Birthday In A Curfew

I was young but I still remember when I was in Bahrain, there was some kind of protest going on and it was the government order to closed everything and have a curfew all for 10 days.

In those 10 days, I was having my birthday,

Every day in that curfew passed like we were caged in a jail.

Where we cant breath peacefully,

Where we can't share our smile to the world,

Where we cant share our happiness ,

Where we can't listen to the sweet voices of children playing around,

The roads seem to be silent,

The birds cry,

The vehicle song sounds,

The sound of pals yelling "yes we won in football/ cricket ".

The couple wandering in the park and enjoying their weekend evenings.

That day something different took place.

That day while all of us were off to sleep after dinner.

Approx 12 midnight we heard some gunshots and all of a sudden we heard screaming sounds from the nearby apartment, we got afraid, a terrified by the simultaneous gunshots,

Papa and all of my neighbor's suggested locking the main door with more safety.

That whole night we were hearing gunshots and screams only.

We kept awake the whole night.

And that day we don't know from where and how a teenage girl had entered into our building...

The complete night we were unaware of her existence.

The next morning while papa and uncle were on a walk at the top roof of our building, they sensed someone weeping.

The checked silently and found her there.

All the neighbor's investigated her.. and figured that she was with her father and brother.

While the rebels were shooting their apartment. Her father took them and was about to jump over our building roof. Her father dropped her and was about to bring her brother too. But for unknown reasons both of them hadn't arrived. Also that night the govt had shut off all the street lights and helicopters were shooting tear gas...

The whole night was scary and terrifying.

All of the talking to that girl made her comfy with us.

And after 2 days while we kept her comforting and spending time with her and then while just talking with all we got to know that I and that girl's birthday is on the same date.

I thought this would be the best way to make her feel comfortable with us. As she had lost everything she must be very much broken from inside. And I found celebrating our birthday with each other and knowing us at best with being just like a family will be the best point to keep her feeling good.

We were almost successful in making her comforting that day and the plus point was that after 2 days the curfew was over and luckily that girl got her parents too. But to what I regret is all of the whole meeting I never knew her name, we just named her Gudiya as by her appearance she seemed up to 6 -8 years only and she was so innocent and sweet that we neither asked her name nor we had guts to know as she was already very terrified and tensed. That's why we named her Gudiya...

I wish someday will meet her soon and recall that birthday eve.