Wish I was as lucky?

Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsI just finished reading the blog on IBNlive - Titillation Rating Points (TRP!!) by VK Shashikumar. Well the blog did not prompt me into doing a post mortem, but his picture with the usual broad smile, and holding an AK-47 made me do a 'time travel'. The picture brought back memories of an incident that I was a party to, and still makes me sad, sometimes.
Well, fascination for guns is habit every young boy inherits, and I was no different. I had an armoury, with a full range - from pistols to machineguns, from manual single shots to automatic self-loading ones but there was a problem; they were all made of plastic. Yes, they were all toys. The dream to hold a real gun, and have a picture taken with it remained supreme.
I didn't had to wait long.... (Had a chance in 90's but my courage failed me - well Kashmir was in a boil and every one was crossing over to get a real gun.) .... In 1994, I got a chance to travel to Iran as an International student. We were the state guests, and were accorded a royal treatment, with a full 24/7-security cover.
Our security commandoes were armed with small MP5 assault rifles. The sleek and sexy (I don't find a better word) weapon made the kid inside me jump with joy.... The dream was back. I wanted to hold the sleek weapon in my hand, get a picture taken and have myself frozen in a frame for eternity. And so started the coaxing and cajoling.
I befriended a security guard - Rezai (His first name was a tongue twister).... And after about a week or so of persuasion, he finally agreed to my demands. And we fixed a day, a Sunday when we were traveling to Southern Iran province of Kerman.
While passing through the dessert, we passed a spot, which appeared to be a graveyard of worn out tanks. A reminiscent of the nine years of conflict Iran-Iraq conflict. Rezai stopped the vehicle we were traveling in, got all of us out to see the tanks. As we got down, he quickly pushed his gun towards me. "Do it quick".
I quickly grabbed the gun, handed him my camera and jumped atop one of the broken tanks. Click, click, click....My other friends too jumped in... And the whole roll of 36 was over. And the results were great. The pictures looked faboulous. I was extremely happy and got a separate special album for the "GUNS", made in Tehran.
But, coming back to Kashmir changed it all. One day during a cordon and search operation, an army officer got hold of the album. He had hit a landmine, an album full of "terrorists" training somewhere in "Afghanistan".
I was immediately detained, and a summary interrogation started there, right in front of my worried mother. It took quite an effort, by my uncles and the rest of the neighbours to convince the Officer, who was not ready to buy the theory. But at last he gave in, and let me go with a warning - "destroy the album if you don't want trouble."
And, in an instant, my mother grabbed the album, doused it with kerosene and set it on fire. I shouted but to no avail, she would not listen, nor would anyone else. And in a few seconds, my dream album was reduced to ashes.
And today, after watching Shashi hold the gun in hand, and then display the same on the page - Just one sentence came to my mind. Wish I was as lucky?
first published:July 01, 2006, 18:07 ISTlast updated:July 01, 2006, 18:07 IST
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