Kashmir - A Blood-Stained Coffin Of Dreams By Rameez Bhat

Kashmir - A Blood-Stained Coffin Of Dreams

By Rameez Bhat

10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Human life is a precious asset and no price can compensate for its worth. We lost five more unarmed youth just a few days back in Handwara and who knows by the time this piece sees the light of day some more would succumb to injuries - God forbid. Given the reality that Kashmir is a conflict zone; therefore what happens here can’t be actually seen as something obvious as there are so many covert interpretations attached to each and everything. But as far as the recent incident goes I could barely see any hidden agenda, as the propaganda machinery most often propagates after every heinous act. Nayeem was a student dreaming to become a famed cricketer. He was known as Gavaskar to his parents, and Ab Devillers to his friends. His obsessive concern was mostly bat and ball and playground was his ultimate destiny. But a bullet pierced his body and tore to pieces his dream of becoming a cricketer. Nayeem did lot of hard work on his cricketing techniques. He always dreamt to play at international level. He would dream not for just himself but for the people as well who suffered economically besides facing the loss of lives. He was a hope for the people of handwara.

Nayeem the hero of handwara, brought the cluster of awards on state level cricket competitions not only for himself but for the people of his own vicinity. When he used to play everybody cheered for him. Now the angels would cheer for his classical cricket shots. When he would leave home for playing cricketing his mother always hugged him followed by these tender terms: “lejj yaa mojj aaz haa eei zeh zenith”. Now same mother is longing for his coming; although he will not return. I am hardly able to control my tears, when I see the face of his parents. They lost their cricketer nayeem, it seems they have lost whole world. His mother does chant sans interruption: “nayeem soebaa panie mojj kyaze thewthen akela, che kyaze cholekh meynesh doer talaa logsei balayie pakh jall wein, baa chesei intizares. (Beloved nayeem how can you left me as I am waiting for your coming, come soon I am alone). The murderer of nayeems dream along with his other brethren are none other than those wearing the crown of world’s largest democracy.

If you are living in a Kashmir you can’t think about dreaming of anything, as you can see how friend of mine, Nayeem's dream to become a cricketer got buried along with him. His only crime was that he took birth in a place, where dreaming of anything is sheer crime. His unfinished dream has put to peril many innocent lives because their submission of innocence does not reach to the trigger-happy uniformed men before they embrace the death. Kashmir has seen so much of bloodshed that all this looks a routine affair but actually it is not that easy particularly for a family who had hopes pinned on their young children. Youth is full of adventure but Kashmiris can’t even afford the luxury of dreaming in a place where your dreams are killed with bullets. If an armed solider imagines the death of his own son by the application of same cover of impunity like AFSPA then how his wife, his daughter, his family will react to the mechanism through which justice is served.

Kashmiris have been fighting for their rights from the day when the Indian forces illegally occupied this “peer veer”. They had promised us that, “we will give you, your rights that is right to self-determination"; but one wonders as to what makes them renege on their own promises. History bears witness to the fact that the two nations “Pak & Ind” waged three wars, which not only resulted in loss of precious lives of their own soldiers but dealt a blow to respective countries in economic terms. Same is the case of Jammu & Kashmir, besides losing 6-lakh people for our right, we have suffered on a multitude of fronts. Now it’s time to solve this long pending issue, or else this bloodshed will continue to inundate our streets which only bloodthirsty monsters can derive pleasure from; never the one whose sanity is intact and whose conscience is alive.