Freedom...

As a general rule, I HATE 7 letter words.
DISLIKE.
CANCERS.
DIVORCE.
SUICIDE.
SURGERY.
But there's just one 7 letter word I really like, and that's FREEDOM.
Freedom. Such a strong-sounding, beautiful, elusive word. It means different things to different people. To me (and most o my friends) it means graduating from NPS in a couple of weeks time. To my doggie, it means an evening walk without a leash. To my sister, it means the choice to drive the Santro as and when she pleases, and emblazon its surface with gaudy car graphics.
But to most people suppressed by the Communist regime, it means the right to make choices about their lives; the right to say what they please, to think without fear, to read what they want.....
Years ago, I read a poignant book by Jung Chang titled 'Wild Swans'. Those of you who have had Gulmohar texts in middle school will remember a lesson called 'Bound Feet'-it was an extract from the same book. One famous author had commented, 'There has never been a book like this.' I would have to agree. The trials and tribulations suffered by the author's family-her grandmother who was harrassed for being a concubine; her parents, who, despite dedicating their lives to arduously furthering the Communist regime, were tortured under false pretext of being traitors(they were publicly paraded with 'dunce' caps, forced to kneel on broken glass, and threatened with death). The author's father, a principled man who refused to back down on his moral values, was finally done to death. I don't have a gift like Jung Chang; I cannot make you witness the pass of history, or turn teary eyed with a mere word or description...my advice to you is-read the book!!!It took her tremendous courage to write it(it is banned in China) and cost her family a lot, but it is a story that deserves to be heard. Because this ruthless dictator, Mao Tse-Sung, could compete with Hitler; however, while the latter subjected his victims to mere physical torture, the former inflicted mental, emotional and physical suppression to the point of robbing all Chinese of the ability to THINK!!!
A few nights ago, my father and I were watching a documentary of North Korean refugees. Their stories(of having to crawl through the electric fence surrounding their country, their subsequent harrassment in neighboring China) actually made me cry. It seems so impossible that, somewhere in the world, meek human beings are being stripped of their dignity, pride, and essential freedom to suit the whims and fancies of sadistic bigots. The documentary featured a ceremony in which about 200 coal mine workers had undergone eye operations to restore their sight. The operations had been sponsored by the government(obviously, as Communism aims at eliminating 'capital'; the state owns all resources and payment is only in the from of essential commodities and food coupons).
It was sickening, to say the least, to watch so many people come up, bow to the portraits of their insidious dictator and pledge lifelong loyalty, kiss the ground, act hysterical and perform a bizarre ritual of shouting 'we honor you' thrice.
As the news anchor obsered, "There is no real difference between true belief and true fear." You cannot blame such people. The penalty for EVERYTHING is death. Evn worse-when someone MANAGES to escape, all his relatives and friends are packed off to 'death camps' where the guards are instructed to treat the inmates as 'animals'. Even hunting for rats to eat means instant death.
This is mental torture at its worst, its ugliest, and its most fatal. These people, after generations of subjugation and torture...have yielded. They have no hope, no trust, no way of fighting back. And so, cloaked in the garb of Communism, dictatorship continues to reign.
Yeah. And I thought I had problems with 14 years of NPS.