The Burning Birthplace

Jammu and Kashmir is burning again, in inextinguishable flames fanned by people with selfish and anti-national motives. Some separatists have once again resorted to the worst chicanery to create the ripples of unrest and violence in the Kishtwar district of the state. Some children, who do not even understand what nationalism is all about, are out on lanes mouthing slogans against India, participating in a battery of protests against the country they live in.  

My love for the state goes beyond this inhuman and insensitive politics of alienation that has consumed the state now. Jammu is my birthplace and I do not think more reasons are needed to justify my inestimable love for the state. I was a kid when my father, who was then posted in the state as an Indian Army jawan guarding territories from perpetrators and terrorists, was transferred to another state from Jammu. But he still talks about those beautiful days with as fondness as some years ago. I also feel proud to say I was born in the most beautiful and exotic Indian state, Jammu and Kashmir.

There are hoards of memories I wish to relive when I reminisce past experiences. I just wonder how happy my parents would be when they would have seen me taking my first, little steps! My mother would be on cloud nine when she would have heard me uttering my first word ‘Maa’. These and other reminiscences overflow my heart when I cogitate about olden days. It has been years since I have not seen the state, but the sense of belonging is still as strong and firm as it would have been at the age when I  was in Jammu and did not have any idea of what the materialist world is all about.

A feeling of pang arises in my heart when I see heartrending and tear jerking pictures and visuals of Jammu & Kashmir burning. It remains beyond my understanding how an ounce of spark ignites passions and violence in the state known for its charm and pulchritude. Who are those people who can think of spraying poison in the air instead of love and harmony on an occasion as auspicious as Eid? Why cannot they live together with peace and brotherhood? Where they derive the strength which fillips them to raise mordacious slogans against the country they earn their bread and butter from? Do their hands never shake while raising their hands to pelt their own people with stones? How long the common man in J&K would suffer just because our government fails to curb the terrorism? Quantum of questions is endless and answers are always elusive. They have been, I guess, that way since eons.