Kasab

Silence is a terrible thing. It gives time for the mind to rest. To walk back down those dark corridors, those crowded streets, those bloody hotel rooms.. It makes you remember faces you can never forget and voices you always missed. Silence is a terrible thing when you are lying down behind the closed doors of an ICU with your heart throbbing at each Beep of the machine.

The reflective glass doors showed the pale face of a dead man, the widening patch of blood on the forehead being the only sign of life. I felt the warm wetness on my forehead. There was no pain like apprehension. ’ What next?’ was too powerful a question. It won’t let me die in peace. 

“Who are you?”  - A lady kept asking. I mumbled through my tightly shut lips.. My brain couldn’t lie anymore.. The drugs had already taken effect.

 “Who are you.. Who sent you.. Why.. How? “  a thousand voices played riddles with my brain.

“Who are you..? You? I don’t know you.I hate you.. Who am I..? Me..? "

The machine was beeping loud and fast.

Ayisha came running from the corner, her long hair fluttering in the wind, her little steps making impressions on the hot desert sand. I felt her soft cheek press against my face.. “My sweet little Ayisha” Behind us Abu was holding his Mother’s hand and smiling as usual. A golden sun was setting behind our hut.

“Who sent you?"

Who?God.. I think.. But I am not sure.. I haven't seen him.. He never said anything to me.. But I know the priests..They know god..Do they? I am not sure.. I think they know.. Abba got the money..He can feed the children now..I want to see them smiling happily through their fully stuffed mouths..

Why did you do this?”

“Why did I do what?”
Aazad Kashmir.. But I am not sure..Abba got the money..

The girl in blue skirt lay beside her dead father’s feet.. She wasn’t dead. Her eyes stared at me..Questioning me. Soaking up her dead Dad’s blood, she didn’t look scared or defeated but destroyed-devastated. I aimed the gun at her head. We both closed eyes.

A sharp streak of pain passed through my head. I cant feel anything..I am floating in thin air.


The girl in blue skirt kept asking me the same questions over and over again.  Ayisha lay dead on the desert sand.Abu was holding a gun.The priests and Abba were having their supper. The golden sun was setting  forever. My name is Ajmal Ameer Kasab and I dont know why I did it. Please hang me