Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo, Norway
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”
Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace prize this year in a grand ceremony attended by several dignitaries, held at City Call in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Mr. Satyarthi gave up his job as an electrical engineer to rescue the children from the violence and repression they have to go in their formative years and is recognized for his NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan that has liberated over 80,000 children from virtual slavery till date. On the other hand, Ms. Malala became a global icon when she was shot and nearly killed by Taliban in October, 2012 for going to school. She however refused to pay heed to their farmaan and stands today as the symbol of child education promoter.
However, it wasn’t a usual day. The day when finely cut Western suits blended with Indian saris and Pakistani salwaar, when the best of Music traditions from East to West filled the Oslo City Hall, witnessed the resonating voices of two Nobel laureates.
One person is the youngest to win Nobel Prize and the other who has carried his selfless mission for over the twice the age of the previous; one person explains to the world the importance of education and the other the symbolism of child protector. The irony being that one from Pakistan and the other from India, the countries which may symbolize the most stringent relation two neighbouring countries could ever have, stand together on probably the most prestigious stage sharing the peace prize calling for the way we must move in future.
When just one week of global military expenditure is enough to bring all children to the classrooms, when children’s requirement are infinitely more modest than an iPad, it indeed calls for an introspection on why is to so easy to command a war and extremely difficult to bring in peace. If building sophisticated tanks are so easy, why is it that building proper schools are so difficult? In the scenario of so many peace summits and terror countering laws, why can’t we achieve a frame when handing over guns to young blood be made so difficult that the only other way could be handing over the books, to fight indeed, over the progress in science and instead to counting the progress in terms of nuclear weapons, the progress be measured in imparting the language of science to the children. Given that violence and oppression is not justified in any religion, the shackles of slavery should never be stronger than the quest for freedom.
The words of Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of Norwegian Nobel committee, “A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what world needs: more unity, fraternity between nations.”, demands that just one Malala and just one Kailash aren’t enough.
The Kaleidoscope 