Let me tell you about one of my childhood & best friend naran.i really admire him as a friend not because he is my childhood friend but person with great Courage.His father vasan bhai resident of village kukma in kutch district of gujarat. vasan bhai use to runs the floor mill and his son naran was running a shop attached to his home.
i remember the day when he was very happy when he bought one tractor for farming which he use to give on rent to other farmers.so,they were making slow but steady progress.his father use to tease me a lot by saying" I am the one who is not scared of your father" because my father is in incomtax dept and vasan bhai was not coming
under incomtax radar.they were happy with that and enjoying their lives in small village.
The day came 26th Jan"2001 Republican day of india & very cold morning.i was enjoying my sleep and i felt somebody try to move my bed as i open my eyes i felt my bed was jumping on the floor & before i can think one of the speaker (which i have place above my bed) fall on me.quickly i got up from my bed and rush to my mother and my sister who were inside the kitchen and very scared.i told my brother to move out quickly from this house with my father and i also run out from my house with my sister and mother.we success fully get out from our house and got into ground near by my home.when we came out from our home we cant see anything outside there was so much fog outside.i was watching everything what is happening around and thought we have been attacked (as bhuj is very near to Pak border and it was attacked first in 1971 war) ?
After 10 to 15 minute i was able to speak some words and i asked my father what is this papa? and he said i think its earthquake.
After 20-30 minutes later me & neighbours around me came out from shock.i can still remembers those scared faces and everyone was clueless about what is going on and what to do.i asked some of them how are they and anything happen to them ? Fortunately there was not a single casualty in out our colony but some house was badly damaged but no collapsed totally because our colony has all new construction & hardly 2 floor.so,i was unaware of rest of the bhuj which is 80 % collapsed.mostly the apartments and old constructed house and human casualty countless.
Same day afternoon my father told me to visit all my close relative in near by town & village.so,i took my bike and went to all the places.my village kukma was totally collapsed & i have seen vasan bhai.who sitting near the debris which was his home in the morning he woke up.i asked about naran & his family he told everybody is fine in his family and every one is alive.when i looked at his home which converted into debris.Actually they were using some part of their home as floor mill which vasan bhai used to run & narans shop.their tractor was parked near to their home.now everything was under the debris.all the source of income lost within 45 second(duration of earthquake).i asked vasan bhai who was sitting near to debris "now what..you lost everything..!!!".He said we are alive that's enough & i can build all this thing again.
After one month or more i come to know that vasan bhai has been arrested in murder case.i was shocked & could not believe and i spoke to some other friends in
kukma.they told me after earthquake people were slipping in farm 2 km away from village and it was on highway.so,one night he was going to farm at 1 am and found dead body of person near highway.so,he informed authority but move was back fired and he was charged by authority in murder of Muslim person in belongs to neighbour village and reason was personal rivalry.this smart move by authority was actually meant to avoid communal tension in already rough situation due to earthquake.as that murder was done by some right wing activist leader due to some personal differences because he was power full & truth might have initiated communal violence police made vasan bhai a scapegoat.he send to jail & case was going on.
after some time i went to kukma to meet naran & i saw him he was helping to build home for rest of the villagers by using his tractor.though his father was in jail & no source of income for him but he was helping all villagers without looking at religion of villagers.all villagers know his father has been framed & some Muslim villagers from kukma village visited neighbour village reldi and requested that person family who's been murder and vasan bhai was charged.those people were pursued by this villager and agreed to remove case against him and vasan bhai came out of jail.
i really appreciate narans courage that he didn't see & thought anytime that i am helping to hindu or muslim.this was the quality of him helped his father and i believe naran has given us a solution of communal problem in India.
Courage to restrain yourself during rough situation
Courage to help people belongs to any religion.
courage to stand against your own community if they are doing something wrong in emotional outburst.
Vasan bhai teach us to rise against any situation comes in our life & naran true to his legacy of father teach us to help others in any kind of situation.
