Kabir

I begged. I grovelled. ‘Bhaijaan, let him live. Please.’

‘Has he made you mad? Has he turned your mind?’

‘No, bhaijaan.’

‘His father is the man who orders the bullets. Who kills our children in the streets. Who fills the jails with the innocent.’

‘He is not responsible for what his father does. He has not killed anybody.’

‘And will we not kill the children of those who kill our children?’

I never thought I would say it. ‘An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.’

This enraged him. ‘Blind? The whole world is blind already! It does not see us. It is deaf. It does not hear us. It does not care for us.’

‘Please, bhaijaan. I beg of you. I beg for his life.’

‘Shoot him,’ said my brother. ‘Or you will have betrayed everything we believe in. You will have betrayed me. Shoot him.’

I looked into Aman’s eyes. The moment he had talked about had come. ‘No, bhaijaan. I will not kill,’ I said.

Aman smiled at me. There was blood dripping down his face. He was on his knees facing death. And he was smiling.

My brother picked up the gun and pulled the trigger twice.

One.

Two.

I closed my eyes. I closed my eyes and stumbled away. I heard Aman fall in the snow. I did not turn my head to look back. I couldn’t. My tears froze as they fell from my face and lay like diamonds on the ground. In my head I saw Aman, smiling up at me with such pride.