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Victims of terror

13/5/2011

19 Comments

 
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A littte girl in Qazigund, known as the Gateway to Kashmir. According to a Reuters report (2008) more than 42,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since the emergence of militancy in 1989

For a mother, it is heart-breaking when you hear it the first time but, in Kashmir valley, you soon learn to accept that your four-year-old understands you can’t take him out to buy a toy “because a terrorist can kill us”. You slowly get used to the fact that Bob the Builder no longer fascinates him as much as his new-found game of militants and guns. Of Army salutes, identification cards and strange men with live bombs that lurk behind toy cupboards and have to be dragged out at gun-point. 

You get used to living with this loss of innocence the same way you get used to living without multiplexes and shopping malls, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut; and casual drives decided on the spur of the moment, just because it’s a lazy Sunday, the man you love is smiling into your eyes and and the rain clouds are adding the right amount of romance to  your life. 


If you live in the beautiful valley, you soon learn there’s a price to pay for it. The bogeyman in your baby’s life is as real to you as it is to him. You can no longer urge those little feet to enter a dark room by looking into those trusting brown eyes and saying “terrorists don’t exist” just like you once made him do it by saying “ghosts don’t exist”.  You can’t explain to a little boy why someone who doesn’t even know him might want to hurt him. Even if you believe in it, you can’t explain to him the intellectual concept of how one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter; and why people want to kill each other when there’s only one life to live.

In the lush green hills, where pine trees carpet the slopes with their fallen leaves, colourful birds sing in the trees and wild flowers splash the landscape with what appears to be a sprinkled palette of pastel paints, you get used to eyeing every bearded man in a phiran with involuntary suspicion. You start weighing every casually draped shawl on a stranger for the possibility that it could be hiding the outline of an AK-47. You jump at every loud crack because you fear it might be a gun shot and you don't want to pick up a ringing telephone because you're scared it might be bringing bad news. You are so consumed by the desperate desire to live that you actually stop living. 

At night, when the lights of distant hill villages sparkle in the dark like a hundred fireflies, the wind whistles through the trees and crickets call in the yellow moonlight; what makes you hold your breath is not the sheer beauty unfolding before your eyes but the thought that one misguided act of violence might suddenly take it all away.  

And that brings us to the reason why this little piece was written. Only those who live in terrorism affected places understand that it finds its victims, not just in the people killed or maimed by its cruel hand; in the families it destroys; or in the brave but dead boys in uniform whose pictures appear in newspaper remembrance columns almost every day up north. Terrorism finds its victims in all the nations rich and poor that spend precious time and resources, first promoting and then trying to stifle it. It finds its victims in all of us whether we live in villages on the Indo-Pak border or a high rise in New York. Because it teaches us to live in fear, in distrust of another human being and another culture. Rather than enjoy and revel in the charming novelty of difference, it makes us eye with suspicion anyone who doesn’t look or behave like us. It takes away reasonable thinking and makes us hate a religion, a country, a person who dresses and talks a certain way.

Terrorism finds its victims in all of us and not just Kashmiris like old and greying Parveena Begum, who ran away from Doda many years back after seeing the bodies of four young village boys shot in an encounter and, after a failed marriage and three children, now works as house help in Udhampur. Not just milkman Salim who takes a yearly holiday around Independence Day because he’d rather live than be killed delivering milk when bombs are expected to go off. Or, sixteen-year-old fair and fragile Kanta who does pedicures for a living and cannot understand what the Kashmir problem is about when in her tiny village near Srinagar, Hindus and Muslims live together in perfect harmony despite eating meat cut by different butchers. And, yes, little children who don’t understand the reasons behind an act of terrorism yet. But whose lives fall under its extremely ugly shadow.


Phiran: A long woolen robe worn by men and women in Kashmir.
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Nobody lives here anymore. There was mass exodus of Kashmiri pandits (Hindu Brahmins) from Kashmir in 1991 when militants unleashed ethnic cleansing and threatened to make it an Islamic state. They are are now being asked to return
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The crystal clear waters of Manasbal, the deepest lake in Kashmir valley (42 feet).
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A Bakkarwal boy with his herd of sheep. Bakkalwals are nomads who keep moving with a change of seasons. They are getting increasingly marginalised as the world considers itself more "civilised"
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Pashmina goats that are indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas
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Anywhere for a fine dining experience
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Waiting for peace to return
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The poppies still bloom
19 Comments
noopur
13/5/2011 12:38:35 pm

beautifully written Rachna and spectacular pictures as well. Terrorism is such a universal problem and its the innocent who suffer the most :(

Reply
SAM
13/5/2011 01:00:10 pm

Nicely written piece. Much more needs to be done to make our country's citizens aware that even as they munch their burgers in McDs and go pub hopping there are fellow country men who live under constant fear & on the brink of life & death.
Secondly, the worst hit are the Kashmiris - take for eg a child born in 1990 - she has lived and grown up with constant fear in her 21 yrs of existence. Sad!
Rachna , Bravo & Keep them coming.

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BIG B JB
13/5/2011 01:51:21 pm

Beautifully written...yes innocent people pay the price of terrorism...its just ego clash..one wants superiority on others....not ready to accept each oteher...there is a difference between freedom fighters and terrorists...terrorists are killer of humans,they have to be killed and freedom fighters are like Mahatma Gandhi,Nelson Mandela..Anna hazare..who are fighting but not terrorising comman masses...Kashmir , a beautiful place is victim of worst terrorism..innocent people are suffering..but Politicians are flourishing....beautiful pictures and very well depicted..it reminds me my Doda, and Banihal's day with 12 RR....

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renee grewal
13/5/2011 02:08:16 pm

kashmir...""heaven on earth .....under the calm n serene blanket of nature lies the turbulence created by the terrorists..the innocent always pay the price...sad ""...rachna u have written about the situation perfectly n vividly....n it jus makes u wanna help n do anythin to bring life back to normal.....""wish it was dat easy ...guess nt bt thn its nt impossible...each one of us needs to do our bit in watevr lil or big way we can....n im sure one day things would be back to normal...n ppl wld liv to the fullest widout having the d manifestation of fears on their minds.....dat would restore kashmir to its full glory n splendour""
GUD wrk....keep stirring up the minds....makes thm think ....n mk em sensitive to things happenin arnd ....grrrt job my frnd ....""keep up

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Piyush
13/5/2011 07:48:34 pm

Very well written, Rachna....

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Rosalind Broohall
13/5/2011 07:49:18 pm

What a moving and beautifully written piece bringing home the fact that it is not only those who suffer directly at the hands of terrorists who are affected. That it happens in a place that looks like the garden of Eden makes it all the more poignant. Wonderful, Rachna.

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Mahendra
13/5/2011 11:31:43 pm

First - My compliments to the photographer for the National Geographic class pics here.

Now the article - Yes it is tragic what terrorism is doing to our lifestyles (loss of freedom is what I miss the most, now that the intense focus on security has cause so many conveninences of modern world to disappear), but even more worrying is the increasing (and perhaps accelerating...) income inequality that I believe is the root cause of terrorism. Don't know what the solution to that is...it certainly is not Mamta Didi...

Excellent piece.

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Ritha link
15/5/2011 02:30:29 am

Hmmm...being very near to people in army, I am sure you have seen a very close picture of these things. Its really sad what is happening. What worries the most is definitely the kids growing up there.Will they grow up to be violent? or totally submissive? in any case its bad for them...bad for everyone around. I liked the thought that in the fear of loosing their lives, they have stopped living.....but I think they know it better that they have no other option.But kudos to the people who still live there and make a home there. I salute their spirits and ofcourse the men in uniform.

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ather
15/5/2011 11:56:08 pm

Truly a case of Paradise Lost. The spectre of extremism, fanaticism and terror loom large in all our lives and that of our children. The pursuit of peace, respect and harmony seem to be just pious dreams. But if history teaches us anything, it is that nothing is a constant; that tyranny does end and that hope springs eternal.

Beautifully written peice as usual Rachna- it is always a privilege to read your features and view the splendid pix. The earlier piece you write on Ladakh too was stunning and in my mind's eye, I feel I have seen that place too through your evoccative writing.

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rohit
16/5/2011 05:46:19 am

Ma'am old timers would like to say that "one man's terrorist is other man's freedom fighter" but its not so any more.It's a job, not full time freelance, yes and they get paid much more than any IIM graduate might get.You and us we all work to earn our daily bread, similarly they terrorise, thats it, no motive, no cause, its only for money.

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rohit
16/5/2011 06:03:15 am

The worst and the best always seem to co-exist.

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Jhoomar
16/5/2011 01:48:41 pm

Excellent piece and amazing pictures!!

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Anisha
18/5/2011 03:51:47 am

How sad and how true :-(
The complete irrelevance of Terrorism and its harsh consequences continue to baffle me.
Love the pictures, the winner being the cow on the roof top :-)

Reply
Swapan Lahiri
18/5/2011 09:06:45 pm

Good writing on a sensitive issue. The cow grazing on a rooftop and the poppies in bloom were really good and sends a subtle message that nature carries on terrorism or no terrorism. I wish we humans could also follow this line of thinking and behaved with equanimity and poise amidst whatever carries on around us.

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Anima Pundeer
19/5/2011 01:53:43 pm

Very nice pictures and very nice writing...

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Dharmendra
19/5/2011 02:40:35 pm

well written...........specially.."one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter; and why people want to kill each other when there’s only one life to live"

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TANU
19/5/2011 06:31:48 pm

Having recently visited and experienced the beauty and tragedy of this seemingly star crossed valley, i couldn't agree with you more.i think what touched me the most was children having to pass through a security check just to get to school...........!

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tanu
19/5/2011 06:37:31 pm

The picture of the little girl captures the essence of the article beautifully and is reminiscent of the picture of the Afgan girl Sharbat Gula that featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine and captured the imagination of the whole world.

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Zoe link
4/10/2013 01:21:14 am

I liked your blog and went ahead and created a weebly blog too!

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    Rachna Bisht Rawat is a full time mom and part time writer. She is married to an Army officer whose work takes the family to some of the most interesting corners of India.

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