Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
Srinagar: Shock, shame, guilt, and disgust. I can’t find more words to describe my inner feeling. I want to cry out loudly, but can’t. I want to bang my head, but can’t. I want to sing eulogy for my Kashmir, but can’t. My conscience is under constant attack, my patience has exhausted and my soul is wounded.
Oh Kashmir! Is this an apocalypse? Yes, for me it is. I had seen in movies people picking up leftovers from trash bins to kill their hunger. I had read write-ups about hungry and malnourished people. `Paapi paeth ka sawal hai…’ had become a common lexicon between friends until I saw it firsthand.
It happened on Friday when I was surfing net comfortably on my bed after Sehri. Suddenly there was some clatter outside my window. First, I ignored it and continued fidgeting with my phone.
Call it intuition, I jumped from my bed and removed my curtains. The scene that unfolded left me in tears. A middle-aged man was stuffing left-over rice in an empty tin. I always used to curse my neighbours for throwing leftover near my house. Today was the day when I was shell shocked? For a moment I became stoic. By the time I could gain senses and open my window, he put the box under his pheran and melted away. I tried hard to find him but to no avail. He seemed not from our colony.
For the last few days, I am not in my being. Flashback of the man stuffing rice in his box always plays in my mind. His coarse hands picking up relatively clean rice and leaving the rest aside make me restive.
Then I think where the charity institutions are which are doing pioneering service to mankind? Have the deserving slipped through the gaps? Have we missed out on bigger things? Have we ignored people who apparently live in cosy rooms but have nothing to eat? Have we missed out on the people who have nothing to eat but do not reveal their plight?
It is time we go back to the drawing board and think of those who are hungry but remain off the radar. On iftar and sehri, we rue that we do not have a mutton dish on our plate. But there are people who do not have even rice or roti to eat. Every day we spent money on chips and juice for our kids but forget the children of lesser God.
Where is my Kashmir going? My grandmother used to say nobody in Kashmir goes to bed empty stomach. We are egalitarian people. Today for the first time I feel ‘Mauj’ was wrong. We too have become materialistic. So sad!
dear brother,
you made me to cry. let us take pledge again to assure that at least our locality and adjoining areas are having hunger free days and nights…
After abrogation of article 370, we might have even worse days to come,
the happyness index of our Kashmir is decreasing, the gap between poor and rich is increasing, this will result very hard Times to come…
may Allah guide us and keep us all together to overcome all the wrongs….
We need to create some kind of network to help the poor and needy in upcoming days because situation is going to get worst.
It would be enough that we provide little help ,some food items etc.
And reduce our sahri and iftari food items to minimum and maximum the amount of sharing with the poor.
The virus has destroyed the livelihood of the poor people who earn on daily basis like Transport Workers etc.
We need at this point start making some kind of network for location of poor people, like we for the Covid 19 (Red , Orange,Green) zones.
We need volunteers to be ready to go .
We have to feed our people overselves nobody is coming to help us .
Please Donate first hand to people in your neighbourhood, Hang food packets outside your homes.
Salaam
My name is Shyamli and I’m a student from Nift Srinagar, living here for more than three years now. Endlessly fallen in love with this place.
I did a crowd funding recently, raised funds and helped needy families in Delhi and Kashmir. Approx 120 families in total were helped. This really brought me to disgrace that how could one sleep empty stomach in Kashmir? If I can be of any help to you, please, please count on me. God bless
So heart breaking, what has my homeland come to .are we same people worldwide famous for our tradition of hospitality?
Really we became materialistic ones even being kashmiris
Really a bad situation. We people care only ourselves and family, We must also care our neighbours and needy. Humanity in Kashmir is losing its status.
May Allah Make us Humans first and we should have love for everyone.
It seems that people of Kashmir have lost their attitude of sympathy. love &humanity &have lost their islamic values so it is happening
The story does not contain any substance, it’s just wastage of time, do take inspiration from other journalists who are practical in their work and not like that Pulitzer prize holder , who shot that photo of dying child and vulture waiting to eat that child, finally that photographer committed suicide.
This story reminded me that instance only.
Be practical journalist, there is no dearth of essayists and writers in valley, nobody has got time , people should either benefit from the ink or the ink should not be wasted it’s simple.