This is the first book in my life where i started sobbing from its very first page "…an earlier time when flower was not stained and with blood ,the moon with blood clots!” - Pablo Neruda, ‘Oh, My Lost City'
This book has left me deeply pained and my heart has broken into pieces, not at a go-- but chunk by chunk …chapter by chapter. This book should be made a mandatory read for all college students(all streams), because Kashmir is in India and each one of us must know its story the way we know about Babri Masjid and Godhra kand. Many Thanks to Rahul for writing this book.
The book forced me to think; that what mistake did the pandits do?are they the children of a lesser god?Why the pact made between Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and J L Nehru turned out to be a joke and government did nothing for those innocent people who have been forced to leave their homes and live in exile in their own country?Why in India anyone can say anything against Hindus but it is a political sin to say negative about muslims?What makes them think that hindus can never be wronged - Political convenience, is it? Why this double standards? Why. Why. Why?
Anyone who has not witnessed and undergone this pain can never understand that how it feels to be thrown out from one’s own ancestral house. What it takes to live under constant pressure of “flee,convert or die” and what it means to see people/family being killed in cold blood by those who till yesterday was sharing lives in more ways than just one. Traumatised to learn that how muslims of the valley colluded with the militants to terrorise the Pandits. A complete ‘Bloodlust’. Pandita has given so many examples where neighbours ,childhood friends colleagues gave vital information about the pandits to the militants. In one such incident B K Ganju who found his name in the ‘hit list’ and decided to flee with his wife, but it was late as militant had already come looking for him, he hid himself in the rice drum, they couldn’t find him so they left but the very moment they were prompted by the muslim lady in the neighbourhood. The men returned and shot B K Ganju inside the drum.As they were coming down Mrs ganju asked them to kill her too on which they said ’No someone should be left to wail over his dead body’.
Another such story was that of the Kashmiri poet and scholar Sarvanand Kaul ‘Premi’ who was secular to the core , had won many accolades and had taught for free in two schools , one run by the Islamic and the other by the Hindu educational Society.He and his son was taken by three armed men one night. Family waited but they never returned.Their bodies were found hanging from a tree a day later.
Reading that how muslim boys of the valley went for training in camps in POK and had arms, i wonder to myself that instead, if they would have supported the pandits in the valley Our Moon Would Not Have Blood Clots Today.
So Ugly, So Painful.
This reminds me of the famous song from the movie ‘Upkaar’ sung by Manna Dey---
Duniya wale tera bankar tera hi dil todenge , dete hai bhagwan ko dhokha , insaan ko kya chhodenge,
kasmei waade pyar wafa sab, Baatei hain baato ka kya
Kam agar ye hindu ka hai, Mandir kisnei thoda hai ,
Muslim ka hai kaam agar ye , khuda ka ghar kyu toota hai,
jis majhab mei jayaz hai ye , WO MAJHAB HI JHOOTA HAI.
kasmei waade pyar wafa sab, Baatei hain baato ka Kaya
Pandita has vividly described that how valley had spiralled beyond control because of the war cries from the mosque like - ‘Aazadi ka matlab kya la ilaha illalaha’ ‘Yahan kya chalega nizam e mustafa’ and ‘Ae zaalimon, ae kafiron, Kashmir hamara chod do’ became a routine and how everyday after Jan 19 was Jan 19th, how in the name of ‘Azadi’ the pandits were hounded on the streets and killed brutally. A night when Jagmohan (governor of the valley) failed to do anything to prevent the exodus of the Pandits.It was a night where neighbours turned against neighbours, friends against friends and humanity rogered. Rahul has exposed the lie by politicians about Pandits being safe in the valley post 1990 by narrating about March 1997 when terrorists dragged out 7 Kashmiri Pandits from their house in Sangrampora village and gunned them down ,the Wandhama massacre of 1998 where 23 members of one family were gunned down by the militants (only one 14 yr old boy ’Vinod Dhar' survived because he had hid himself) and how later he narrated the story where he mentioned that when guns were being fired the muslims of the village increased the volume of the loudspeaker in the mosque to muffle the sound of the gunfire, how police called muslim wailing women for photo ops. Similarly Nandigram massacre on march 24th 2003 where 24 hindus were shot dead which included 2 infants and 11 women.
My Moments with the book:
1.Romantic - 40 page letters to beloveds until the wee hours till the electric motor pump would be switched on.
2.Funny -'Mountains can fly ,rivers can dry,you can forget me , but never can I’.Reminded me of my school days where i got a similar so called proposal greeting. Basis my experience it was very embarrassing to receive such a note and therefore i think even if Rahul would have let the driver give that card to the girl she would have definitely said no :-)
3.Raged -a. In srinagar they would deliberately cut off electricity at the telecast time of Ramayan, and then later Mahabharat b. Rehman the milkman saying that ‘The Dal eating Indians cannot fight Pakistan'.
4 Heartwrenching - a. helplessness during mother’s motor neurone disease b.Ravi, the brother/first hero who was dragged out of the bus and shot dead.
5.Devastating - a. Revisiting his house built by his father’s provident fund money, brick by brick and seeing it occupied by Muslim there.
6.Saddest - no campaigns were run for the Pandits, no fellowships or grants given for research on their exodus and media failed to see and speak, the inhuman living condition of the refugees,the workplace harrasment which women faced and how they thought that each day by going to work they leave behind something of their identity.
7.Hope - People like Pandita and many others who have made their mission in life to talk about the ‘other story’ of Kashmir.
And yes Rahul Pandita! what you say to Irshad in your head will surely come true.Sooner or Later.
Thinking about Rahul Pandita i often wonder that how can people with such tortured heart have no hatred for those who have victimised them.He has written this book straight from his heart which is now stamped into ours.
This moment Javed Akhtar lyrics rings in my ears -
Lakh duniya kahe 'tum yahi ho'
Meri har soch me, meri har baat me
Mere ehsaas me, mere jazbaat me
Tumne chhoda hai kab saath mera
Thaame ho aaj bhi hath mera
Koi manzil koi rehguzar ho
Aaj bhi tum mere humsafar ho
Khushboo banke hawaaon me tum ho
Rang banke fizaaon me tum ho
Koi gaaye koi saans goonje
Sab sureeli sadaaon mein tum ho
Lakh duniya kahe 'tum yahi ho’
AND …….
'aql kehti hai ye duniya milti hai bazaar mei/dil magar ye kehta hai kuch aur behtar dekhiye'
