“We live in a wrong place”

“Uncle, I have deactivated both my accounts, Facebook as well as Twitter!”, said Tassaduq to his uncle on phone. This was after he was told by his parents and uncle not to indulge too much in discussions on social networks, these days! Tassaduq wasn’t sad as, in any case, he won’t be using it for the next few days as internet access is blocked. Well, he had called his two friends to deactivate his two accounts!

“Beta! We live in a wrong place”, lamented his uncle. “We all know what is happening isn’t justice but what, at all, can we do? Our generation has seen it all for the past 40 years!”

“Even Basharat Saeb, your youngest Uncle, despite being a Police Officer  felt restless when he heard the news, on phone, at midnight that police had been deputed all over the valley! He too feels his pain and said that it was grave injustice. But what, at all, can he do? We are all in solidarity with the family.”, adds his mother!

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Tassaduq was very fond of reading and writing Op-Eds for newspapers. It had been five days since he had read one. Earlier, his newspaper vendor would never accede to his demand of fetching him a National newspaper as he was the only one to demand so — the newspaper vendors fetch a particular newspaper only when there are at least 10 sure shot buyers! As a result, he would view the internet version of the National newspapers. It had been five days since he had read an Op-Ed in a National newspaper!

So here it was, his 8 year old cousin came to his room with a newspaper in hand. “Where did it come from? Who brought it in curfew?”, Tassaduq asked his cousin. He replied, “I don’t know who brought it here but tell me the Kashmiri translation of the news written on the newspaper!" He added, “  heard at the Kandurwaan (bakery) that one another man has been hanged after Afzal Gooer”! (A rumour it was!) Yes, he didn’t say ‘Guru’; not because he was being obedient to Baba Ramdev who said "calling him 'Guru' is an insult to real gurus and saints"! But it is a commonplace farce in our society that we can’t even pronounce the names of those whom we consider heroes, properly. The other day, it was a Hurriyat man in the Mosque who repeatedly said “Afzal Gooer” while extolling his sacrifice from the pulpit.

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Aamir is an orphan who lost his father in the heydays of the Armed Struggle in the late nineties. Practically, with no source of income apart from the Aanganwadi center which is housed in their shanty single story house, his family barely makes ends meet. He passed the Secondary School Examination, recently, with Distinction and enrolled in a coaching institute for Pre-Medical coaching. It has been a week since he last attended his classes at the coaching institute. And yes, they don’t pay back for any missed classes!

Tassaduq always keeps asking him about studies, advising & guiding him when necessary. In fact, it was on his advice only that Aamir enrolled in a local coaching institute than going to Srinagar for coaching. This time when Tassaduq asked Aamir about studies, he replied, “It has been a week now and there isn’t any surety when will the classes resume. If you could tutor me in Physics for some days, rest I’ll do myself!” And thus started Tassaduq’s teaching career!

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The situation in cities and in villages is a case of distinct contrast these days. People in cities virtually live under Z-security cover with a policeman or two allotted to each gate. The only difference between a politician with Z-security and the common man, here, is that the latter can't venture out of his home! On the other hand people in villages, except that they can’t visit the main town market, seem to see very less difference. The elderly sit by the roadside discussing vague issues apart from lamenting the fate of 'that poor fellow who lost his youth in jail'!

Boys play cricket on the deserted link roads and keep some space on the side for that one-off car that may pass by.When that one-off car/lorry approaches, the cricket match doesn’t stop! Boys keep playing & sometimes play with death too, when there is a mismatch; with balls (read Stones) on one side and bazookas on the other. The match doesn’t stop and the sentiment doesn’t stop. The sentiment doesn’t stop and the resistance doesn’t stop. Resistance never stops and injustice never seems to stop, sadly!

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Meanwhile, Tassaduq accidentally clicked on the Twitter bookmark in the Speed-dial of his web browser while he was checking availability of hall-ticket for his exam as soon as Internet was restored! As a result he was back on Twitter, albeit accidentally.

He now tweets under a pseudonym!

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P.S: All the characters are fictional but the narrative is factual!

The sky is no longer blue!

I don't know why? But, i can see, today
even the waters of Chenab have turned Red!
Is it a reminder of a silent rhapsody,
or the tears of mothers or the martyr's Blood!

The sky is no longer blue, has turned Red,
as it is a telling sign with a saying from folklore!
That the sign of a murder, or spilled blood,
is the sky turning red, bringing the crime to fore!

The green tunnel is no longer Green,
autumn has gone, so has the winter!
Heralding hope of restoring some sheen,
in the valley of wolves and the wicked hunter!

  

Resetting the Discourse!

“Goodness will continue to be with my Ummah until they begin debating matters which don’t concern them.” Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu Alaihe Wassalam)

The last few weeks have been quite tumultuous as far as we, Muslims, are concerned. First it was the Kamal Haasan spy thriller flick Vishwaroopam which created quite a furore in the restive Indian Muslim community. Reportedly, the movie contains sequences which enhance the existing negative stereotype regarding Islam and Muslims which potrays a systematic relationship between Global Terrorism and Islam. The release of the movie got delayed in India, thanks due to some ‘Muslim groups’ and hence, media houses got the cannon fodder for their Newshours for a few days! Almost simultaneously, we witnessed the second coming of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in the form of Deepa Mehta’s movie. Seemingly, this movie had nothing Satanic in it. But there had to be something else to distract the common Muslims and make them feel good about politicians as their messiahs. Rushdie came to India for the premier of the movie and was not allowed to do so; he was hounded out of Kolkata just after he landed at the airport. And the ruling political party was quick to lay claim for being the saviour of the Muslims with statements like, “But for her, there could have been communal tension…People like Rushdie should be kept away,” referring to the efforts of the head of the state government in keeping Rushdie away.

Malala Yousafzai recently underwent Skull reconstruction surgery and is recovering well in a London hospital, as per reports. And back in India, media tried to create its own version of Malala(s) albeit Music Malalas. Some self-righteous users posted some comments on a facebook page about a Music band, touted as the first ever all-Girls Music Band from Kashmir. It has remained a mystery so far as to why would the band related post appear on a vague facebook page when their last ‘show’ took place not less than 40 days ago? Some of these comments which were touted as rape threats were actually ‘predictions’ by those who posted them as to what would happen in future as indicated by the lingo used in the comments. That these were not threats but ‘concern’ shown by those commenting is evident from the words used in those comments. Words like “raped & thrown into the Tawi river” in those comments don’t signify threats emanating from Kashmir but delineate the effect of Shopian like incidents on the psyche of the people. I may, in no way be deemed supportive of those who posted those comments. While the news channels were adjusting their taste buds after sensing a ‘story’ from a Kashmir, the news that the self-styled Grand Mufti of Jammu & Kashmir had issued a ‘fatwa’ which deemed the acts of the band un-Islamic were telecasted.

While the ‘story’ was ‘developing’ on the news channels, a common Kashmiri began to feel, what one of my friends called emptiness/void in leadership – this time religious leadership. “And hypocrisy fills in such voids pretty easily”, remarked my friend. While some of us took the position as demanded by religion i.e. It is un-Islamic. But, in doing so, we feigned to the inability of ours to equally condemn other people who have been and still are involved in the Kashmiri Music Industry! Most of the people among remaining people took the position that the Band should continue. In doing so, they ignored that, religious principles were being toyed with. But, both these groups were unanimous in the cause that this issue should not be be potrayed as the so called ‘Talibanisation’ of the Kashmiri society. (The term ‘Talibanisation’ being used in relative sense!). But there was even a fringe group among us who tried to give this issue a touch of “Misogyny & Patriarchy” ignoring the presence of huge number of female singers active in Kashmir! In the midst of all this it was the three girls who were at the receiving end from all sides.

In all this we saw, as a common feature, Muslims debating with each other on matters which would never be DEBATED in the normal discourse. I think we are meant to be the ones who would show humanity the purpose of life. On the contrary, our present discourse revolves around DEBATES about matters which are too obvious to merit one – in fact just a reminder would just do fine! And in the midst of all this the normal discourse has been overtaken by people who claim to be Muslims and present a morphed version of Islam to the world, in the process trying to weaken the very basis of the pristine glory of Islam.

When I started writing this piece, I was faced with the problem of giving a title to this write up and the two choices were – Resetting the Discourse & Reclaiming the Discourse. Do we need to Reclaim the Discourse from people who have taken it over or do we just need to Reset our Discourse in accordance to our purpose of life? I settled for ‘Resetting the Discourse’ as Quran says, “When truth and falsehood face each other, falsehood perishes as it is, by its nature, bound to perish”.