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

[Rahul Asthana]

Vivek, 
Thanks for posting this.It is from instances like
these that it appears that our media is not doing its
job.Why is the media silent on Kashmir and the North
Eastern States?Why have some areas of our country got
marginalised from the democracy that we seem to be so
proud of? These are questions that we need to ask
ourselves more often.
Your suggestion of sketches from such areas is quite
good.It does not take a reporter to meet a common man
and ask how things are going.


Regards
Rahul

--- Vivek Narayanan <vivek at sarai.net> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> 
=== message truncated ===



	
		
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