Years ago when Punjab had orphans of policemen and orphans of terrorists, different sections owned them as extended families often disowned them--to keep away from the bloody mess.
The police started admitting their orphans in the Police Public School in Amritsar.The school was excellent-- and heavily guarded.Footfalls of police officers, then the big heroes, was frequent. The children would say that when they grow up, they will become police officers and kill terrorists. "Police banoonga, khadkuon nu maroonga".
Some religious organizations took charge of the orphans of terrorists.They raised them in a radical way, from clothes to outlook, every thing given to them was designed to harden them. "Khadku banoonga, police nu maroonga", they would say. They will become terrorists and kill policemen.
There was one school in Panchkula-- Jainendra Gurukul. They admitted all kinds of orphans as boarders.To ensure the children did not develop a complex, they were given the fees, and made to stand in queues with the paying students, and pay up. Nobody, save the school management and some trust members, knew whose children these were, and that they were getting education free. The word "reservation" to the best of my memory, did not come into play. There was no quota, just those who came along, or were found needy. The children were immersed into the school world, fully.
There were three children I had met, not at school though. Sikhs, the eldest was a daughter who had fallen in love and married the man who taught her to use the computer. Her brother, younger by a couple of years, had fallen into bad company she would say. The youngest was lost, skinny, and she would come from her married home to where her brothers stayed, and mother him. She was very angry with her "cha cha"--father's brother-- for abandoning them. He did nothing for us, she would say.
But he had done a lot for them.He had not told the landlord that these were children of Beant Singh, who had killed then prime minister Indira Gandhi, and Bimal Kaur Khalsa, who turned a hardliner MP and was electrocuted, leaving the three of them orphaned. Nobody would have given them a place to live in, and they did not want to live with me, he said. Apparently there was a showdown between him and Bimal when she aligned with Simranjit Singh Mann's extremist Akali Dal faction, and they had fallen apart.
But meet the three orphans. There was no love or hatred for terrorists or policemen. They were ordinary citizens of the country battling out for very ordinary things-- rations in the kitchen, money to pay rent, or school fees, health issues with one brother turning to alcohol and drugs, and of course emotive issues of the larger family abandoning them . The rough and tumble of living had leveled them into simply citizens with no streak of violence or ill will !
Will see if I can post their picture, sometime later.
The police started admitting their orphans in the Police Public School in Amritsar.The school was excellent-- and heavily guarded.Footfalls of police officers, then the big heroes, was frequent. The children would say that when they grow up, they will become police officers and kill terrorists. "Police banoonga, khadkuon nu maroonga".
Some religious organizations took charge of the orphans of terrorists.They raised them in a radical way, from clothes to outlook, every thing given to them was designed to harden them. "Khadku banoonga, police nu maroonga", they would say. They will become terrorists and kill policemen.
There was one school in Panchkula-- Jainendra Gurukul. They admitted all kinds of orphans as boarders.To ensure the children did not develop a complex, they were given the fees, and made to stand in queues with the paying students, and pay up. Nobody, save the school management and some trust members, knew whose children these were, and that they were getting education free. The word "reservation" to the best of my memory, did not come into play. There was no quota, just those who came along, or were found needy. The children were immersed into the school world, fully.
There were three children I had met, not at school though. Sikhs, the eldest was a daughter who had fallen in love and married the man who taught her to use the computer. Her brother, younger by a couple of years, had fallen into bad company she would say. The youngest was lost, skinny, and she would come from her married home to where her brothers stayed, and mother him. She was very angry with her "cha cha"--father's brother-- for abandoning them. He did nothing for us, she would say.
But he had done a lot for them.He had not told the landlord that these were children of Beant Singh, who had killed then prime minister Indira Gandhi, and Bimal Kaur Khalsa, who turned a hardliner MP and was electrocuted, leaving the three of them orphaned. Nobody would have given them a place to live in, and they did not want to live with me, he said. Apparently there was a showdown between him and Bimal when she aligned with Simranjit Singh Mann's extremist Akali Dal faction, and they had fallen apart.
But meet the three orphans. There was no love or hatred for terrorists or policemen. They were ordinary citizens of the country battling out for very ordinary things-- rations in the kitchen, money to pay rent, or school fees, health issues with one brother turning to alcohol and drugs, and of course emotive issues of the larger family abandoning them . The rough and tumble of living had leveled them into simply citizens with no streak of violence or ill will !
Will see if I can post their picture, sometime later.
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