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