It isn’t just a game

And yesterday Pakistan lifted the Asia Cup. It was un-doubtly a great moment for the triumphant nation that meticulously planned every move in the nail-biting final encounter of the biggest cricketing event in Asia. It was good news for some in the Kashmir valley; some were unmoved; some were completely disinterested in what was going on in the field; and some more even favored the underdogs, as some like to call Bangladesh. When it is cricket and Pakistan playing, it is not the same in Kashmir. Just few days back when Pakistan played India, the situation was entirely different. It wasn’t the ordinary contest between bat and ball for the Valleyities, but a battle for pride, dignity, neighborhood and emotions. Around 9 in the evening the entire valley was up on feet; tension mounting ball after ball, over after over. India-Pakistan matches have a different fan following in this small valley. While the Pakistani side is worshipped, equally the Indian side is demonized. 9 PM is exactly the time when most of the families meet on the dinning table for dinner and discuss the affairs of the day. But on March 18, the family members were no-doubt assembled together, but no one was discussing the day or the sumptuous food garnished before them. All eyes were glued to the TV sets with hands raised up in prayers the favorites Pakistan. Cricket no longer remains a game when it is India and Pakistan in the field. It is nothing less than a war between the two neighbors with serious effects on valleys citizens; just the weapons are not lethal. Some in the burst of anger break their TV sets they otherwise remain glued to like moths. Others in the jilts of joy start praising un-necessarily their favorites. And while I was focusing my all attention on writing this piece, my heart couldn’t stop throbbing fast as I heard a faint cry or sob in the surrounding. Though I had put my head sets on and I was trying to engross myself in the music, but my attention swung between the writing and the game which had silenced the streets before the dusk had spread its wings. However, the only thing funnier at the end of the game when Pakistan lost to India; was the power disruption that seemed to have been strategically introduced to prevent the further grief from prevailing. The only sound that remained audible to the human ear was from the barking dogs feeding themselves on rich food thrown away in grief. AH! At least the dogs enjoyed …

Back few days, …

Back few days, on 8^th March, when the people at global level were celebrating International Women’s Day, women citizens were flaunting their achievements through seminars, conference, road rallies, marathons and seminars. They were not alone to celebrate their day, even the opposite gender was also generous in accepting the laurels they have brought to themselves and to the society at large. Applauds and praises were pouring in for those who have successfully carved out their niche.

My celebrations also were full of wishes, as my friends also wished me and I wished them back with all the excitement. But, somewhere my sub-conscious mind was pinching me that applauds women receive somewhere far off in the globe aren’t showered on the women folk of my valley. Though, they deserve more than that for the bravery they have shown and for hiding the sadness and the misery behind that faint smile which they put on their faces, irrespective of the everyday problems that they suffer.

 

Most of the women in Kashmir didn’t find any reason to celebrate this day and felt it just another day in their lives, as every day the sun rises in the cursed and conflict torn land with a news of death and ends on a same note.

 

A mother whose son was killed decades back for just the freedom he wanted for his land has put a brave face and decided to live with that fate. The grief-stricken mother of my valley had never been given justice and she is living with the painful memories and a hope. Yet, every wrinkle on her face has a different tale to tell.

 

Late night when the owl howls or the dogs bark in my valley, I can see a past unfolding in front of my eyes.  Screams, mourning’s and pictures of bold bathed people begin to haunt me in the flashing dark light. I felt as if ghosts were unleashed on our part. The scene was dreadful, as if ghosts were ready to tear apart anything which comes in their way, and who in the savage of brutality couldn’t discriminate upon any basis be it caste, creed, sex or age.

 

Unfortunately, life hasn’t been so kind to the women of this valley who lost their families to the spiralling ongoing violence and who had to linger on with grief that has befallen on them from time to time. The tragedy is that even after the mysterious disappearance of their husbands, they had to live for their families, and for their children, with no respite from grief. The society is also not kind for them, as they still face inequalities and injustices which have taken a heavy toll on their health. The territorial dispute between the two neighboring countries, India and Pakistan along with the war tactics adopted by them has left the entire population of my land, especially the women gender in unending desperation and emotional imbalance.

Shopian incident adds to insecurities of Kashmiri Women.

Arifa Gani Srinagar, June 13: While in rest of the world women empowerment has been achieved to a considerable extent, Kashmir is yet to grant its women the safety and life security they deserve. Leaving their empowerment aside they do not even have safety to move out independently. Incidents like Shopain and Tangmarg have continued to occur during the last 18 years. Hameeda Nayeem, English professor in Kashmir university and a women activist, said, “Last so many years have brought so much insecurity to women. Army, SOG, CRPF and other renegades have played havoc with the lives of Kashmiri women. Our dignity has been trampled and they have used rape as a war weapon. Border areas women are more vulnerable. Many girls have dropped from schools to protect their chastity. They prefer illiteracy to insecurity.” It is not something new that women in the valley have become victim to such heinous crimes. Eighteen years back the horrible Kunan-Poshpora incident came to light. The incident shocked not only the whole Valley but the whole world was traumatised to see such incidents occurring in the world history. It was on February 23, 1991 when the soldiers while launching a cordon and search operation in Kunan-Poshpora, one of the remote villages in Kupwara district, allegedly gang raped the women folk of this village. Even till now the figures of this incident are not clear. Situated in the Kashmir’s remote area, these women who were till then hidden in those mountains from the whole world, involved in their household chores and quite proud of their life, became victims of the allegedly carried out largest scale acts of mass rape in the history of Kashmir conflict. The sun could never rise the same way for them; they felt the shame and disgrace of which they were not responsible. Most of the women complained of social ostracism from their families and communities because of the tragedy that befell them. Some of the alleged victims reportedly committed suicide after the incident. According to a report, not a single marriage proposal had been received for any women, raped or not, in the village for three years after the incident. Women aged 13-80 suffered in this incident and even the police investigation was not done, according to the villagers. Though on March 5, villagers filed a complaint with the then Kupwara district magistrate S.M Yasin. He visited the village on March 7 and in his final report, he had even stated that the soliders behaved like ‘wild beasts’. The intensity of the crime was so huge that on March 17, Mufti Baha-ud-Din Farooqi the then Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court who led a fact finding mission to Kunan-Poshpora over the course of his investigations, came to known that all the 53 women he interviewed claimed to have been raped by the security men. Time could not even avail the justice to these women who suffered and over the years even their wounds and the social stigma attached to them persisted. Still they are called the Kunan-Poshpora women, they could not get that better name nor could they get the perpetrators of the crime hanged. Like this event there are a number of other rape cases in the valley which went unreported because of the social taboo attached to it. Rape and then murder of these innocent women has become an everyday affair in the valley. A leading human rights activist of Kashmir valley Khurram Parvez and a member of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society (JKCSS) puts it as, “About 95 percent rape cases in the valley go unreported. Hundreds of such cases are there which have gone unnoticed. The sexual harassment, the verbal harassment and molestation has eroded the safety of women in our valley. They have been disgraced and barred from social life after such crimes have been committed with them”.

[Published in Kashmir Times June 13 2009]

Conflict gives Kashmir not only orphans but also spiralling rise in child labour

Arifa Gani, Srinagar, May 1: Just like the other conflict areas of the world, Jammu and Kashmir has inexplicably seen an increase in the children related suffering in recent years.

With many orphaned children in this conflict-ridden state who have no one to cater to their rising needs and the mounting inflation, these children ruthlessly become a prey to exploitation.

As per a survey, a clear linkage between disturbed conditions, other para-military activities and the rise of child labour has come to limelight.
According to unofficial estimates, there are about three lakh child labourers in the state. In the 2001 census, the number was pegged at 1, 75,000, with 70 percent of the teenagers belonging to the Valley and most of them orphaned in the conflict. Majority of them were females working in unorganised sectors like handicrafts.

Later in 2003, prominent British NGO, Save The Children, carried out a research study revealing that there are about 22,000 child labourers in only two districts of Kashmir.

These small children who can not handle their own burden are heinously exploited to carry out various odd jobs which are just out of the scope of their tiny hands and feeble bodies.

Tens of thousands of Kashmiri children are seen working as labourers across the length and breadth of the Himalayan state. Though officially banned, child labour has shown phenomenal increase in recent past as these children have no other option apart from allowing themselves to get exploited for meager incomes for the sustenance of their families.

These unfortunate children are visible almost everywhere right from homes of the people where they are busy carrying out the sweeping and scrubbing jobs to the roadside were they can be seen bargaining the items they sell.

A small boy Tassaduq can be seen rushing to the drivers of the vehicles and persuading them to buy multi-coloured cleaning cloth, slinging over his arm. “My day begins at 8 AM when I rush to a fuel station here to earn a living by selling vehicle-cleaning cloth. By 5 AM, I manage to earn Rs 50, he said.

As the dust envelopes his face and sticks his throat, he says after a long pause, I have to go now back to my home behind those mountains for few days. Whatever I earned, I will give it to my mother who will be waiting for my arrival she will feel happy. She is all alone as my father was killed some years back leaving us in an unending misery,” said Tasaduq.

[Published in Kashmir Times on  1 May 2009]

What’s in a name?

Arifa Gani, New Delhi 19 Feb: Sir joh tera chakraya ya dil doba jaya, a song from Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa in 1957 by Mohd Rafi, was something which brought into limelight the profession of barbers. It gave them recognition; was applauded widely by the barber community then. But same appreciation wasn’t showered by the same community on the Shah Rukh, Irrfan Khan flick Billu Barber. Right before its premiere, the entire barber community was up in arms insisting they were hairdressers not barbers. They were neither excited nor pleased to see a movie with their profession as a theme. They were offended to see themselves labeled as barbers.

When I saw the movie, I found the character Billu the barber endearing as he has been shown as an honest man who bears the trauma of being left out but never bows before anyone not even his superstar friend Sahir Khan.

So, why the barbers were so agitated? Do barbers in Delhi have any problem with the character Billu Barber?

Delhi’s reputed hair designer Amjad Habib, whose grandfather and father were also barber says, “I was comfortable since the beginning. After so many years, movies which have a wide appeal and portray our real society considered to focus on a barber’s life”.

He further added that even if the word barber is deleted, the profession will remain the same. Barber is an English word and it matched perfectly with the character’s name. I think the people who made an issue out of it aren’t honest towards their work and are uneducated. He says it is only attitude and hard work which can change a barber to a designer. He said it could have een a publicity stunt.

Another hair dresser Prashila from Hair and Shanti saloon says, “I have no problem with the word barber, what is there in a name,” she says with a smile.

“Nobody among us here has a problem. May be the people who have a problem think that in modern age the term barber seems old fashioned. His colleague Aditya too was of the same opinion.

However Ram ji, a hair dresser at ‘Blossom and Kochher’ has a different take on the entire issue. He says that hair dressers are of higher rank than barbers. Society always treats barbers as people with low status. Maybe the title would have had a negative impact on our our image so the decision to the change the name was right. But his colleagues dismissed the entire episode as a publicity stunt.

So, Billu without Barber is still a barber and Delhi has no problems with it.

[Published on Hindustan Times Online on 19 Feb 2009]

A home away from home for Tibetans

By Arifa Gani

Walking down the deserted streets of the Tibetan Colony in Downtown Srinagar gives a feeling of exile and the loss of freedom.

For the Kashmiri Tibetans this small colony has been their home since 1960, the year when their families fled the communist China’s invasion of Tibet. Fifty years later though Kashmiri-Tibetans like 45 year old Habibullah and his wife Nasreen seem to have adapted to this change and accepted it as their lot to live in Kashmir Habibullah has lived all his life in Kashmir with no knowledge of what has happened to the land of his parents.

He says since China’s invasion over Tibet, a lofty land plateau commonly known as roof of the world, “our parents were forced to leave their homes in 1960 and they started to live here in makeshift tents.

“Kashmir was the original homeland of our ancestors 300-400 years back and they went ahead to China for trading purposes and settled there but due to the conflict our parents had to leave their homes behind,” Habibullah said.

Kashmiri-Tibetans were originally traders who had settled in Tibet during the hey days of the Silk Route trade. But they returned to Kashmir in 1960, leaving behind a Tibet invaded by China. The migration was not smooth. India secured their migration from a reluctant Chinese government on the basis of Kashmir origin of these families.

In Srinagar they are housed in colonies at Hawal and Eidgah. Today there are 236 families with a population of about 1100.

“In the beginning we had to struggle a lot to get some residing place and to earn our living. It was only when Dalai-Lama came to meet us that things eased out a bit. On seeing our pathetic condition he spoke to the then chief minister who gave us 86 kanals of land for rehabilitation. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed helped us and presently every one among us owns a home with 4 rooms,” Habibullah said.

Even after remaining in valley for so many years the Tibetans have still preserved their culture by socialising among themselves, usually marrying among their own circles though they don’t oppose inter-marriages.

Many elderly people preserve it in terms of their dress code as well by wearing ‘Chuba’ a traditional cloak, even though the younger generation prefer to look modern and have been influenced by western style to a large extent. Women, though hardworking, have to leave their education midway, and take up the responsibility of their homes. They also keep themselves busy with knitting caps, bags and other such things which are sold in the markets by their men folk. So they contribute equally in the growth and prosperity of their family. Embroidery work is the main earning business men have taken up to sustain themselves, a work which was brought by some great grand parent from Delhi.
Like other Kashmiri youth, the Tibetan youth too face the same problem of unemployment, though to some extent it was conquered after the opening of the Tibetan school as few of the educated graduates were appointed here as teaching staff. These refugees prefer to send their children to this school which falls in their vicinity, though some even send them to other schools as well.

Away from their homeland struggling for existence so long, these people lastly found peace in this alien land where they are free to move, to follow their religion and away from that turmoil they can sleep and wake up at their will with no one interfering in their lives.

[Published in Kashmir Times on 03 Nov 2008]

Life fails to become normal for these quake victims

Arifa Gani Saraibandi (Uri), OCT 31: About 14 kms  from the main town of Uri, located high among the mountainous ranges, this village is yet to come out of the devastation caused by the earthquake of  October 8, 2005, which killed hundreds of people on this part of the line of control.

This village of 96 houses was also razed to ground killing about 26 people. The school in this region was also destroyed completely trapping the children for hours together.
The severity of damage was attributed to the poor construction of the houses in the area then and now almost after three years of the earthquake the ground reality remains the same. Immediately after the quake, makeshift tents were made for the original inhabitants to save them from the severe biting cold winters by the NGOs and other government organizations. Philanthropists from all the corners were busy helping the grief stricken people. Government had also announced a relief package of Rs 1,35,000 each in favour of a person whose house suffered either partial or complete damage. The relief was to be provided in two phases – Rs 40,000 in first phase  and then Rs 95,000 for only those who had utilised the first portion for the right purpose. But even now many people live in those ordinary tents made for transitory use years before. Most of the poor people blame that money was not given to them though they deserved but hoodwinked by someone illegally especially by the much elite class.

Haji Gull Mohammad Khan, a resident of Sarai bandi said, “I was denied my share; I live in this small hut which I made hardly out of my own money. When money was being distributed somebody had already taken my share.”
At certain places people have left their house construction works halfway because of the unavailability of the necessary building material. Mohammad Maqbool Khan another resident from the same area said, “Due to the price hike, we could not manage to construct our houses on time. We suffer shortage of bricks, iron and other necessary stuff because we are falling short of the required money. The amount we received was not sufficient either to help us complete our homes.”

Another peculiar thing very much evident here is the formation of nuclear families from joint families. Before earthquake, sons in the family were together but after the quake, the houses fell apart and brothers separated; but they could not get separate amount to build their houses. So they had to continue living as such in the makeshift tents.

[Published in Kashmir Times on 31 Oct 2008]