The deep expressive eyes of 4-year-old Tanya Kaur of Kabul are searching your soul. This kid’s photo touched the soul of the young artist Gurleen Kaur. She has painted oil on canvas portrait of Tanya Kaur in her sweet remembrance which will be presented to her father Arendar Singh and siblings Gurjit Kaur and Gagandeep Singh. The poet in Gurleen Kaur has penned a poem on behalf of the kid who questions you, me, everybody and the gunner who was on a shooting spree, the day she was killed. This is a unique display of love and empathy to steal your hearts and to immortalise the memory of Tanya Kaur. A World Sikh News Special Initiative.

ICOULD NOT KEEP MY EYES OFF TANYA KAUR’S PHOTO. The decision to paint her was spontaneous and so were the outpourings in the verses. The burst of a gun in the hands of a hatred-filled man snuffed the life of this brilliant kid -Tanya Kaur, ten days away from her fourth birthday, in the lap of her mother in Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul on March 25, 2020. Her mother Sorpal Kaur and grandfather Nirmul Singh -who was the head Granthi -chief priest of the Gurdwara, were also killed. Many others were also killed.

When art touches reality, the soul is touched and the inner revolution begins. It is my hope and prayer that this painting and poem soothes the family, Afghan Sikhs and send the gunners into soul-searching.

Ask your soul
Ask your souls
Surely, they carry the holes
While giving us wounds.

Out of hatred poles,
Emerge suicide bombers, assailants
And play their roles.
Killing us and you too,
This devil hatred achieves its goals.

You are defeated by it,
Long before you start,
Ask your soul
Which victory does it glorify?

Bowing before the omnipresent mole,
I had no clues,
About the ‘blues’,
This morning will lead to,
For the everlasting gloom,
To my people who were going to lose their beloved sunlights.
Does it satisfy you?
Ask your soul.

Am I in some other world,
Never saw such sight,
The men ‘similar’ to my father are up for the fight,
Killing me. Wait.
‘Similar’, then am I not similar to your daughters?
Ask your soul.
Why this difference in your eyes shows?

I felt my mother’s call,
Saying, this demise might bring a change
When we were about to fall,
In the mouth of slaughter.
And we left with this hope.
Ask your soul.
For the peaceful globe,
Can it give up the loathe?

Do you remember the recent massacre of Sikhs in Afghanistan ?

Among them was 4-year-old Tanya Kaur, killed in Kabul, with her mother, grandfather & other Afghan Sikhs.

This remembrance portrait painting & a poem are a tribute to the little Sikh girl.https://t.co/8px8ICymIA

— Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) June 8, 2020

Gurleen Kaur is a Punjab-based budding artist and writer, inter-twining her taste for painting and writing in a unique way.  She depicts common day life on her canvas with ease and writes essays to bring out the goodness in people.