M A I N   N E W S

Back from Iraq & back to the grind
Fear haunts Antaryami; Tilak Raj puts up a brave front
Kiran Deep
Tribune News Service

 

Family’s day out: Tilak Raj shopping with the family in Una on Tuesday. — Tribune photo by Karam Singh

Una/Ropar, September 15
After being in the thick of news for 42 days, Antaryami, Sukhdev Singh and Tilak Raj would prefer to be out of it now. In fact, theirs’ was an ordinary life that was thrust into an extraordinary situation and, ironically, if they couldn’t cope with it then, they cannot do so now after their return to the ordinariness of living.

Left to himself Antaryami would not talk about the ordeal of being held captive by militants in Iraq. The fear still haunts him and it is eloquently reflected in his eyes. He has returned to normal life but the long shadow of dreadful nights still stalks him.

Tilak Raj, on the other hand, has apparently exorcised his ghosts. He relishes in telling his tale which, he seems sure, will carry down to his next generations as some sort of a legend. Sukhdev too loves to carry around him the unique bravado of a Punjabi truck driver. “Assi to maje mein rahe. Tussi dekho mera vajan panch kilo barh gaya hai. (We had a good time. Look at me, my weight has increased by five kilograms),” he says patting his budding paunch and laughing uproariously.

“For the first few days I was afraid,” says Sukhdev relaxing in Makrona Kala, Ropar, “But after that I thought if I have to die why worry about it now. Usde baad assi mast ho gaye.”

“I don’t want to talk,” says Antaryami stubbornly, “I have nothing to tell…” He trails off and starts to shuffle around. On being asked repeatedly, he replies in a harassed tone, “I don’t want anything. I can’t say anything.... If the government gives me a job, it is okay, otherwise I have my own Maruti van and I will drive it.” Antaryami (Dehlan village, Una) and the two others, it may be recalled, had gone to Iraq as truck drivers.

Tilak Raj is a marginal farmer and his house in Dharampur, Una, reflects his material status. “I had given up hope that I will ever come back to my own land and touch its soil again,” he says affectionately touching the corn cobs growing in his field. “Though we had an air conditioned room and good stuff to eat, I wanted to return to my pind. There appeared to be no hope and time and again, I wished desperately that I was back home with my family and children. I was convinced I will not return safely.”

Though they are grateful to the government for getting them released and providing them financial aid of Rs 1 lakh each, they wish it would also help them in getting employed.

“A major chunk of the government aid and the 700 dinar given to me by KGL will go towards repaying the loan that I had taken while going abroad. Once again the driving skills I have acquired over the years is going to be the means of my livelihood,” says Tilak Raj.

“It is not a new birth for my husband but also for me,” says his wife, Promila. She was brought home from hospital yesterday after a check up. “I couldn’t take the stress when he was being held hostage. Assi bahut ghabra gaye si,” she says and narrates how she and her father-in-law were in and out of hospital during the crisis. “I would have died if something had happened to him,” she says earnestly as she wipes away a tear of happiness.