Harshdeep Singh

People say ‘Never Forget 1984’. Maybe some need this reminder. I remember everything clearly. Even after 40 years, I remember the shape of blood stains around home, the places where I saw murders, the dead bodies and the wrecked Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the sound of guns day and night, the curfews and men with weapons everywhere, my mother’s cries in middle of night (while I would feign being asleep between my parents on their bed) because my father had been put on hit list number 21. I vividly remember that man who put his revolver on my father’s temple while I was home alone and watched from behind the door knowing something is gravely wrong but not quite what it is. I remember that guy turning the revolver around his finger with his leg on table while threatening about something. Later that day they killed my father’s friend who was also on hit list. They shot him from under the chin with bullet right out of the top of his skull. His daughter saw him being killed. I remember the tanks that came towards our home from the front and lowered the nozzle directly at home while Forces with guns came from back wall and encircled us from all sides. The entire family huddled in one room not knowing what would happen as we had been asked to stay in. I can never forget my father’s face, eyes, expressions while he was running around because my brother had been picked up for a fake encounter. I see the heaps of dead bodies in tractor trolleys being towed away even today when I think of that time. That sight of plants being burnt with acid outside of our home one day with a note to my father that our faces would look like this one day if he didn’t do something they had asked him to. 10 years of terrorism and the horrific agony of seeing bloodshed everywhere while always living in fear. These visuals will go away only when I die. I need no reminder. With a restless heart and goosebumps, I decided to post this today. If possible please don’t bring politics to this post and / or ask me questions which I don’t have answers to. Luckily for us, both my father and brother were spared. But thousands and lacs of families were not. Forgetting everything else, spare a minute for them and pray for their traumas to ease 🙏 June 6, 1984…..still waiting for justice! #1984