I'll ride with you

   Mr Vijai Khanna

As a gunman holds people hostage in a cafe in Sydney, thousands of messages of support have been posted online for Muslims in Australia who are afraid of an Islamophobic backlash.

The spark was this post on Facebook by Rachael Jacobs, who said she'd seen a woman she presumed was Muslim silently removing her hijab while sitting next to her on the train: "I ran after her at the train station. I said 'put it back on. I'll walk with u'. She started to cry and hugged me for about a minute - then walked off alone'.

Thousands of people have now joined the spontaneous campaign, offering to meet Muslim people at their local stations and to ride with them on their journey.

This reminds me a similar time when same thing happened to me in the heat of Sikh riots in Delhi back in 1984. 

"I'll ride with you"

This is how my friend VK Khanna came to my house and forced me to accompany me to go to our office on 12th day after the Sikh riots erupted in Nov 1984.  The air was still polluted with the smell of the bodies all around. A close friend from across the Yamuna had told me to have seen a truck load of bodies being thrown in the river. Thousands of innocents Sikhs only were butchered and burnt alive in a matter of five days, when the Government in power sided with the rioters. Being scared of my life I remained holed up in a corner of my house. Even Sikhs working on Government duty in uniforms or not were not spared. 

My going out on the road was an invitation to calamity. Miscreants seeing me in turban were always a threat to ordinary Sikhs for months. Even the Public bus drivers would love to threaten to run you over. To use public transport for a Sikh or his male child attracted ridicule from all and sundry.

In such a grave situation my brave friend Khanna came forward to convince me and Harvinder to let me go to office as he would personally shield me from any mishap. Khanna rode on the pillion of my two wheeler scooter to office and back that day. He continued the same routine for months thereafter even traveling himself through public transport for ten Kilometers from his place to my house.

I cannot thank him more for his immense brotherly love towards me.