माँ तुझे सलाम

Today I was talking to two of my colleagues, a guy originally from Vietnam and a girl originally from China. Both are in their forties and are settled in America now.
Our topic inevitably drifted towards ‘the migration - causes and implications’ as we all have migrated to USA from different countries.
Everyone shared his/her story.

The story of the Vietnami guy (let us call him T) was like this:
T was living with his family in South Vietnam. His dad was a Hiring officer in the government. They had a big house in a big city of Vietnam. Basically he belonged to an upper class and educated family.
One day he was playing guitar in the backyard. He was happily singing the American rock music as every teen-ager would do. Suddenly the police came and arrested him. His offense was that he was singing ‘bad’ ‘American’ songs. His father went to the police station and got him released. Such incidents were normal in day to day life.

Then the famous war of Vietnam started. During the war, the North Vietnam government arrested T’s father and put him in the labor camp for almost 12 years. Meanwhile T’s mother was taking care of the whole family. She was allowed to meet her husband once a year.
To add to the sorrow, the South Vietnam lost the war. The communist government started harassing T’s family. They were asked to evacuate their own house for no logical reason. When they refused to do so the government cut their electricity and water supply. The government even tried to stop the food supply to his family. The discrimination was everywhere.
The government brainwashed the school kids in favour of communism. Many kids, including T, fell into the trap. T’s mother was really shattered when she realized that her son is supporting those people who kept her husband in the jail.
She asked her kids to leave the country. T’s brother was the first one to escape. He went to Italy. T and his sister tried to escape but failed 4 times. Finally they succeeded to escape to the USA. They were kept in the refugee camp where T met with a fire accident. The left portion of his body is badly burnt.
He started his new life in this country. Eventually his father got released and his whole family came to USA. It has been 25 years since he is living in this country and he never feels like going back to Vietnam.
The story of the Chinese girl was not very different. Back in China, she belonged to a joint family. She used to stay with her grand mother, her parents and her uncles. One day the Chinese government asked them to evacuate their big family house. In return they got a very little money. All the brothers had to separate. Her grandmother was just not ready to listen. She stopped having food in protest of this decision. All her sons tried to persue her but after 10 days she passed away.
I was shocked listening to the stories.
I am so lucky to have a galore of fond memories of my country.
I guess we realize the value of the freedom only when it is absent.