Blessing in Disguise

Jammu agitation for the land for amarnath shrine board and against kashmir and muslims in the Jammu region could be a blessing in disguise. Kashmir Intifada was for honor. Even during those tough days hindus were and still are being treated well in Kashmir. Jammu agitation is war against muslims. While the hindu fanatics of Jammu have yet again showed how ruthless they are by hurting muslims of Jammu and the valley as a whole through economic blockade, they have brought home the point to us, kashmiris, how dependent we are. I have always supported the idea of Jammu being a separate state. I believe they don't belong to us and we don't belong to them, so all these leaders who always consider J&K as one unit are mistaken in my opinion.
We should concentrate on ways and means to make Kashmir self reliant and live a life of honor. Calling for strikes is not the solution but working harder is, fast unto death is not a remedy but working harder to produce more to feed ourselves and others is. We need to learn to respect ourselves and always strive to be the ones giving than the ones receiving.

Kashmiri 'Intifada'

I came back from Kashmir earlier this week after a two months life changing vacation. I married a wonderful girl. It was great to go back to my homeland and meet my mom and dad and the rest of the family. Since it was wedding time so I also got to meet almost all of my close as well as distant relatives. Good times.
There were ten days during my vacation when we could not move out of our houses. Whole kashmir was protesting against the land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). This organization is responsible to manage the annual hindu pilgrimage to a cave shrine in Kashmir. For over a hundred years people (hindus) from all over India have been coming to Kashmir for this pilgrimage and the muslims of the valley have always provided the logistics. However, this year the government transferred around 40 hectares of land to this shrine board in the forest area. The transfer also included permission to make rail roads. Now wait a minute rail roads and concrete structures in forest area. This is even against the Supreme court of India ruling against the construction in forest land.
In Kashmir the problem was not just about forests it was about national pride. People saw it as an attempt by India to change the demography of the state (People outside of Jammu and Kashmir cannot purchase land in the state according to article 370 of the Indian constitution). It seemed like a back door approach to settling people from outside. People of Kashmir could not accept it and rose against the government. I saw people marching on the streets. Hundreds and thousands of them, shouting slogans against India. It seemed like early 90's when people rose against India and thousands of people would come out on the streets to protest. It was a revolution.
The leaders whether pro freedom or for India or for Pakistan had to but find ways to sail in the direction of the winds. After 10 days of street protests with 5 deaths and thousands injured, the government revoked this land transfer order. The government of Jammu and Kashmir lost support of its coalition partners (politics again) and did not have enough numbers in the state legislature to continue ruling. This resulted in the imposition of the Governors rule in the state.
The pilgrimage still continues with a record number of hindu pilgrims visiting their shrine. This is despite attempts by some hindu right wing organizations of Jammu trying to give it a racial color. They were trying to call these protests by muslims as protests against the pilgrimage itself. They were proven racists and defeated yet again. Muslims of Kashmir still continue to provide the logistic support to the hindu pilgrims.

Stereotype - Reality or Myth

Recently I had a change in my life as I received my PhD and was offered a good job. The usual congratulations were often followed by questions and comments from my friends. Initially, I thought it was just me, but later, in order to prove myself wrong (or right) I decided to compile and then average out the responses from my friends, colleagues and acquintances grouped by their ethnicity. The results were strangely consistent. I thought of compiling and presenting my findings here. Worth mentioning is the fact that when I mention an ethnicity or culture, I mean a friend who is 'fresh off the boat' and thus his frame of mind represents his upbringing in that culture. Thus an Indian friend is one who was born and brought up in India, I grouped anybody raised in the USA as American irrespective of his ethnicity. Following are the responses:

American - Awesome, congratulations. So you moving to Philadelphia, eh? Nice city, good job, getting out of Buffalo, what else would you want? I am really happy for you.

Arab - MashaAllah, congrashulashuns. This is great news brazaar. So did u get married yet or not? C'mon man, now you have a job, u should get married, get a family inshaAllah.

Desi (Indo-Pak) - Wow Man! Congrats! So now you make big bucks haan? New car, big house no?

Kashmiri - Mubarak! So, what is your salary?

This one was a classic. From a friend from bangalore, was not the usual desi response.

Friend: Great man, congrats! So can I ask you what your salary is going to be?

Me: umm.... no you cannot.

Friend: OK. So how much is it?

Me: !!!!!

A little attention

Here is the caption of a picture showing the mosque at Hazratbal and the library of the University of Kashmir that appeared in the online edition of the Srinagar Newspaper 'Greater Kashmir':

"GK lensman Habib Naqash brings together the icons of faith and knowledge- the Hazratbal shrine housing the relic of the Prophet (SAW) and the central library of Kashmir University, named after poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal."

While I noticed what the caption read, my eyes also saw something I didn't want to see. The picture also had Dal lake in the foreground. It could have been picture perfect but wasn't to be. The water of the lake appeared sick and on the verge of death. It was bizarre. The same picture depicted, as the photographer called it 'icons of faith and knowledge' and we failed on both fronts.

Our religion demands from us that we take care of our environment and our knowledge of science should tell us how we could do it efficiently. How is it that we are ignoring both and expect a miracle to happen and things to change on their own. The picture could become perfect if we just pay a little attention to these two icons and heed what they are telling us. Money does not solve problems, application of knowledge does. We have people praying everyday and academicians learning new things each day, both groups on the banks of the same dying lake, yet we can't apply the teachings of either one to give a new lease of life to this beautiful('dying') lake.

Hail Democracy

Democracy is good when it is seen on ground under all circumstances. A biased selected application of it at some places and gross violation of it at most other places renders it not only worthless and useless but just a rhetoric.

You might be wondering what I am talking about here. It was a photo that finally made me give vent to these expressions. It was a photo of a man in Srinagar protesting against the bad treatment of Kashmiri prisoners in various jails inside Jammu and Kashmir and outside. It was okay as long as the picture had this person protesting but not to be. He had company. Six of them. All in police uniform dragging him and hitting him with their batons. These were the cops in Kashmir trying to probably prevent this dangerous person from registering his protest against something very shameful. Ironically there was a shop(closed) in the background. The front shutter of the shop was rolled down and it had an ad on it. The ad was of a soda and it read 'CRUSH'. Yes, crush is a soda. Apparently, the cops took a cue from it.

This is democracy for you in Kashmir and most of the politicians out there are proud of this form of democracy in Kashmir and brag about it in the international forums where people hardly see it working on the ground. Shame.

To Learn and Unlearn

To question is human and none knows this better than the One that created us. I could question newtonian - either because i am a relativist or actually I did not understand an iota of physics. Where as in the first case I am intellectually inquisitive , in the second I am equally naive. So, the fallacy is not in questioning which but is idiosyncratic to human being, rather is in the underlying comprehension. Whereas we know for a fact that more dimensions exist, our mind yields beyond just three. So, its not what seems strange to us, it is how much we can fathom. And when in the conclusion of the very second chapter, it is mentioned, in retrospective, Lord! lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear - is it announcement of fragility, a meek surrender or a desolate plea? Rather it is an advise to all those that find it hard. Pity that person who blew himself to smithereens thinking he did an act of great courage, on the contrary he was a coward, for he did something that was easy and cruel and saved on the hard part - struggling with himself, fighting his own devil. The turbulent waters may seem perilous and oh so strange, but only when one dives can it be experienced. There is no end to learning, get close to learning, gain more knowledge, yearn for understanding, the same questioning might make the faith more firm than shaking it all up.

Welcome home

I read a news item recently about pandit families moving into government apartments. It is a good news because some of the pandit families can think of returning back to their homeland. Welcome home!.

However, it is not the same as living earlier when muslims and pandits lived in the same neighborhoods and shared similar experiences "Power waer", " mood swings during an India-Pakistan cricket match (in opposite directions)" etc. Living in Pandit only apartment complex might still keep them away from their roots. This time they will be close to their land but still far from home. I can understand the logic behind these apartments. They have been away for so long. Kashmir has changed. it might take some time for pandits as well as muslims of Kashmir to get aquainted with each other all over again.

At some point in future they will have to move out and become part of real Kashmir. The coexistence is very important for a healthy society. It helps each community to grow. Everyone has something to offer to others and we could learn from each other.