Kashmiriyat - from a Kashmiri's Pen !

I grew up reading a newspaper that had a prominent headline of a terrorist being killed almost every day in an anti-insurgent operation. A terror attack did ring the alarm bells but i never found such things holding attention of too many people for a prolonged time. It seemed that even though these dastardly acts have been happening for a long time but sooner or later they might stop. For a decade or so after having moved out of the state and reading about the decreased reports of counter terrorist operations i had begun to hope against hope that something called peace may finally prevail across the valley. Even though there was a lot of unrest coming up in other areas of the world leading to a lot of innocent people being killed all around but somehow a glitter of light presented itself in the Kashmir valley. Mass activities by the governments to get across jobs and educations to the people, reports of youth returning to setup businesses , to scale up coaching institutes sparked that fire of hope again.

Come July 2016 and a terrorist is proclaimed a hero and splashed across all the media houses over the electronic and print mediums and more than ten days after this drama started i still wonder why. 
I read the reports, the blogs, the nationalistic and anti-national views that people have, the sympathizers for the people living in Kashmir and the people against them, the statements of politicians and activists suggesting he should not have been killed and open letters addressing what the armed forces have been facing in the last two weeks in the valley. All this while i fail to understand why was "this kid gone wrong" given so much mileage and brought to the national attention. Wasn't he just like one of those thousands terrorists who have been accorded the term martyr all these years that terrorism has infested the state with. Shouldn't this guy have gone to oblivion just like them for all of them raised arms against this Nation and they don't deserve anything better?

They say that they took to guns because their brothers, family members were killed by the armed forces. If we go by that logic then lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits should have taken up arms against their neighbours who had been living with them for generations. The Sikhs should have gone on a killing spree after scores of them were massacred at a point blank range in Chittisingpura. If picking up arms and creating videos on social media threatening the armed forces who till last year were helping and protecting your own people during the floods is the way to retaliate then i guess a serious introspection needs to be carried out among the youth living in the country. If this is what they call Aazadi then they do need to be taught the meaning of freedom all over again. The IAS officers and the cricketers should have been made heroes and emulated by the youth instead what we see is people throwing stones at armed forces just because they killed a terrorist who threatened to kill the army men. 

Do the people who hold sympathies for the killed terrorists even remember a man named Farooq Dar ( Bitta Karate)  who was garlanded at his home town a decade back after his release from captivity just because the people remembered his so called great deeds. The deeds which involved killing more than fifty people from point blank range in the starting 90's and which would have warranted much more than just getting an imprisonment for sixteen years. Would these so called intellectuals still sympathize with such people just because their minds do not intend to understand the gravity of the deeds that have already been  performed?
They call it the heaven on earth, but as far as my memory goes I have grown up to the reports and media shots of the heaven being burnt, of hell being blown over upon everyone living there or associated with the people who resided there. I can't really think of this ideological and demographical difference between people of almost the same area being resolved in the near future but i feel that Kashmir doesn't really need separatists. It doesn't need Burhan Wani and the people like him wielding guns and it doesn't need their ideologies. It needs its own people who are willing to put their blood and sweat on boil to see the state grow out of this turmoil. It needs new heroes and new people who are willing to foresee the future. It needs people who could understand that the tourism industry can only thrive with the help of the Indian people and not when Kashmir is an independent entity. It needs people who believe in their own dreams for all of us Indians dream that the Crown of this Country would someday become the shining light for the world to see.

Being a Kashmiri who doesn't have any memories of visiting the so called heaven i deeply wish that someday there is enough harmony to allure the youngsters to go back to the place where their forefathers lived and grew up so that they could breathe the so called fresh air with some lasting peace and take down happy memories forever. 


"kho sii gayii hai wo Junnuniyat aur wo Insaaniyat, 
kho gayii hai wo jannat naa dikhti hai ab kahii mohabbat,
na kuch karne ka junnon hai, na kisi insaan ke liye hai duaa..
karni padegi mehnat, chodke us bandook ka yeh nasha,
chalo chalen fir paane un vaadiyo ki wo mehakti hawa...!"

Delhi Metro - From the eyes of many observers

With a single ouch the whole metro compartment is brought alight. Men are the first to turn their heads, for an oh so pretty voice is always followed by a charming priceless body and face of a woman. The body is always ogled at first living in the national capital of this country.
Women folk as they should, turn their heads towards the voice that's moving a little towards them. What they expect is a little difficult to comprehend and write here. Maybe they want to check the fashion statement of the pretty voice. A few pretty sounds of excuse me turn two lines of people and all of them stare in wonder.

Boy , do they check the fashion trend when he comes in through the crowd. 

Yellow hot pants, blue ganjii, hugging the skin at all the curves, full framed spectacles, hair in a neat pony tail, waxed arms and legs, twinkling eyes and a confidence worth a hundred bofors guns.
The earphones blaring loud music and without a care about the world and the people that filled the area he walks towards the other exit door having changed the atmosphere of the whole compartment. 

Many lose their sleep, the others come out of the laziness after a long day at work. Some start giggling, the others stare in disbelief, the remaining jeer and some just give a wry smile and go on with their own business.
All you do is wonder about how a human can bring about a change in the whole mood around just by showing off a sexual orientation that many say is unnatural while inspiring others to write when the brain is dastardly stuck in a writers block.

The brain doesn't know that the fun of observance has not stopped yet. A middle aged man we can call uncle tired and exhausted after a long day at work sits right next to a youngster. The young gun makes a little adjustment and gives him some space to sit properly when there hardly exists any.
A while later you see something going up the youngster's hip and you don't give it much of a thought for its only the girls who get touched inappropriately as the world sees and says it.
A few minutes later the hand presses the hip, you see a young face filled with rage and feel a shiver down your own spine. You see and in an instant imagine how that youngster would  have felt at that touch. The very next moment when you look at the uncle full of weird feelings he just has his eyes closed trying to come across as nothing has happened.
A moment of thought later when you think about letting it go and being tolerant as the youngster is being you hear a complaining voice asking the middle aged man to either get up or shift a little as the seat is not comfortable. The youngster does not raise his voice too much lest the other passengers start getting creeped out. Uncle says sorry and gets up from the seat to get down at the next station and you try to have a good look at the middle aged man trying to understand what made him do what he just did. The look in the eyes and on the face are bereft of any emotions, maybe he is trying to hide something or maybe the world is making him hide things that should not be spoken of.

When the man gets down all the brain does is wonder about the two people, one who shows the world his actual orientation and the leaves an impact on many and the other who touches a young man's body and hits your nerves leaving you speechless and thoughtless for more than a few moments.



#delhimetro 

Delhi Metro - from an observer's eyes yet again !

The thirst of observing people around us does not cease even for a minute in the vast ocean of souls available in front of us. I have no idea why do i write every time about the same topic, the metro. Sometimes it feels like a constant companion with its closed doors taking along a multitude of emotions on display, just needing a keen eye to comprehend them a little.

Maybe it is the feeling that comes from the inside when you see a family of four sitting on the floor of the coach with their luggage most probably going to the New Delhi railway station. Did they lose their fight against the cunning by lanes of this city or are they on a journey to get back a few charming moments in their life by visiting their home town or gao as people suggest nowadays.

The wandering mind begins to ponder as the eyes are set upon two sophisticated professionals dressed in what seems like the best attire for a sales meeting. Targets, loans, cars , wives, children, vacations and the lives seem to be invoked in this never ending discussion that i believe happens every morning without an end in sight. The end that exists on the other end of the dark tunnel called as rat race. The end most of the people engrossed in the race are afraid to even get a sight of.

The eyes are then allured to stare at a handsome looking man and the brain so quickly tries to gather the reasons of why a handsome man is never stared at or leched at while a pretty woman gets to have all the attention around. Is it the mindset or is it the education system that taught men to stare openly at women while at the same time convincing the women in hushed up tones to look at men with such deceit that the world can never notice.

The eyes and the mind quickly move from the good looking man to a pretty smiling female as soon as she enters the coach for that's what all the men ought to do. The mind starts to conjure questions whether the affectionate smile is being directed towards the man in sight or is it the natural look that makes everyone believe that the perfectly curved lips are spreading a charm unparalleled. The mind does go numb when a female smiles looking in your direction, a numbness that often people mistake for a flutter of hearts and term it love at first sight. Or is it the other way round ? Maybe it is all dependent upon the perspectives of the people involved.

So, till the time we actually do learn the differences between these concepts and many other concepts plaguing the modern world, we can continue to relish observing the souls around and penning down whatever comes to mind like i usually do.!


#delhimetro 

Delhi Metro - from an Observer's eyes

The child with the biscuit cream spread all over his stern face looking disappointed at having been stopped from devouring any more biscuits did make a pretty picture or maybe a nice thought to start writing about something that i call the lifeline of the National Capital of this country.
Or was it the oh so pretty kohl eyed long coat wearing female who described the entire essence of the city just by looking at the stern child with an all so shining smiling face just because she was kind of not liking him with that sulking face.
It could also have been a foreigner couple dressed to the extreme hilt of being called hippies. Tall bearded guy with a shoulder length hair wearing no woolens in the so called Delhi winters walking hand in hand with his partner draped in the simplest clothes you would ever imagine a foreigner wearing out here.
Or was it the scene of the two ladies talking to each other in what they thought were hushed tones bitching about the foreigner couple displaying affection in a public area.
It could also have been a married couple looking with all the parental love towards their child who was trying a few steps at pole dancing hanging about the nearby pole for support.
Or was it the stereotypical man trying to observe everyone commuting in the coach just because like me he had nothing better to do.
Even though the current footfall numbers have become unreasonable and unbearable for the common man, it continues to give some people a chance of improving their observatory skills for you don't often get such a huge variety of souls at a single place without them having the slightest hint of the fact that there are people around who would read their faces and body language just to quench their own thirst.

#delhimetro