“Agar Firdaus barrow e zameen ast, hume astoo, humee astoo, humee ast.”
A very common Persian line often being heard or read by everyone has lost its true meaning. The Beauty of Kashmir can only be seen in the photographs captured in far off uncivilized places. However, the reality is still unfolded before the people who believe it to be a paradise. According to me if the reality gets revealed, in spite of beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes, one could see images of blooded roads, rivers full of dead bodies, crying children, scared faces and many such that will truly change your thoughts about this so-called paradise. In other parts of the country one can roam across the streets without any fear but of course the fear of getting robbed always remains there. Unfortunately this paradise is such a place where one has restrictions to move out of his house and roam in his streets. Also, one is trapped in a fear of not getting robbed but getting murdered, kidnapped or beaten unnecessarily and that too without being a criminal or without having any such records in the past. The people are happy as you know but not everywhere. The continuous shutdowns at least once or twice a year for a couple of months snatch the livelihood of many individuals and become a result of their disappointment in their life and in many cases, these disappointments had resulted in suicides. Also, women here in Kashmir as many news channels or many outsiders report live in chaos even in their homes, many of them are mourning and some of them continue to mourn for last several years as majority of such women are widows or half widows as either their husbands have been murdered or are unidentified and the blame lies on the uniformed men in Jammu & Kashmir . The government has not punished the guilty even in a single case. India is a democratic country as whole world acknowledges it but equally true it is that justice delivery system is in shambles in Jammu & Kashmir. The special status that was given to the Jammu & Kashmir almost seven decades ago but it has also been snatched from them and that too not only without their consent here but also against their wishes and aspirations. The discussion does not end here. In this so-called paradise, a person who knows the reality is not the news reporter but the one who dances on the tunes of the government gets all privileges that a professional journalist should have. People who live here only for last few years have the citizenship right but people who are citizens of Jammu & Kashmir by birth are now denied the right to job and immovable property and consequently instead of similes on faces we see tears dropping down from their eyes. Dubbed militants the youth of Kashmir are discriminated even in seeking admissions in professional colleges despite going through a trauma in curfewed days and nights for months and year together. Beaten mercilessly in their own hometowns unreasonably and that too by the people who don’t even belong to Kashmir the youth of Kashmir are hugely suffering from the problem of mental stress. This surely does not make Kashmir a paradise on earth and we can as such only say that Kashmir “once a paradise on earth” and a kashmiri facing and experiencing from such a trauma can claims with authority and confidence that Kashmir is not what the outsiders see but it is what a kashmiri experiences.
The only place is this so called paradise where successful business person is the one who does government job and works in private school, college and university as he gets salary even during continues lockdowns and strikes, but a poor old aged farmer, a shopkeeper or a vegetable vendor, a milkman or a carpenter, a mason or a cobbler in Kashmir sometimes has to sleep with empty stomach for days together.
From restrictions to freedom of movement in our own lanes and bye lances the youth are the victims of alienation. From thousands of rapes to official murders, we faced it all, from all cold blooded murders to human rights violation and much more, we saw it all.” And they will still have a damn question in their minds “freedom from what?” There are many such incidents that are evidences of the discrimination a Kashmiri faced. A very common example to this is what every single illiterate and literate, young and old has a knowledge of. It is the restrictions of phone call and internet service for months and years together that result in the isolation of Kashmir from the outside world. Their studies, business, communication and what not gets snapped or barred. Kashmir is the only place in the entire India where a student studying here attends his school once for 3 or 4 months only and that too with fear in their hearts and fears in the hearts of their parents just because of not having the confidence of reaching home safely in the evening. The only place is this so called paradise where successful business person is the one who does government job and works in private school, college and university as he gets salary even during continues lockdowns and strikes, but a poor old aged farmer, a shopkeeper or a vegetable vendor, a milkman or a carpenter, a mason or a cobbler in Kashmir sometimes has to sleep with empty stomach for days together. This is Kashmir which the Indian news channels will never report, foreigners will never say and hence, the truth gets unrevealed. Again this short article is among one such that will surely get ignored and instead the writer has no future except the fear of getting an arrest warrant for inking factually correct few lines in large public interest. PSA, jail, torture may be the writer’s fate because this is Kashmir administered by democratic -INDIA!!
(The author is a student and writes as a freelancer. Views are his own) [email protected]
