Are You a Kashmiri?

“Are you a Kashmiri?” was the question the boy, with whom I shared the cabin of the Sleeper class compartment of Sampark Kranti Express on my way to Delhi, asked as soon as I completed my two Raka’hs (Qasr) of Isha. I was kept guessing as to why should my being a Kashmiri take the credit for my religiousness but I preferred to continue the conversation. And as it turned out to be the whole family joined the conversation and as a mark of pride the boy began to show me photographs he had clicked on his trip to Kashmir a year back. Furthermore, they told me about their Kashmiri Pandit neighbours and their closeness to them as a mark of being close to and loving Kashmir and Kashmiris. And they even went a step further and offered me and my friends a share in their dinner which we politely managed to evade as we had already packed our bags with dining stuff. Probably, I felt pride for my identity and I got to know that there are still people who love us, love Kashmiris notwithstanding all the stereotypes! After this conversation I could say to myself that it was a good start to a journey which many students like me took in the past and returned ‘Framed, Damned, Acquitted’ in order of the mention! I felt proud to be a Kashmiri!

Next, I was waiting with two of friends at a Delhi Metro station and i noticed a angrezi man taking notes while he was standing in the queue. He had a wolverine style half-beard which seemed to me as atrocious a style as the behaviour of people while boarding or deboarding the Metro! I followed that man into the compartment and started the conversation. He happened to be a freelance journalist working for BBC and was reporting on Tourism. After introducing myself as a Kashmiri, he was pretty amused as were the other travellers in the metro who didn’t even blink at the sight of a Kashmiri boy-with-a-skull-cap interacting at ease with an English journo. He had been to Kashmir in 2010 and talked about the “tensions there” but admitted keeping himself away from political reporting focussing instead on Tourism only. After exchanging pleasantries we parted. He went towards the Baha’I temple and our next stop was Nehru Place.

Nehru Place –  a shopping haven for electronic goods was where a friend of mine had to get a laptop. After much haggling and comparison we finally settled for one! As the showroom owner was drafting the bill he started the conversation by addressing me as, “Khan Saab! Kashmir se ho?”! He  then enquired about the ‘situation’ in Kashmir and about ‘terrorism’ in Kashmir. The T word struck like a bolt from the blue but I maintained my composure. I could well have given him a modified form of the SRK dialogue as “My name is not Khan and I am not a terrorist” but I preferred a straightforward answer and said, “It depends (on perception)”. I answered in this manner with the hope that he would ask more but he, probably, sensing my dissidence with his views shifted the conversation towards a more common theme – Tourism! I guess people from Naxal affected states of India are never asked about Naxalism neither are people from Assam asked about the ULFA insurgency nor are people from Nagaland asked about NSCN terrorism. So why me?

My next stop was my exam centre where I met a few fellow Engineering students some of whom invited me for a cup of tea whereas others were comfortable asking questions and answering some of mine for some last minute brush up of concepts just before the exam. While travelling back alone to my friends’ in an overcrowded metro I had in fellow travellers some policemen, contemporary students and some pan-stained-mouth unruly young men ogling at jeans clad girls! One has to behave as an ultra-polite person so as not to invite the uneasy glances of the elderly travellers as well as others suspecting yet another terrorist attack! One has to smile at people staring at you, seemingly till eternity, and not expecting a smile back! And I wonder similar could be the circumstances in which young Kashmiri students get picked up only to be Framed, Damned and finally Acquitted without any charge! And aptly, one of my friends who called me while I was travelling in the metro exclaimed, “Akeley!?” after I told him I was travelling alone! And at personal level, one has to be always mentally prepared to negotiate such a situation having read about many fellow Kashmiris being held on the mere basis of suspicion! And it is because I am a Kashmiri!

And we voted for you!

Rupees 482.7 lacs, reads the signboard as the ‘Project Cost’ of the road  supposed to be completed by this time. On the same road, in my village, while strolling back home from Masjid one easily enjoys the privilege which no VVIP (don’t know how many V’s to append!) in this country enjoys – the privilege of inhaling a mouthful of dust emanating from the withering road as the tippers and Chevrolets (or Marutis) zoom by! I don’t know who to blame? The government, the concerned engineering department, the executing agency, the district administration or the contractor! I guess this privilege is being selectively offered to the people of some particular areas only. The following lines are a testimony to this. Being a frequent visitor to the Summer capital, I often stare at the double or even triple black topping of the VVIP roads once such a person is expected to visit the valley. The yellow lines carefully painted along the sides of the road in order to give the VVIPs a royal feeling once they travel along with their long cavalcades (which stall every other traffic movement while they are travelling). And then coming back to my place, I sometimes feel like using my skull cap in place of a handkerchief whenever I forget to carry one to avoid the above mentioned uninvited ‘privilege’! And I wonder we were supposed to vote for this!

            The autumn this year has been a pretty silent affair, at least in our part of the Valley. Partly because Kashmiris now have enough of money to outsource the harvesting work to the people from Bihar, Bengal or UP. While the labourers from outside the state do the harvesting work in the place which fetches them one of the highest wages in India, we are busy watching T20 and Bollywood, which are fetched Direct-to-Home thanks to cable TV and ever so competing DTH services. The other factor to the silence of the Autumn this year has been the absence of a proper irrigation facilities. Now, here, I may be asked to complain to God instead of the government as the rains have been irregular. But then it was not the case of irregular rains in the previous years. Lift irrigation schemes, foundation stones of which have been laid by ministers who may not even be sitting MLAs at this time, lay defunct. Further with paani, there are neighbouring villages who seem to have to wait till eternity to get a glimpse of the water tanker for fresh potable water for daily consumption. The mere sight of the water tanker sends the whole womenfolk (as well as kind men) into a tizzy with some even coming out with ‘jajeer naer’ and any other vessel capable of storing water! And for water for other purposes, it is the same old saga of women carrying pots on their heads to the neighbouring streams. I guess we were supposed to be part of the great Indian success story and we were supposed to vote for this!

          Since the last time we voted for Bijli, Sadak and Pani, much water has flown down the rivers in our state giving motion to the turbines of the likes of Baglihar, Kishenganga and other power projects but the hours of curtailment for the common Kashmiri remains the same. I wonder is it the illegal hooking on power lines which the shrewd among us are adept at OR is it the ambitions of the Indian corporation which controls the prized power projects that contributes more towards the curtailment? Now that the other favoured alternative to bijli has been capped to 6 per year on subsidised rates, we are made to think and go retro or metro! Retro in the sense that there are less choices left like food cooked on chulha for a candle light dinner or metro in sense that we are going to have FDI that will bring KFCs, McDonalds with which a pizza is just a phone call away (no need to cook on our own)!

          While as most of the people, even in the government, justify the elections in the context of delivering basic services like bijli, sadak and paani, the dismal delivery of such services (if not absence thereof) makes one think, “Were we supposed to vote for this”? 

This article first appeared in the Monday, 15th October edition of Greater Kashmir

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A ‘Kashmired’ identity!

This article first appeared in the Wednesday, 10th October edition of Daily Greater Kashmir.


It would have been just another match for majority of the people outside the Indian sub-continent and even for some living in India. But in our part of the world, it was a time for emotive redemption, vengeance and a display of the ever present extreme emotions lying buried in the heart of our hearts. Be assured, I am not going to tell you about an India Vs Pakistan cricket game!     

   

 India vs South Africa, it was! The match nearly ended in a tie. India won against the Proteas but lost to Kashmiris! All the way into the twitter and facebook social networks, timelines were filled with tweets and posts in support of the men in green (Light Green, if it wasn’t obvious) as to how they managed to lessen the margin of loss to ‘less than 30-odd runs’. The Proteas don’t claim even the remotest stake in this part of the world, the Valley of Saints. One wonders, why on earth would a major chunk of educated, tech-savvy and outspoken Kashmiris cheer (or tweet) for a country as distant as South Africa, which does even share its border with ours!        

  I am sure supporting (or cheering) a cricket team in a cricket match is not the barometer of determining nationality or loyalty. I even wish that it does qualify for sedition or a PSA!? For that matter,  can you call a fan of the English football team, in FIFA World Cup, a ‘firangi’ (of the pre-1947 era)!? It is, albeit, in consonance with the fact that India does not qualify for the FIFA World Cup! I suppose, for anybody, being an ‘integral’ part of a nation would naturally push him to cheer (or tweet!) for the sports of that very nation.          
The result of the said match resulted in firecrackers (this time not from the CRPF!!!) from the ever so emotive Kashmiri waiting in the street with a cracker in one hand and a matchstick in the other. Another duel of vengeance after the WC ODI champions repeated the performance of Mohali Semi-final, in the preceding match. While the sabre-rattling over Kashmir was going on at the UN around the same time, the Youth of Kashmir were expressing themselves out there in the streets and the cyberways of twitter and facebook, even without an UN mandate and without the presence of any supervising agency, without even the consent of the two parties who were playing wordsmiths at the UN, of integral parts and jugular veins!         

 But, ask any such person who is celebrating an early Indian exit from the World Cup T20 that is he being a Pakistani by doing so? The answer would be a big , “NO”, without a second thought! Ask him how does it feel to be part of the rhetoric of integral parts and the jugular veins. The answer in most of the cases may be, “I don’t care”. Ask him how does it feel like saluting the national flag and standing upto the national anthem before the start of a match. The answer to this question may, well, be, “I don’t do that”. Ask him if he is a dropout and thus confused about his future and thus venting out his anger. The answer may be as astounding a, “I study at an IIT or a NIT or an IIM or AIIMS or AMU!” Ask him if he is unemployed (or is he in need of stipend or internship from Tata or Birla?) and that being the reason for his dissent. The answer in many of the cases will be, “I work at IOCL, NTPC, ONGC, HPCL, NHPC, BHEL, Mahindra, Tata or Airtel”. Even plum jobs don’t impose silence!         

 But, ask the same person who gave these answers who does he cheer for when India plays Afghanistan, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Kenya! The answer will be anything but India. Ask him , “Why?”. The answers would as contrasting as the characters of Che Guevara and Mahatma Gandhi! Finally, ask him who he is, where does he belong to, what is his identity? Answers will be, “I am a Kashmiri. I was born in Kashmir. I have lived Kashmir, seen Kashmir, and experienced Kashmir”. I don’t have an identity of my own. My identity has been ‘Kashmired’!

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