Who's more Damaging? A cynic or A Collaborator?

With a few more espresso bars inaugurated this week, I wonder who these traitors are, spoiling every nook and corner of our sinless land! After all what does a Kashmiri know about a bistro or a grill? And, what pleasure can an average Kashmiri draw from reading a book on an island while he takes slow sips from his coffee mug? We aren’t that hip. We aren’t that classy. Moreover, a start- up requires courage and insight. We don’t have any, do we? So, who’s financing all these collaborators…oops! Entrepreneurs, I mean?  I am sorry all you young boys and girls, I don’t see any of you pursuing your passion or living your dream. These are such clichéd arguments. I smell rat.

No, I don’t.

Asides’ being torn to shreds in a decades long undeclared war between the twin nations of Nehru and Jinnah, our beloved land has mainly fallen prey to our everlasting sense of cynicism. Distrust and pessimism is an ailment that carves out flesh from the most resolute.  Since ages, we have mastered the art of pouring scorn on each other and we rather enjoy doing it. It’s alright to pull a leg as long as it adds humour to a story but it’s distressing when we start putting serious question marks on the ability of our talented youth. Because when we raise a finger at them, with intent, we disfigure the face of the land we love the most.  Our spirited young are our hope, our future. Our gifted young are our pride. And, our young are our flag-wavers, not collaborators.

Difference in opinion is a sign of an evolving nation but this difference should not become a barrier to a common cause. If it does, it’s a matter of concern. Faesalians are our flesh and blood. Atherism is our pride and identity. Parveezology is no alien science. And, let’s not even try to have any such unnecessary label for our budding entrepreneurs, please. The act is off-putting.  Speaking of ideologies, it’s arrogant to expect that every other person should agree with yours. Your opinion is no gospel truth. Your ideology can’t be the final one. Ideologies and opinions are shaped by circumstances and we have all been through a different set.

I am a Kashmiri and I chant azaadi. I chant azaadi and I dream azaadi. This ideology has been shaped by a childhood memory, a memory of 90s wherein an army man fitted his gun on my father’s chest. He would have pulled the trigger if I didn’t pull off a monkey act in time. I screamed and jumped towards my father giving some more time to the army man to rethink his act. I was lucky and I didn’t lose my father because of a cruel army man and thus I chant azaadi. I always will as the ideology has been designed by many such circumstances. Now consider this, if someone claiming to die for my azaadi ate food in my house and then before leaving shot my father dead, would I be chanting azaadi? No, I wouldn’t be. No one with such a painful childhood memory would be. And, as unpalatable as it may be, the truth is that many among us live with such haunting memories.  If I were one among them, I don’t know what my chants and dreams would be about. I don’t know if I would be even chanting and dreaming anything.

We have suffered in varied ways. So, instead of umpiring, instead of raising fingers, we need to accommodate all the shades of pain we all have been through. No doubt our pain is real, the political mess we are in, is real but so is our talent. The bloodshed of the last two decades hasn’t diminished our lifestyle. Our bungalows have grown bigger and our wazwan has had quite a few additions every other year. Then, why demonise the achievers?

Appreciate and embrace. If you can’t, just keep quite. Criticism at the drop of a hat won’t take us anywhere and we have a long walk ahead.

P.S :- I am an emotional fool and this one is straight from the heart. Sorry to disappoint for I haven’t gathered any data from the British raj days.