Kashmir
I felt that people in Kashmir are little suspicious before opening up to a stranger and they must be. Not everyone will understand what they go through in daily life. “Everyone of our generation has been beaten up at least once for no reason.” A man of around 45 years told us. “Years ago a group of military men came to our village and lectured us on facing the “militants”. One of us answered back, ‘Sir, they have guns just like you. How are we meant to stop them.’ The officer ordered him to step forward and asked his soldiers to kill his fear. They beat him up to the soul. That happens with hundreds of us daily. You can’t live like that everyday.”
On our visit to Kashmir, when we told them that we were from Punjab. They got comfortable with us immediately. “You’re one of us. We are in the same boat” they said accompanied by a lopsided smile and then got going, sharing the sorrows.
And a boy who’s barely 5, once saw army men inquiring his father about something. He walked up to them and asked them to leave. One of the soldiers asked him, ‘aren’t you afraid of the military men?’ To which he replied, ‘why should I be afraid, I’m in my house living my life. It’s you guys who are sneaking up on us. You should be afraid of us.’
























