Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Distance lends enchantment. Perhaps true in most cases but my experience tells me something else. Distance, in my case, I have come to realize very late in my life, makes me feel distant. Not much may have changed many would say, but somehow things seem different, not the same I remember having seen. Indeed, on reflection you might remind yourself of changes here and there and tell yourself that is what perhaps makes the difference.
My visit to Kashmir valley- Srinagar and Pahalgam to be precise- some days ago brought home my situation to me. I was staying with the same friend, staying in the same room, having the same food with my hosts, which I have had for many, many years. Even in Pahalgam my friend and host had ensured that I retain the same first floor room of his riverside cottage; even Jamala, the cook and keeper of the cottage, made sure that I didn’t miss out on my favoured breakfast- at great personal sacrifice on the his part because my visit coincided with the last days of Ramzan. He had insisted that he should attend to me personally.
I had the same sense of pain I have had in the past, on leaving Pahalgam. More so since Pervez and his hut seem to have become my five- day address on every single visit to this famed “village of the shepherds” (Pahalgam). And these visits have been a permanent part of my life for many, many years.
May be I found my present visit to Kashmir distant because it was taking place after a break of four years. Remember for the first six decades of my journalistic career Kashmir has always served as a staging post for me : to help me garnar my strengths, to see my childhood haunt, meet old friends etc. etc…… and charge back to the plains and my journalistic base camp in Delhi which has been that now for 62 years but sadly without being really home.
The pull of Kashmir has been a constant, a favourite drink to which you turn in your moments of joy and sorrow. May be it was this fear of never ever being able to assert my claim to a bit of it physically as my own, that made it seem so different now, even when I savoured every moment of my ten days in the valley. But all that is at a personal level; like, many of whom I have loved to meet have either moved on or those who are still around were too busy doing their pretty things, like tending a little orchard, a fish farm or more ambitiously building up a political constituency.
In one of the main chowks of Srinagar along the city’s mainstreet, the Residency Road, I missed a few familiar shopkeepers who were either unwell or had passed on the business to their children and grandchildren; at the main club a usual haunt of government officials, the bar man and another “reciprocal” member, were the only company. Should have avoided a visit on a Ramzan day, I reprimanded myself.
One thing that brought the reality of Kashmir home to me was the odd hartal or bandh that occurred during my visit. “Attaboy”, I screamed, “that’s it”. Thanks to the separatist Hurriyet chief, Syed Ali Shah Geelani; dear old man, never lets go of an opportunity. There was also the man from Srinagar’s ‘Gaza Strip’ (Maisuma, near Gao Kadal) who was spending his second day in Badgam instilling among the locals a sense of realism. “Remember we are all Muslims; we all pray in mosques, we read the Holy Quran……. Don’t fight each other, don’t get into the Shia-Sunni tangle”.
Yaseen Malik who claims to be one of the first JKLF men in the State and was indeed, if memory serves, among those who kidnapped then Indian Home Minister and later Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s medical student daughter; he has since turned to peaceful methods and is said to have opted for a Gandhian approach of protest. Like, that other man, I forget his name, who styled himself as Kashmir’s Nelson Mandela. I don’t really know how much he knows of Mandela’s life and his suffering, fighting the successive racist South African regimes.
And while on Badgam I must record the anguish which Mirwaiz Farouk did express on the Shia-Sunni riots in this district, adjacent to Srinagar. I do wonder though why hasn’t any of these Kashmiri (separatist) leaders commented on the routine killings of thousands of Hazara Shias of Baluchistan by the Pakistani Taliban and other sectarian armed outfits.
The Hazara killings have indeed become something of a joke considering the impunity with which they occur regularly, week after week- duly reported by TV channels and the print media but little told about the steps taken by the authorities or the Sunni clergy to stop this barbarian practice of killing these men, usually at the conclusion of their gatherings at their mosques.
Of course, the story of my visit to Kashmir would be incomplete if I fail to mention the initial stirrings of the mainstream political parties pointing in the direction of a poll. The National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party and the Congress are among the early birds scanning the field across the length and the breadth of the Valley and Jammu; unlike the BJP, which has concentrated all its efforts on Jammu, to regain the lost prestige at the hustings in the State.
The party will no doubt attempt to put up a few candidates (scarecrows) in the valley as well but their main battle will be fought in the Jammu province. There’s no doubt they will try to cash in on the name Modi which they believe will revive the party’s fortunes and which many others may see as a golden opportunity to sharpen the communal divide in the province, tempting long-time NC and PDP supporting Hindu voters to join BJP ranks. Whether the assumption is realistic or not only time will tell, but the BJP has not lost a minute in highlighting in recent days issues like Kishtwar or the Amarnath Yatra etc.
A non-starter yet hopeful, is the Awami National Conference of the late Ghulam Mohammad Shah, Sheikh Abdullah’s son-in-law. Led by Muzaffar, Gul Shah’s son, the party is confident that it has a reasonably strong toehold in Jammu and should fare well in the valley as well, given the backdrop that Muzaffar’s mother, the Sheikh’s daughter, will canvass for support, opposing brother Dr. Farooq and nephew Omar. According to Mr. Din Wani, a freshly returned Kashmiri from America, the Awami National Conference has the capacity to upset many calculations. This should ideally suit Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter. Mehbooba’s People’s Democratic Party in cracking the National Conference’s so -called hold on the capital city, Srinagar. Mufti, of all the Kashmiri politicians, enjoys a credible reputation and one learns he has put in place a solid political network. Besides, his record as a former Chief Minister of the State, has left a credible reputation as an administrator and one who, of all the main-stream politicians, has always strived for ways to improve Indo-Pak relations. The bus and trade routes between the divided halves of Jammu and Kashmir State were opened during his regime. This is bound to have a positive impact on his campaign and its fortunes.
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