Endless, Hopeless, Despair of My Beloved City

I look at the faces of the inhabitants of my beloved Peshawar and all I see is endless, hopeless, bleak, deadly despair. It is a city under siege. Soldiers patrol the streets. Snippers and soldiers with rocket launchers point towards our vehicle at military check points every few miles. The old city is completely sealed. I cannot visit my favorite spots as chawk yaadgar (memorable intersection), qissa kahani bazzar (Street of Story-tellers), pholoon ki galyaan (streets of flowers), meena bazaar, china market, etc. Gunfire wakes me up in the middle of the night. As I go to sleep every night I wonder if I will wake up the next day. During the day will I be a victim of a terrorist attack? Will I be blown into smithereens as the shop keepers with whom I joked and haggled with for ~25 years? Or like my aunt's childhood friend who was shopping for her daughter's wedding as a bomb blew up in market filled with women and children? Will I be abducted as we drive home in the middle of night like some of our family and friends?

I look around my beloved Peshawar and I see Fear, Hopelessness, Sadness, Exhaustion, ANGER, Emptiness, and Deadly Despair.

But I also know that the spirit of this historical city and its people cannot be broken. I pray for the day when the brave, simple, sincere, hospitable inhabitants of my beloved Peshawar restore it to its glory. AMEEN!