The Third Desire- City of Peace Two hours ago, when my brain was fevered, my third desire peeped through the window, from the city of peace where it was born, and told of a much more beautiful place than the city of Kubla Khan. I tried to take a look, with a gleam in my eyes, my weak hands holding the window, when my first desire, from a sack of coins, shouted: “Gazing directly at the city will wound your flesh.” I looked, and my second desire was watching my red hands. While sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned room, enjoying delicacies, people from Kashmir and Jaffna, from Gaza and Yemen, from Baghdad and Kabul , from Tibet and Hong Kong, from Tiananmen Square and Jallianwala Bagh, from Vietnam and Congo, placed their red hands around mine, with greed in their eyes for my third desire. Two kids, a little different from ordinary ones, from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, put their hands around my neck and whispered, “Can you give this third desire to our forefathers?” My pale lips tried to smile weakly in the affirmative, and gave me little strength to walk to this unknown city. Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Hitler, Genghis Khan, Aurangzeb and Scythian horse riders, the East India Company, Capitalism, and the Mighty British Empire, where the sun never sets, blocked our way and charged at us, putting the desire in chains. “The third is not a desire; it is a sin, a betrayal, a question of kingship and imperialism, of wars and victories, of a social system and tradition.” Nobel winners claimed it was a conspiracy against the peace prize: If cities of peace exist, what will the peace prize be worth? The United Nations, where five countries are decision makers, came forward and said: “It is the right of the UN Court to try this case; the past cannot try the present!” The Communists said it was an American intrigue; they threatened to use their veto against any such city. The Americans believed it was a branch of communism or a Taliban conspiracy. The Taliban, on the other hand, ordered a jihad against this city. The Islamic State wants to behead the city. Some Indian political parties wish to reproduce this desire, in order to get more poor votes where people are still waiting for roads, electricity, water and toilets. Religion, the most powerful tool, a peaceful word in whose name most blood is shed on earth, which has the power to divide nations, felt terror for its sovereignty: “It is a myth, Satan’s wish. Execute it before it flourishes!” Democracy called it a city of anarchy; one arrow, one sword, one bullet and one bomb. Where is that city? wounded eyes searched. The earth beneath this wounded desire turned red. A city more beautiful than Kubla Khan? Please tell.... © Hardeep Sabharwal