piyush jha

Sikandar is any adolescent trying to understand the confusing realities unfolding before his eyes. Aspirations, dreams, wishes and fears layer the racing mind of any 14-year-old, and Sikandar is no different. How many times haven’t we as adults come across people who share the same agonies, fears, growing up stories, parental dilemma and manipulation? How often haven’t we been convinced that almost every child is the perfect bait for the games adults play?

Sikandar is incidentally a Kashmiri, who is oblivious to the conflict in the valley. Almost. All he wants to do is play football and he bends his energy towards reaching his goals, notwithstanding the tribulations of being born and living in a conflict zone. A Kashmiri child is like any other in India – loves sports, Hindi films, mother’s delicacies, and is unaware of what the real world is. His world oscillates around schoolbooks and friends, and trying to be cool and up-to-date with the latest fads. The similarity among children across the globe permeates through the parental pressures that they fall prey to, and the toy that children become in the hands of these adults. Children play, and adults play with their innocent minds.

Sikandar is more than just an boy trying to understand why a gun is a gun, and trying hard to sieve the good from bad, the good from the better. His story could unfold anywhere. Under a different circumstance, and perhaps a different context, would have led Sikandar to take a different path? Perhaps a different upbringing wouldn’t have made such an impact on him? Perhaps. But then, everything is about the human psyche – the geography or the history hardly matters to a kid who wants to sleep happy at night, fulfilled that he scored his goal on the real football field. A child can never see the field of human games, and Sikandar’s story is just about this sort of innocent blindness.

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