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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Comment
Shadi Khan Saif

Let me explain, my dear son, why I left you in Afghanistan. Hang in there, I have not given up

Afghanistan Kabul Melbourne
Bulbul
‘Just keep gardening and humming like a bulbul [pictured].’ Photograph: Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images

Dear Walo,

It is time to confess that two dreadful long years ago when I left you, aged five, to “fetch some new flower trees” for our back yard, I lied – as you have rightly realised by now and hence stopped talking to me.

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