I run like a scar on the earth’s expanse beneath divided skies in endless disarray depicting barrier to camaraderie of mankind. I stand silent defender between troubled territories. My time worn terrain a testimony to an uproarious past torn apart that shaped the incredulous present. For decades I have been a mute spectator to lives torn apart in love and despair amid sporadic bursts of gunfire and at times an uneasy quietude. I stand as a reminder of a land that once echoed mellifluous amity now wails in a cacophonic hostility. I hear depressed souls intone hushed prayers as the wind whispers them into each and every pore of my being. I am watched over vigilantly by soldiers on either side for any action or breach of truce.
But that day everything felt different as the prorated skies darkened with and air was heavy with anticipation. The strange stillness around made me tremble with foreboding. And then the rains came lashing down in torrents threatening to inundate the land and I apprehensively the weight of its responsibility. Slowly the waters rose whirling around the bunkers and trenches impending to rupture my fragile entity. I could feel the fear of the soldiers huddled on both sides with their eyes fixed on me and ears straining to ear the slightest of movement. With uncertainty they clung to their positions. As the storm raged I stood with memories etched of the lasting spirit of mortals who had lived and died long my length. I had seen all, the barbarity of wars, ephemeral ceasefires, the unsettling talks for peace and at times the ruthless explosions of violence.
The callous rains pounded down in all its glory something strange happened. The soldiers cramped in their makeshift tents began to look across me not with suspicion but perceived as humanity that had bound them. Shadows of anxiety seem to fade. I felt a shiver run down with excitement when hearts that were divided, forgot their differences with a tint of gleam in their eyes. As the tempest past leaving behind the trail of debris and destructions, I stood amidst them bearing witness to shared glances, affirmatives nods, moments of understanding that transcended the borders that divided them. Humanity bridged the disparity where hearts were never won. They held hands, extended help to the devastated and tried to resolve the situation caused by calamity.
I stood, but saw seeds of empathy and harmony was sown even as the soldiers returned back to their alert vigil. I, the Line of Control, hold on to the sanguine hope’s thin thread of peace and a no man’s land where guns stand still and silent, yearning to be erased with pride from the memory of mankind.
