Haider Page #3

Are you alright?

- These are dark days.

Birds of prey circle above...

They prey without care...

Kites grab sparrows and

falcons feast on Nightingales...

- Keep him away from it all...

I have a friend

at the university in Aligarh.

Send him there.

- Let him see the other side of India.

A world without imprisoned days

and curfews at nights.

Doctor Sahib won't let him go.

I'll take care of the doctor.

- Make Haider come around.

Alright?

Now cheer up...

Smile, my child!

This house is a ruin

without your laughter.

Father...

A bride for Khurram...

and it will be a happy home.

He doesn't seem to like any girls.

Why Mr. Khurram?

Well!

All the pretty ones...

are already married...

just like you!

You wicked man...

No father wants to see

his son as a militant.

But sending him away

is not a way out either...

It is a grave problem...

and an old one too.

We have lost a few

generations already...

God alone knows when blood

will stop raining on our land.

It's all up to India.

As they say in India, birth right.

And we are only claiming our right...

Freedom.

Freedom...

Gandhi won it for India...

not the gun.

The gun only knows how to avenge...

Commander...

revenge does not set you free..

True freedom lies beyond violence..

Remember...

Revenge only begets revenge.

- Don't you understand?

Can't you hear me?

I am not going anywhere.

I am staying here.

With my father.

Jahid.. to the left...

What is it now?

I ask you, one last time...

Will you go or not?

Should I write it down for you?

I will not!

What is this, mother?!

Will you go or not?

Please hear me out...

- Will you go or not?

Put the gun down mother...

Will you go or notl?

Mother, please...

Would you really have

shot yourself that day?

Do you doubt me?

No. I'm sure.

You wouldn't have.

Was there any other reason

for me to live... besides you?

Or is there?

I bore those long

painful years for you...

Don't...There you go again...

You have to listen to me.

Your father never really

cared for me. Our marriage was dead.

Which is why he gambled his life...

our home...

our honor...

your future... risked it all.

Do we have to see everything

through your eyes?

Always?

There are other ways of seeing.

Try sometime...

Either way,

you will always blame me...

I am used to it.

I know you love your father

more than anyone else...

You certainly don't realise...

What I went through

when you were away.

Hilaal had lost himself in

the hospital, a saint saving lives.

I used to wail like a

hollow bamboo in your memory.

I would wait months for you

to return home in the holidays.

It is my fate to long... to wait...

First for you...

Now...

And now?

The wives of disappeared people

are called 'half-widows' here.

We can only wait.

That is all I can do.

Wait.

For father to return?

Yes.

Or for his corpse.

My father is alive!

He's alive!

Do you understand?!

Please tell me mother, he's alive...

He's alive!

Tell me mother...

he's alive...

Please tell me...

Elections are the first step...

on the long road to peace...

It is a difficult journey...

but we can see our destination...

Wherever you come from...

people want the same thing...

Our schools have been turned

into Army camps...

It is not a democracy...

it a suffocating system.

A 'suffo-cracy'!

The town squares are lined with bunkers

and streets with barbed wires.

According to the APDP there are...

over eight thousand people

who are missing since arrest...

- Your numbers are wrong...

What about those three hundred

thousand Kashmiri Pandits...

displaced from their homes,

living as refugees...

Will you not count them

amongst the disappeared?

My brother disappeared months back.

We have to raise our voices

to search for our own.

- What do we want?

- Freedom...

- We'll snatch away...

- Freedom...

And for this I am

running for elections...

I would like to remind you

of our neighbor that arms and trains...

misguided Kashmiri youth

to kill innocent people...

In 1948, they had looted Kashmiri's

when they came as tribals...

Raped the women and

killed their children.

It was the Indian army that

shed blood to save Kashmir.

- And if we aren't around,

it'll happen again.

Does the law allow you to torture

people you've arrested?

The Indian army is one of the most...

disciplined armed

forces in the world.

We train our officers to interrogate,

and not torture.

Amidst militant attacks,

today Kashmir goes to vote.

Militant groups have

exploded bombs in...

Srinagar, Barahmulla and Anantnag.

I want you to understand

the ground reality.

Separatists are not demanding

freedom from India...

but enslavement to Pakistan.

- Indian troops coerced reluctant

voters into polling booths.

- India has rubbished these allegations.

- However, the voter turnout

remained very low.

- Koshmar constituency saw

the lowest turn out...

where only 110 votes were registered.

- Congratulations!

You have won by a hundred votes.

Congratulations!

- Congratulations!

These traditional folk entertainers

known as Bhand...

are enacting a play

which speaks of a new Kashmir...

- A peaceful Kashmir...

- will the new regime bring

a brighter future for Kashmir?

Only time will tell.

Nice...

Very nice article.

Thank you.

- Come inside...

Come in...

Why are you standing there?

- Why don't you come inside...

What has possessed you?

What is wrong with him?

I don't know...

These days he just stands

outside the door for hours.

He doesn't come in...

- Frisk him.

Where are you coming from?

Where are you going?

What's in your pockets?

Your identity card?

You may go now.

People have become so used to

body searches...

that unless they are frisked...

they fear entering their own homes.

It's a psychological disorder...

the 'New Disease'...

Are you a doctor?

The doctor's soul.

Why are you following me?

What do you want?

A message.

What?

A message.

I have no message for anyone.

But I do...

A message for Haider,

from his father.

What?

A message for Haider shall be

delivered to Haider! Right?

Here is my number.

I will wait for his call.

What is your name?

Rooh...

Roohdaar.

Do we exist or do we not?!

Do we exist or do we not?!

Haider...

I have to tell you something...

Listen to me...

Haider... Listen to me.

There's a message from your father.

Hello...

Hello...

Who is it?

I am Haider...

Haider who?

Haider Meer.

Whom do you want?

Roohdaar...

Downtown. Zaina Kadal bridge...

Tomorrow, 9 am.

Okay... I...

What's he heading to Downtown for?

Salman...

TO g0?

Or not to go?

Where is my father?

In a faraway place...

Very far...

You said you had

a message from him...

Yes.

What is it?

Revenge.

Vengeance.

Vengeance from whom?

And why?

From a murderer...

for a murder.

You seem to have confused matters.

My father was arrested by the army

and one of these days...

we will find out where

they're holding him.

Let the petals fill with color...

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