Mera Paigham Muhabbat hai jahan tak pahunche

Simri police station, Simri bus stop, Simri field, Simri post office, Simri Middle school, Simri High School, simri weekly haat held on Monday and Friday, Simri annual mela; for locals, Simri infact, is local head quarters. Locals associate their village with Simri for easy identification e.g. SImri-Bastawara, Simri-Bharati etc. Simri market is bustling with activities today thanks to the amity among people.  People say with sense of pride that the market is as developed as one in Darbhanga town. Peace and Communal harmony are definitely enabling factors for the economic development of any place.

Today, Simri-Bastawara is in news for wrong reason. Some lunatics have committed wrong during chhatta puja and the divisive forces are up in the arms to tear the fabric of unity of the region. As ugly monster of riot descends at our place aiming to pounce and quench its thirst for blood, let us raise our hands in prayer that the monster bites the dust and retreat. 

O! Hindus and Musalmaans of Simri and Bastawara, you have been living together for ages. Ask your elders, the muslim weavers have been weaving for Hindu merchants in good early days. Hindus have been tilling the lands of muslim land lord. Milkmen and hawkers visit each other’s villages to sell and earn livelihood. O! friends and comrades living and  working together, your destiny is tied together. Why do you not realize that you depend on each other to perform your economic, social and even religious functions? If muslim harms Hidnus or vice versa, it will damage you both. Will hindus stop purchasing from muslim’s drug shop next door, will Girdhari chacha of Simri chowk stop riding cycle and visit Bastawara to sell his milk? Nirmal, I am sure will come from Kumharpatti to Bastawara as usual to give tuition to his students. O! residents of Bharathi, you have amongst you favorite teacher of Hindus and Musalman Sri Shakal Deo Singh . Will you stop a musalman if he decides to visit and pay regards to his beloved teacher. O! good people of Kamrauli, in your village two great teachers were born Sri Keval Babu and Sri Jagannath Lal Das who not only taught musalmaans of Bastawara but also counseled and solved their family disputes. 

 O! residents of Bastawara, you have been enjoying the festivity of Chhatta every year. Your lad and lass as well as elders would visit Rama pokhar, pachhiyari pokhar to watch the devotees descending into the pond’s placid and cold water and stir it with the charm of their mantra. But what happened during this year’s puja. Why some miscreants succeeded in disturbing the long cherished communal harmony?

 It is not that altercation didn’t happen earlier but why O! People of Simri and adjoining villages, this time it led communal flare up and force had to march in your streets to calm you.

O! peace loving people of region, raise the flags of harmony, love and unity. There is an urgent need for a peace committee for the region to ward off present trouble and establish a mechanism to avoid repetition in future. Let us hope that sanity prevails and people start living and working together amicably and peacefully.