A World More Compassionate
The world needs healing and collective TLC. With countries at war and epidemics on the rise, there is no better time for us to step up. The polarisation of the world can easily be dismantled one person at a time.
In June 1984, Gandhi authorised Operation Blue Star, an assault by the Indian Army on the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab. The Golden Temple is the holiest of places for the Sikhs, and as retaliation, she was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards. What followed was carnage, riots, genocide and mindless killing. In addition, shops, homes, and businesses that were Sikh owned were torched. I am a Sikh. My father was an officer in the Indian Air Force, and my sister and I were young and blissfully unaware of anything since we lived in the Cantonment in Ambala at that time, a small town in Haryana. New Delhi was aflame.
My grandparents lived in Bangkok, but they owned a bungalow in New Delhi that shared a wall with another. There was a sculpture of the Khanda, the Sikh emblem, that decorated the 3rd floor. Adjoining the wall of the house, on the 3rd floor, was a joint family that had lost their daughter-in-law during childbirth. The older daughter, Manju, was in the 4th grade, just like me. We would play together whenever my grandparents were in Delhi, and we visited them. She was a Hindu, thankfully, and not at risk. When she heard of the rioting, she did something that even the adults had not thought of.
My grandparents' home shared a wall with her home on the balcony. Manju pulled out a thick bedcover and stitched pebbles along its full length. She then climbed the wall with a thick bedcover and ropes, ran up to the roof terrace, and scaled it to jump onto the 3rd-floor balcony. There she tied the becover to the railings and used it to cover the Khanda (symbol) sculpture. The weighted edge ensured that the wind would not blow the bedcover away. Knowing she had saved the residence, she scaled the wall back to the terrace atop the 3rd floor. Then she took the stairs down to the balcony and jumped back into her home, none the wiser about her actions. It was only when the mob came to burn down residences and the adults worried about the house (adjoining the wall), that Manju mentioned her heroics. The community was united, and the men approached the mob, assuring them that there were no Sikhs in that lane. My grandparents visited India a few months later, when it was safe, and the tattered bedcover told them the story of a child who refused to be polarised by the world.
While we were the same age, my parents protected me from harsh realities, and I had no clue about the riots. Yes, the cantonment was a bubble of love and communal harmony, and Manju was living in the epicentre of the riots.
However, Manju, having lost her mother, learned resilience and was so brave in so many ways. Why are some people as brave as Manju? Sometimes, when we understand who we are, we can live larger, be braver, and live more authentically. And when we are true to ourselves, we uplift our loved ones and the people we meet. So Manju's bravery meant the lane did not have a house burnt to the ground, and that the community followed suit!
Manju shows how we can break the polarisation. When we have the backs of our community, we move with the energy of the 3 of Cups. If you would like guidance from the universe and a reading to see how you can support and be supported by your circle, you know where to find me.
Have a blessed month of June.
