[Reader-list] Omair Ahmad's sketches of Srinagar

[Vivek Narayanan]

Dear all,

This below from Omair Ahmad-- quick sketches from his recent trip to 
Srinagar (Kashmir). For our international readers, Omair also writes, 
"For those that don't know a shikara is a small boat used to navigate 
the lakes in Kashmir."

I am wondering if we can initiate a series of sketches like this on the 
list, especially from areas "in crisis" which also speak to the banality 
of life in such situations, how people immunize themselves to a 
situation of constant conflict.

Any takers? And comments on the piece below.

-V.


THE SHIKARAWALLA

~ On Dal Lake, Afternoon of 10^th September 2004 ~


~ We spend beyond our means.

~ At least three times a week we must have a mutton meal, otherwise 
people talk.

~ I just spent ten thousand rupees on a wedding, and there are 5-6 more 
coming up. It is the season.

~ This shikara and a small plot of land, it gets us through. That is 
what most of us have.

~ That house, there, is the Raja’s: Hari Singh. That fenced off piece of 
land in the middle of the lake is also his. His son, Karan Singh, 
sometimes comes here with his family.

~ There are no tenders awarded here, no way to make another income. In 
the whole Valley there is no tender for liquor.

~ There used to be so many foreign tourists before, the owners never 
used to allow the Indians into the houseboats. Now look at what God has 
done.

~ This year there were some tourists early in the season, and then that 
news of the swelled up lake in China came, and the flow of people dried up.

THE HOTEL MANAGER - I

~ Dal Gate, Evening of 10^th September 2004 ~

The Lights Go Off.


~ See how India oppresses us! Nothing, there has been no development in 
the last 55 years.

~ There is no work here, such uselessness, that is what pushes the young 
men into picking up the gun.

~ You see that bridge? It has been five years and they are still 
building it. First it was supposed to go that way, but prices started 
falling in this area, so the people forced a change of direction. 
Abdullah government then, Mufti government now, so now a bridge that 
runs in the opposite direction it was supposed to, and still not finished.

~ Officers and Ministers divide and eat up the money, not like Choudhary 
sahib who sent you here. Put a crore in front of him and he will not 
take one rupee.

~ Factories exist, but only in the books. There was an HMT watch factory 
here that employed 5,000 – 6,000 people, but it closed down because of 
the violence. They could put up any industry here, but the only ones 
that come into existence are those on paper, so that the corrupt can eat 
the money.

~ I will have to go into debt and buy a generator. The guests demand 
such things. It is so hard to get a loan from a bank.


THE CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCE PERSONNEL

~ By Dal Lake, Late Afternoon of 11^th September 2004 ~

~ Stop.

~ Where are you coming from?

~ Why from that direction, what were you doing?

~ What is in your bag?

~ Where are you from? Oh Delhi? Your first trip here?

~ How are you liking the place?

~ Aren’t you scared?

~ I am from Ghaziabad (shy smile, gap between his two front upper 
teeth). Do you know it?

~ Aren’t you scared?


THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL

~ Government Housing, Evening of 11^th September 2004 ~

~ It is a Hindu marriage. You know that Hindus rarely divorce here? That 
is how it is between India and the Kashmiris. There is no trust, no 
liking, but we will not divorce.

~ India has to be more generous, more magnanimous. Always they start 
talks and then break them off on some pretext or other. The Kashmiri 
politicians who have attended the talks are discredited when they come 
back. Their people stop believing in them.

~ India has never trusted the Kashmiris, they even undermined the 
government of Sheikh Abdullah, the one who was the most instrumental in 
Kashmir acceding to India.

~ There was that Senior Superintendent of Police from Baramulla that got 
arrested when he went to Delhi. He was there for a meeting and they put 
him into jail for a day because they did not believe his papers or him. 
Khajuria, the former Director General of Police wrote an article that if 
somebody of such unimpeachable credentials could be treated like that, 
what was to happen to the rest of the country?

~ This is not Punjab. There is no intermarriage, no fluidity of cultures 
here like that. Our heritage, our religion, our language and our culture 
tie us to this place. All my relatives live here. The militants can 
pressure us, and even if we were all to leave, wherever we went we would 
be distrusted.

~ The militants do not attack haphazardly. When I was in charge of 
setting up things for the elections I was on their hit list. My family 
and I barely survived an attack. But once the elections were over, I was 
off their hit list.

~ There can be palliatives, economic measures, freer movement for the 
young men, but this is cancer in the second stage and very difficult to 
treat. Someone has to die, and we, India, Pakistan, the Kashmiris, we 
are all patients.


THE HOTEL MANAGER - II

~ Dal Gate, Late Evening of 11^th September 2004 ~

Sound of Grenades. Crack, Crack, Crackle of Machine Guns First on Single 
Bursts Then Switching to Multiple Rounds.

~ You see how India oppresses us?

~ The soldiers are drunk and have fallen asleep on their posts, and the 
militants have made their way into the compound. It will continue all 
night.

~ Before I had so many customers, but they hear of something like this, 
and do not come. They do not know that the militants are targeting the 
CRPF and not hotels like mine. They use grenades. It is the soldiers 
that fire wildly.

~ Sometimes the militants will burn down a place where the Army stays. 
There are so many soldiers that they have taken over whole hotels.

~ You will write this like how it is, no? The truth? Before the Western 
press would report some of the truth but they don’t any more. And the 
Indian media prints nothing of us.

~ Before some people wanted Pakistan, now we want nobody, all this money 
on bullets when there is so much poverty.