~Memories of the Kuwait war~ A Footnote

Life was new, life was different, after the Kuwait War. I soon started attending school in India, got better command over my mother-tongue, met new people, made new friends. I slowly started getting accustomed to the new surroundings and the pages of my Kuwait war experiences, eventually made it all the way to the back of the book. 

When I, on the spur of the moment began writing about it, 30 years down the line, little did I know that I would be writing 17 chapters and still not be done. I only had matter in my head to last a maximum of 7 parts, but as I wrote, some strong wind seemed to have blown the pages from behind, turning them open, bringing back to my memory so many incidents I thought I had forgotten. I still haven’t written everything, as I’m sure there’s so much more I might have forgotten, and I admit there maybe few (hopefully insignificant) discrepancies in some places. However, what I didn’t forget are the lessons this calamity taught me. 

The war taught me to be thankful for what I have, never to waste food and water, enjoy the small pleasures of life, to look out for others who may be hurting or in need of help.....and many more things.

Years after the actual incident, when Akshay Kumar's ‘Airlift’ happened, I wanted to see it, because it was MY story!! Now here’s where I may turn villian, and burst your bubble. Ranjith Katyal did not airlift me from Kuwait. 

Apologies to all who ‘loved' it, please bear with me as I give you an abridged version of my extremely late review of this movie, but no, he did not. There was nothing in that movie that had any resemblance with what we went through. This is where the claim of the movie makers that ‘Akshay Kumar played a fictional character based on the life of Mathunny Mathews’ comes handy. And also not to ignore, the disclaimer: All characters in this movie are fictitious, any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Apparently, Akshay Kumar played the part of Mathunni Mathews a.k.a Toyota Sunny, an Indian businessman, who was like Godfather to the Indians in Kuwait. Toyota Sunny (RIP), loved his countrymen and every single time there was some issue for Indians, he would intervene and make things right. That’s what every Malayalee in Kuwait grew up hearing, but Ranjit Katyal considered himself a Kuwaiti, and ‘is often derisive towards Indians'( as portrayed in the movie as well as recorded in wiki). As far as I know, Toyota Sunny, Harbhajan Singh Vedi and a couple of lesser known ‘big men’ worked behind the scenes, (with Toyota Sunny in the lead, of course), to help Indians evacuate from Kuwait and Iraq. Ranjit Katyal was all of these personalities rolled into one, single handedly bringing 1700000 Indians out of Kuwait. 

The movie also fails to give credit to the Indian Government. It’s like the movie makers were given the liberty to ‘create a history’ which is far from the truth. One man did not do this in one day. The entire evacuation and airlift took place over weeks, and Air India played a major part in the story. Many significant individuals including Sri I.K.Gujral, the Foreign Minister then had a role too. Well, it’s a movie after all! 

Though it being a completely different story and having no connection with my life in any way whatsoever, Fahad Fazil’s “Take Off” was more close to my heart. There were many instances where I could relate so well....Their despair in the desert, and that last scene where the nurses see the Indian flag across the fence, and run towards a confident Manoj Abraham standing under it, that’s what I mentioned in my story...The flag sighting when I climbed up to the flight. That’s the scene that broke me into tears. It was like something that I pushed down into my subconscious, suddenly surfaced.

I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings or belittle the movie makers....It was just an honest review/opinion, based purely on my views. 

What you have been reading here, is a very personal story. Of course the backdrop is the Kuwait war, but this isn’t the story of the Kuwait war...it is the story of a naïve 13 year old stuck in the war zone, and what she saw, what she felt and went through those 30-40 days. It was not easy. Though I started writing on a lighter note, things started getting tougher with each part and I had to pause many times in between to wipe my foggy glasses, get a glass of water to swallow that lump in my throat, and walk to the kitchen to make sure my husband didn’t notice me having a moment. I’m sure every single person who went through these times, has a story as unique as mine. I hope you enjoyed the trip. It feels much lighter now, that I shared some unrecognized pain with you all.

Love always,

Priya~♥️