For Tisca Chopra, who spent 10 years of her childhood in Kabul, the photos and videos of Afghanis attempting to flee the country as Taliban took over the capital city of Afghanistan, were “disturbing and heartbreaking”.

“I worry for the women and children of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime because the freedom to work, education... all that might no longer exist. So many women fought so hard for years for progress, for their basic rights, and all that might just disappear, which is heartbreaking. From what we all have been seeing on the Internet, and whatever I have been reading and watching about Afghanistan, everything is disturbing. My whole childhood is connected to that land. I can understand the sense of betrayal that the Afghanis might be feeling. What are they going to do? The images of people hanging to the wheels of the aircraft that was leaving, falling to their death, were heartbreaking. For them, death was better than living in that country. To see such images, to think about what those people must be going through is disturbing,” says Tisca.

Tisca, who recently shared a picture of her as a child in Kabul on social media, says that Afghanistan “is the land of utmost beauty and utmost turmoil.”. “It is very tragic that the beauty and splendour of something so beautiful has to be cursed by something like this. It’s a strange dichotomy that the land faces. It’s constantly been in turmoil over years. I have so many Afghan filmmaker friends, now settled in different parts of the world. I have been talking to them and they all are so heartbroken. It is going to be the worst for women and children. I just hope something could prevent what we all could see is now going to happen in Afghanistan,” she says.

Reminiscing about her growing up years in Kabul, Tisca says that even that was a time of war for the country. “I don’t think Afghanistan has never not been at war. In my childhood I have seen some very violent incidents, like a tank burning in the middle of the street, just two streets away from my house. We went to somebody’s house on Christmas and had to stay there for three days because curfew was declared in Kabul. These were just some of the things that we saw while growing up in Kabul. My dad was the principal of India International School and we were very good friends with the entire Indian community that was staying in Kabul at that time. It was a close-knit community and those friendships exist even now. I remember we had to leave Kabul overnight as it was getting very violent and the Indian embassy asked all the Indians to evacuate. Leaving overnight was very similar to what is happening now, but at least we had a chance to leave. I never had the chance to visit Afghanistan again and it looks like I am not going to get it for a long time now,” says Tisca.