An Answer

So, a lot of people have been asking, what is the reason for being critical of the 'warmest place on earth' ad by J and K Tourism?
Do I hate it?
Here is the answer.
No, I don't. It's a beautiful advertisement & everyone associated has worked really hard on it. Moreover our tourism industry badly needed a booster like this.
Then?
I despise all the oratory around the slogan by quasi- liberals. Apparently, Kashmir is the beloved they can't stop falling in love with! These are not ordinary people. Their voices matter and their voices can make a change. You can see the impact their endorsement has had on the popularity of this ad. 

Lamentable as it is, these voices turn soundless whenever the future of their 'beloved' Kashmir is blinded and maimed.
No one among them can imagine, what a struggle life is for a half-widow. Even if anyone does, the impression, unsaid and unstated, will freeze to death.
They don't make attempts to look into the creases and crinkles on the faces of the mothers of disappeared Kashmiris. After all what's romantic about that?
Do they know how many Mir Sahabs have shouldered the coffins of their sons? They do but gullibility is worth a portrayal, grief isn't.
Gulmarg and Pahalgam need tourists but we will not forget KunanPoshpora.
Yes, our doors are open for excursionists but, for God's sake, don't make it look like we have forgiven you for the mass migrations orchestrated by Dogras and a certain Governor!
Now, what kind of a lover maintains sordid silence when the beloved is in pain? This superficial love affair everyone claims to have with Kashmir is the reason of hostility towards the advertisement. Wrong or right, I don't know but that's how I feel about it.
I kept ignoring the question all this time and the idea of writing an answer was conceived this morning while I was driving on a highway and a military convoy was moving in an opposite direction. Flashing their headlights, gesturing the language of oppression with their hands, they wanted the whole road to themselves. Some advertisements and their exaggerated endorsement can make a wrong impression on a military mind! But, we no longer are the population we used to be many moons ago. Our resilience is unstoppable. It was hard but I, along with the rest of the traffic, kept moving.

The point; if you truly believe, Kashmir is the warmest beloved on earth, can you please tend to it whenever winter strikes!


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