Let’s find out our own Kashmir

Kashmir valley which once used to be called the heaven on earth is nowhere in existence now. I have lost my homeland, my motherland, Kashmir because all of us, the stake holders of the valley degraded our own society and culture; we left no stone unturned to carry out this fatal misdeed. We lost our identity and even forgot how to respect the dignity of our women folk. We are inhumanely so much busy in our own personal lives that we had gone very much blind to see our homeland smouldering and our society and culture sullying day by day. It’s very abstruse, why we are having obscurity in carving out a superior beautiful nation from our homeland, Kashmir. But we are always reluctant to give up our callous approach towards our culture and society. We once used to have here, ‘Kashmiriyat’ but it’s nowhere visible now. It has faded away with the passage of time and our incline towards the modern world. As the clock is running, we are going familiar to the events which are morally demeaning society of Kashmir. We have gone so much involved in earning our livelihood that the situation has now reached to that extent where couple of rapes and murders in a week is not a big matter for us; it’s shameful for all of us that we are not competent to protect the dignity of our sisters and mothers, we are not able to get justice for our brothers killed in cold blood. Whether it was double rape-murder incident of Shopian or recent murders of Amina Masoodi of Kupwara or Asrar Mushtaq of Maisuma, these things have now become part and parcel of our society. In Kupwara murder case, the culprit is not an outsider he is one among us, he is a Kashmiri. So it’s high time to largely think over this ongoing degradation of our society. While living in this atmosphere, a day will arrive when raping a woman or murder will become an ordinary thing in Kashmir. I hadn’t ever imagined my Kashmir having liquor shops, but it’s factual, they are selling liquor to my own people and eventually killing the spirit of my vale. The liquor stuff being sold in valley has a unique label, “For sale in J&K only” pasted on it. It means this noxious thing is particularly meant for my Kashmir to slaughter the so called heaven on earth. My Kashmir having sex scandals and porn being distributed through internet and mobile phones to every young mind of my vale is a big grief for all of us, but we have become mute spectators, we are not able to take any initiative to eradicate this wild menace from our society. We have losing command on our children; we get them whatever they want despite looking towards their age. We are losing our young generation to the modern materialistic things. We never teach them how to preserve our culture and society, how to contribute for our nation. We have created such a society where our children are learning how to light cigarettes and drink liquor, how to take drugs, how to watch porn, how to tease their colleagues and involve themselves in many other bad deeds. Can’t anyone envisage the once called heaven on earth changing into hell on universe? Do we care for our homeland Kashmir; come on my dear friends it’s our own motherland, why can’t we stand for its cause? I think it was well written by Uzma Falak in her article “In the name of change” (GK- 09-07-2009) that, “Lets rise and stand up to save our culture, our antiquity, our unique identity, lets us all feel proud to be kashmiri. After all it’s not my Kashmir, it’s not your Kashmir, and it’s our own homeland, our own mother land.” I salute to the writer as at least someone is there who has feeling for her homeland and wants to preserve its culture. I think if we can’t be true followers of our religion, Islam, at least we can try to be true followers of humanity. By making ourselves better we can make our society better. As well said by William Shakespeare, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” So we have to change our thinking as soon as we can, its then after that we can craft a morally good society around us. We have to contribute to our nation in any mean, we have to help others. We always live for own selves but try to live for the happiness of others. Allah in The Holy Quran says, “Worship Allah and join none with Him in worship, and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, Al-Masakin (the poor), the neighbour who is near of kin, the neighbour who is a stranger, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (you meet), and those (slaves) whom your right hands possess. Verily, Allah does not like such as are proud and boastful.” (Ch: 4, Verse: 36) It’s not time to blame each other, it’s time to mend out the loop holes in our kashmir, it’s time to wake up from the slumber and lift the weight of our degrading kashmir on our souls and hearts and try to return its charm of heaven again. We have to build a society which can be an example for the whole world. We have to start it today because life gives us very less time to do such things. We have lost our Kashmir and we have to find it anyhow, it’s our duty as we are the sons and daughters of this soil. So, let’s find out our own Kashmir!