Daily Times

My first memory

shaped me,

continues to

inform me

and I share it

with an entire

subcontinent.

A small boy

in a crowded train compartment

bathed in dim yellow light

motionless at night

stranded

in the killing fields of the Punjab

My parents were escaping

with me

from Delhi

on the slow train

in that hot summer

and heading for

Karachi

to a new country

and a new destiny

My mother had

insisted

my father not take

the previous train;

her woman’s intuition

was right –

everyone on that train

was slaughtered

except, of course, the engine driver

both sides were careful

to let him live

and I was not too young

to feel

the searing heat

of the irrational hatred and anger

around me

and what it said

of the desperate need to love and be loved

And I am always

that boy –

slightly bewildered

and lost

but always wide-eyed

with curiosity

at the colors and peoples

of the world passing around me

and always hopeful

because I know

some higher power

looks over me.

The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, and author of Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity

Published in Daily Times, March 15^th 2019.