases are not sure to make their patients to see again. The damage is unimaginable. A good number of students have either lost their both eyes or at least one and it is yet to be decided how and who will come forward to rehabilitate them. The worst part of the study reveals that 95% pellet victims belong to the age group between ten and twenty five. Among victims there are some little girls as well. The pathos doesn’t end here, what itches deep down the skin is that neither Government nor any Non- Governmental Organization has shown any development to rehabilitate the victims and what pulls the heart out of rib cage is why the eyes of youth are being targeted repeatedly.
How long pellets shall be in rule
To ruin our vale
Where welders all have lost their tool
And experts have put on sale
The thin lens man’s reel revealing
What nay is the very pellet’s meal?
On the plate pale.
In another report it has been stated that excessive lead in the form of pellets as a foreign particle in nay human body may prove fatal. Forensic laboratories have taken enough time but no data has been published till date owing to the reason that pellets are copious with excessive lead which may reveal sad news and that is on sure cards. The victims on one hand are struggling to regain their precious eyesight and on the other Government have issued date sheets without taking care of the victims. The victims who are keen to write their papers must be treated specially. Before directing them to sit in the examination, a special training must be operational without delay to help the victims to clear their papers. If these steps are not taken with immediate effects, a good number of students might not be able to sit in the examination let alone clear their papers. Government cannot be blind to publish date sheet without taking the victims into account. Those who are still under the treatment of experts or those who need immediate surgeries should not be left alone.
Mark of autocracy on the faces
Once jolly and fair
Still in their torn veils, pellet traces
They shall who knows how long now bear,
Punctured faces shall a saga tell
To age bands how to survive well
And time to dare
One can imagine the trauma of a person who has either lost one or both eyes, the kind of life he would be living, the kind of challenges he would be facing. The day light may bring a ray of warmth through fragile crevices but not a ray of light to make things apparent. The night may bring a wave of chill in their rooms but who would guide them to shut the window to beat the chill. Living in a dark room means continuous suffering, a kind of life which is devoid of purpose and taste. Those who are pushed to be inhabitant of such rooms need to be guided, helped and inspired both by family members and friends so that they should not feel alienated and ignored. It is an uphill task indeed for the family members to manage these victims but then one has to prove his openness so to embrace suffering class. Show them the way they will prove their worth. Ignorance and negligence may lead them to surrender before their ailment.
No moon they shall see now no sun
And not stars all
Light shall very soon be a bare pun
For now wayward nights be a pal,
Rainbow and clouds now a fairy-tale
On their walls wall clocks too shall fail
To grant a call.
Mushtaq B. Barq is a Poet and Fiction Writer. He is the author of “Feeble prisoner, “ Wings of Love” and many translation works are credited to the author like “ Verses Of Wahab Khar” and “ Songs Of Sochkral”
