When I happen to see the face of Omar
Abdullah, I am reminded of an old adage: “Plant an expectation; reap a
disappointment.” In 2009 elections, we prudent Kashmiris, planted an
expectation that the youngest Chief Minister would transform our state into a
real democracy, far away from the evils like corruption, red tape, human rights
violation, etc.
And, adage had to be proved right –
otherwise it would not have been called adage – so today whole Kashmir,
particularly youth are floating into a sea of disappointments. A common
disappointment that I look on youths’ face is regarding their lives. Often my
friends say: “I don’t have guts to come out of my home in evenings”: “I won’t
go into my farm lands lonely.” I too am very scared of wandering too far away
from my house lonely, because I do not want to die a death: labeled terrorist
and my face burned!
Youth are disappointed because they have
got no jobs, and if some have got they are not content, because they deserve better.
Many educated youth after ascending the ladder of degrees are hopeless and yell
with a painful sigh: “I think I’ll not get any job.” Therefore, the clinics of
Depression Doctors get crowded day by day. The intensity of the disappointment
is so high that engineers are applying for Class 4th jobs! And,
students who have just passed Matriculation exams are getting them! (Last year
a pursuing engineer was called for interview for a Class 4th job in
Pulwama district!) Regarding me, one among the forty three thousand youths
promised to be engaged in different government departments, have been engaged
to sing following lines, continuously to alleviate any pain:
Bribes
I can’t pay
Bureaucrat,
no relative of mine is
I’m
rotting, knowledge in my head
Please
help me, attain
A
peaceful death!
And, if a Kashmiri is not
disappointed with Bijli and Pani services, he certainly would not be a
Kashmiri! While emailing these words to the editor, at least four times, Bijli
shut her eyes (and thirty times I muttered galis!). Pani supplied
into our houses blushes when someone calls it drinking-pani. When white
clothes are washed in it, they turn miraculously dusty coloured.
Common man is
confused in the Battle of Panipat against inflation. From past few months fares
are rising constantly, after every three months. Name of onions scares a below-middle-class-level
man. Professional education has become very expensive in our state.
Traffic chaos on
our roads, particularly, Srinagar-Jammu highway has become a flower adorning the
current government’s garden. There is high level of poor regulation and the
condition of roads is like a ploughed land plot.
Justice nowhere
exists in the dictionary of our governments. The promoters of the highest
moral-song that: if somebody slaps your right face, bow your left face to him, burn
the faces of slain persons who are yet to be confirmed of any militancy! Freedom
of Speech has become a nightmare for Kashmiris. We are denied even peaceful
public gatherings and assemblies.
Many and more,
we are in troubles, that have not been because of outsiders, our own are its
pillars and constructors. All the disappointments are gifts of our own people.
From corruption to injustice, our own bloods are the perpetrators. How can we blame, then, others? How can their
faces refresh our eyes?
Now, my
expectation is that after a few more months of Omar’s administration, his photo
might remind me of ghosts! He has hastened the day of reckoning. Don’t worry
Mr. Abdullah. It’s not your fault. When the collapse of our state takes place
the Indian government might even let you keep your job.
by Sameer Ahmad
