An Open Letter To The President

His Excellency Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam
President of India.

Dear Mr President,

Some very committed friends of ours have been working with children in post-riots Ahmedabad, trying to helpthem overcome their trauma and be absorbed back into the mainstream. We had recently accompanied them on atrip to Gujarat, but sadly we proved to be rather inept with children; at 25, we already tend to get impatientwith them and are not particularly understanding of their needs. It was then that we thought of you andrealized what a great gift you are to the children of this country.

We also thought of you on another occasion: we had been playing with children in Watwa, a localitywhere about 45 families, originally from Naroda Patia (and then Shah Alam Camp), have been temporarilyresettled. Less than dedicated that we were, we soon grew tired and went to sit by ourselves at the doorstepof a kholi there. 

We were informed that it was Shah Jahan’s house. Shah Jahan, who had lost a sister and who hadalmost been burnt alive herself. (Ironically, the bigger the loss suffered by a person, the more of acelebrity she became, to be put forward before all visiting dignitaries, media personnel, NGO types, etc.)This unfortunate ‘celebrity’ was prodded out of her bleak room to be ‘shown’ to us, bandaged, painedface, and unable to play with the other children.

"She’s met the President", we were told. Shah Jahan smiled - probably at the fond memories of hermeeting with you (or if one were to be cynical, at the thought of having to repeat her sorrows to yet anotherbatch of volunteers). Perhaps, that was the reason she chose to steer the conversation towards you.

She did not talk of high ambitions, though, or of your compassion, or even of your sensitivity -which shehad clearly benefited from in those few minutes with you. We suppose that was a given. She spoke, instead, ofthe promises you had made her and how she clung to those as the only words of security that had come to her ina long time.

She told us that you had promised to see to it that her burns were properly treated. She asked us if wecould take a message from her to you, since we would be going back to Delhi (We told her we could not. We wereneither children, any of us, nor celebrities to get an audience with the President).

She thought we were being lazy but told us what the message was, anyway. She said that she had been waitingfor her treatment; her burns were becoming more painful, her face was scarred and it was all too difficult.She believed that you had kept yourself abreast of her situation, and wanted to discuss the next step withyou.

(We tried explaining to her that perhaps she had misunderstood you - misunderstood the fact that you hadpromised to have her fully treated and ordered the state to pay for her treatment. Or, perhaps you hadrecommended compensation, but the only reason it had not yet been paid, and her treatment consequentlystopped, was because there were procedures to be followed before money could be handed over to victims. Mostof all we tried to explain to her that it was impossible for the President to keep himself abreast of specificcases - despite his concern).

She dismissed us, of course. It was a matter between her and the President. She asked us to fill out youraddress on a post-card (which also we were unable to do very accurately). She will be writing to you. Thepost-card may reach or it may not.

Respectfully,

Shahrukh Alam, Namita Malhotra, Warisha Farasat.