Saad Khalid Khan;
A fortnight ago a photo was circulating on social media. It was of two kids, wearing masks and gloves, siting in back seat of car. They had their bags with them which probably had articles of their daily use. Each of them was holding a book of Holy Quran against their chest and their eyes were filled with horror. The first sight filled my heart with sorrow. The first thought crossing my mind was that they might have lost their parents, but the truth was yet to disclose. I was so buried with my thoughts that I didn’t even look at the details written with the picture. The caption of the photo was saying “it is better to be safe than sorry”. The kids were from Lahore. They haven’t lost any of their parent but they were being taken away from their parents. The children were tested positive for being infected with corona virus and it was further heart wrenching when I came across the fact that the virus was transmitted to children from their parents. The parents with stronger immune system didn’t develop any sick symptoms but they caused its transmission to their children. Now my mind was seeing in another direction. I was wondering how hard it must have been for a mother to part from her children and how heavy the mountain of regret have been under which she was buried.
I was wondering about the father who knew that he is responsible for what was happening that day yet he had to farewell his children with a fake smile on face, saying: everything is going to be alright. Feeble kids! Neither of them was older than ten years were being taken to a hostile environment where they would be surrounded by dying people all the time. The parents who would have to live in the silence of same house that was once echoing with laughter and giggles of their children, with uncertainty whether there children would return or not. Even if they return, would they be able to laugh the same way, after seeing that much of deaths and horror, as they used to.
It was impossible to decide whether children were more aggrieved or parents, but that was not important, important is the lesson that we all should learn from the tragic story of this family. After the breakout of highly contiguous corona virus in Pakistan the government announced lock down across the country and requested the entire citizens to take precautions for the safety of their-selves and their families, yet people were seen breaking health codes. These violations led many families to face the same fate as this one. And the number of such ill-fated families would continue to increase until we understand “it is better to be safe than sorry”