An Eye On Palestine

By Sohini Banerjee

I had a home. It was nowhere near as magnificent as a palace but for me and my brother–It was heaven. At night, we used to lay our heads on our grandmother's lap under the blanket of stars and hear all the tales from the time when they were in Nakba and how she met my grandfather as sleep came like a tumultuous wave, invading our eyes. I never wanted to live like that. I always believed that my life would be 'picturesque' and now the past is haunting me down. I hope that this is just a bad dream and that it gets over soon. It took them seconds to blow up the buildings. Little did they know that these buildings were not just shades, these walls hold memories of us running around the living room without a care for the world, before the bombs bombarded our lives.

I never thought a day would come when we would stay in a Nakba. To kill a tiger, they bombed an entire forest and birds who screamed for freedom then—stand before you today demanding an answer. They want answers from the entire world of how they sleep at night knowing that they have snatched the dreams of thousands. What are we being punished for? I am just a 12 year old trying to paint near the hospital, scared, scarred and worried that they will come after us next, the people who are injured and fighting for life. I put my hands over my head as I see an airplane fly above my head. Yes, that airplane which my brother and I used to run behind as if chasing it. I watch as the mud bleeds and the sky cries but we have no place to go to anymore. They have taken our right to speech and separated us from the world. They have sealed our mouths and cut our throats and left us to bleed to death. The world sleeps at night as we wait for our only light, the light of destruction, the only source of light which slowly shatters us. And we or rather I–can only watch as they shatter my 'picturesque' life like a house made of glass when struck with a stone. I had a dream and they crashed it with my home. I had a dream and they turned it into ashes. I watched my life tumble down like a house of cards while the world only kept an eye on Palestine.

By Sohini Banerjee