TUESDAY 6 AUGUST 2019‘I am lucky to be alive but
sometimes I wish I wasn’t’
Amitangshu Acharya learns of the horrors of war during a chance
Edinburgh trip with an Afghan veteran turned taxi driver who cannot
forget the smell of burning human flesh
Scores of British soldiers suffered PTSD after serving in Afghanistan (Getty)
I met Noa just after the midsummer sun had set behind Arthur’s Seat. He had driven the taxi beyond the
pick-up point on Queen’s Drive – the blacktop that skirts the base of the extinct volcano and cuts through
Holyrood Park – by a fair distance. He slammed the brakes, probably having spotted my agitated hailing in
his rear-view mirror.
“Sorry about that,” he said apologetically as I jumped into the cab, “I didn’t see you.” He had an immigrant