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Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye to Kya Hai - Sunanda Vashisht Sunanda Vashisht was born in the beautiful valley of Kashmir, India when Kashmir was known for its unparalleled natural beauty and not as a cauldron of fear and terror. She did most of her schooling in Delhi and dabbled with several professions before moving to U.S last year. she is currently pursuing higher studies here. she likes to introduce herself as an explorer because she wants to spend all her time in this world exploring unknown. Writing for her is a cathartic experience. She can't remember when she began writing first but she does know that writing has always helped her to be at peace with herself and with the world around her.

I finally decided to put an end to it. I switched off the television, turned off the internet, put the phone off the hook, made myself a good cup of tea and decided to think. I distanced myself from everything and closed my eyes. The recent war coverage, the blood bath witnessed on both sides, the annihilation of morality and righteousness made me wonder about the world I was living in and the kind of planet we were passing on to our future generations. I was attending a wedding reception recently where I heard a bunch of children discussing cluster bombs and scud missiles. These children were in elementary school and few of them in middle school. Was this the earth that we were passing on to our children? If all this bloodshed was having this impact on me then I wonder what children around the world must be going through who witness twenty four hour war coverage and children of Iraq who don’t even have to switch on the television. They can merely look out of their windows before a multi million dollar bomb kills them and with them all their dreams.

I tried not to think. Easier said than done. The new words seem to have been added to our day to day vocabulary, pre-emptive strikes, shock and awe, mother of all bombs etc. Is non-violence taking the center stage in the world? Are we entering the dangerously violent world where no one is safe. Are we going to beef up our defense expenditures at the cost of spreading education and clean water to unprivileged? I don’t have any answer to these questions. Nor do people who wipe out nations in an attempt to make their part of the world safe. How naïve can they be.

Either the entire humanity is safe or no one is safe. And how ironic is the thought that humans are trying to save themselves from each other. As I look around my planet I wonder how long will it be before this will be wiped out too. How sad can be the situation where there is no distinction between morality or immorality and right and wrong, where both seem the same.

I think and then I don’t want to think also. Is this how this world is going to end where we human beings will be thirsty for each other’s blood.

“Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai”

Till we connect again...

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