KASHMIRI YOUTH MOVEMENTनागे��हाराय ��लोचनायभ�मा�रागाय महे�राय

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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 I V O L 5

MY IDENTITY THE SHIKARA REVIEW BACK TO SCHOOL

WHAT'S INSIDE?

H E R A T H P O S H T E

Shivratri (Herath)Shivratri is the crown of our festivals, and is spread over a full fortnight of thePhalguna month. Among the Kashmiri Pandits this is known as Herath, a phonetic derivation ofHar-ratri the night of Hara (Shiva). It is a socio-religious function that is the very part of our life. It isbelieved that every Kashmiri girl is a Parvati and is wedded to Shiva. The Shivratri symbolises thewedding of the two, and on this occasion the Bhairavas and other Ganas accompanying Lord Shivaare fed with choicest dishes up to the fill and to their satisfaction. Shiva Ratri is the integrating force of the Sanatana Dharma, popularly known as Hinduism. ShivaRatri is the essence of the Yajur Veda, where Shiva is adored as Rudra, Shambhava, Bhava andHara. Shiva Ratri is a spiritual journey from Hara state of mind to the Bhava state of existence. It isa spiritual journey from Samsara to Moksha. Shiva Sankalpa Mantra helps a devotee to see theVatuka Bhirava from the subjective existence to the objective realization in identifying one’s ownself with the Universal consciousness of Bhagavan Shiva. The first Sutra/aphorism of the ShivaSutra teaches the Eternal Truth that Consciousness is the Atman/self. Vatuka Raja- Vatak Raz is theconsciousness of Shiva.Walnuts as it is called Doon in Kashmiri language is an integral part of the Vedic injunction in theKashmiri Pandit religious ethos. Walnut in any Homa is essential ingredient of the Samagri.Kashmiri Pandit Puja consists of three integrated streams of the Vedic, Puranic and Agamicsystems. It has been so, as to make the Puja Yogic in spirit, mystic in theme and ritualistic inpattern.Who taught us this methodology of Anushthhana system? It was the great LAUGAKSHSIRishi of Kashmir, who gave the popular Paddati, with regard to Homa/ Yagnya, Pakshayagya andAnushthhans.In every Kashmiri Pandit Religious Anushthana, we need to invoke the KalashaPurusha,with mystic diagrams to be drawn by the Rice flour. The Yantras differ from onedeliberation to another. The Kalasha are of two types. The First is the Brahma Kalasha and theother is the Indra Kalasha. Brahma Kalasha is purely the Hiranya garbha, which needs to beinvoked through the Atharva Vedic Ganapati Avahan, followed by the Panchayatan Deva VedicSuktas of Ganesha, Surya Vishnu, Shiva and Devi. The Puranic Mantras are also recited duringinvocation, followe by the Tantric Bijaksharas. You know it well, that Kalash Doon is highly reveredand is the First Naivedya after the Hasta Phalam/ Athi Phol’u is offered and Shanti Mantras arerecited. This is known as the Achhidra of the Deliberationa/Anushthhanam. The walnuts areoffered to the Kalasha Purusha, because Walnut is the Ritu Phalam of Kashmir, which are easilyavailable in the whole cycle of the year. Offering of Ritu Phalam is purely Puranik in substance, as itis the fifth step in the Panch Upchara Puja.Shiva is eternal existence and, therefore, the Supreme Truth. He is free of bondages, devoid ofattributes, all pervading and yet above everything (Ati tishthat dashangulam). He is Conscience(Chit) and Bliss (Ananda). Everything emanates from Him and everything merges with Him. Heanswers the form of Brahma and with the attribute of Rajas (Rajoguna) creates the universe. Heassumes the form of Rudra and with the attribute of Tamas (Tamoguna) destroys the creation. Inbetween He assumes the form of Vishnu and with the attribute of Saiva (Satoguna) looks after andpreserves the creation. He is free to desire, to manifest and to act but all this needs energy orpower and that takes the form of Shakti which in essence is itself an aspect of Shiva. SometimesShiva propitiates Shakti and She enters Him to enable Him to perform five acts of knowing (Jnan),desiring (Iccha), implementing (Kriya), concealing or covering (Pidana) and showering His grace(Anugraha). While explaining the importance of Bhawani Sahasranama Shiva says to His favouritedevotee, Nandi, "It is the grace of Bhawani that I have been able to create the entire universe,humans, animals, birds, devas, asuras, gandharvas, stars, planets, flora and fauna, et al."

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 | V O L 5

MY IDENTITYA M I T S H A R M A

I am kashmir

sitting between Great Himalayas and pir panjal range,

Robbed of my history by greedy men,

the

Land once known for Hinduism and Buddhism

Is now known for slogans of freedom and blood.

Nothing is left for the children to come

except for these rocks and Kalashnikov

These chinara have seen the pundits leaving and being brutally killed

And so has the half widows and disappearance

I've welcomed people of all religions

Therefore,

I do not hate people, &

Do not wish to see pellet guns, and

Kalashnikov in hands of yound blood

I've not breathed in peace in decades

And I've eaten the flesh of unknowns

for they are buried in my chest without names.

But beware of my resilience now

And this bloodbath has to stop.

I yearn for the love, and no more longing now

So come into my land once

with smiles and love,

let the displaced find their homes.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 I V O L 5

THE SHIKARAREVIEWBY MANISH MISHRA, KRITI BRARI AND JHELUM VOHRA

The story narrates the travesty of 1991 Kashmiri societal upheaval of Exodus of Pandits under the guise ofreligion and gun. Understanding that non kashmiries would probably like to see it as a cinematic experiencethan a documentary... the plot takes the help of a romantic couple at its core and their struggle to survive,from imminent death to some semblance of normal life beyond the exodus. For many non Kashmiri who neverknew this part of history ... it does the job of making the subject known and ends at a point where any normalperson would have moist in their eyes at closing bell. Perhaps it could have been made better. But then it would have rendered it as documentary drama - andpossibly limiting the size of the audience. There isn’t much room left in 2 hours of run time to fully evolve thisintense subject to its desired attributes. And audiences or theatres don’t generally appreciate a 3 hour longmotion picture these days. Shikara for me was a learning experience and I am thankful that I got theopportunity to watch it. It has laid the foundation as soft landing, of a very painful part of our history, for anyfuture - more in depth movie on this subject. So there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the movie which is loosely based on the exodus of Kashmiripandits- Shikara. I happen to watch the movie today and was asked to pen down my experience. Being aKashmiri pandit myself, I was brought up in such an environment where my grandmother used to tell me a lotabout our heritage and culture and whose heart always ached for home; for Kashmir. So it’s quiet obvious thatthe expectations from the movie Shikara were quiet high. Interestingly the director chose to give prominenceto the aftermath of the exodus; while carefully navigating between all the violence and the atrocities thatwere showered upon the Kashmiri pandits by the so called “friends” the Kashmiri Muslims. It hurt a bitbecause the rawness of the whole scenario was considerably mellowed down. On a whole the movie Shikaraunearthed emotions that were so strong that the viewing of the movie became impossible without few tearstrickling down my eyes. Survival was the show stopper of the movie. Shikara will break your heart and at thesame time will make you fall in love with it. 'A Love Letter from Kashmir' was a more suitable subtitle than 'The Untold Story of Kashmiri Pandits'. Thefilm is a story of two lovers; it is not even 5% of the horror KPs witnessed thirty years ago. Rahul Pandita,being a victim of Islamic Radicals, has created a much much much better narrative in Our Moon Has BloodClots than this film. I might have met just a few Kashmiri Pandits, but what they have described is moreterrible than shown in the film. It is Bollywood after all. Shikara is a two hour long love-story and Our MoonHas Blood Clots is a life of a person who saw the hatred at its worst. Since it was officially declared that the film is NOT based on RP's book, there is no point of comparing thetwo. But as they have used the subtitle 'The Untold Story of Kashmiri Pandits' and I have had RP's life-story inmy heart and mind for almost five months while translating it into my language, the comparison is obvious forme. But for those who have no idea about what happened in Kashmir in 1990, I would strongly recommend thisfilm. If you want to have some idea about Kashmir 1990, watch Shikara; if you want to know and understandthat 1990 was not the first but the seventh exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, read Our Moon Has Blood Clots.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 I V O L 5

“Kyazi”?“Kyazi ki me chu byon nyerun!”Me and my brother enacted this scene from the DD Kashir serial “Haarmaal” so often that for an extendedtime period everyone in my family would reply a “Kyazi” with a “Kyazi ki me chu byon nyerun. It wasespecially amusing to hear my brother say it in his broken Kashmiri with messed up pronunciation. Howeverentertaining listening to today’s kids speak Kashmiri may sound, the reality of the situation is almost heartbreaking. I was the first-born of a typical Kashmiri household with parents and grandparents, fondly known as Tathajiand Baibi. (Derivative of it, but definitely not the Hindi Bhabhi; not even Babi -- it has to be Baibi) Because Ispent majority of my time with and around my grandparents, the only mode of communication I learnt as akid was the Kashmiri language. My dad had this habit of recording my voice secretly while I blabberedaround, so listening to the recordings of my conversations, limericks and Koshur leelas with the childishinnocence sounds surreal to me today. I was famous in my extended family as the kid who knew shlokas andKoshur bhajans by heart. What exciting times. It is almost unbelievable for me to imagine a time whenKashmiri was the only language I knew. As I grew older and went to school, I started indulging more in English and Hindi and consequently thefluency of my Kashmiri started getting corrupted. So much so that I almost entirely started conversing inHindi at home. My parents had also entirely shifted to Hindi with me; and even though Tathaji and Baibicontinued speaking in Kashmiri, I started replying to them in Hindi. When my brother came along, he grewup with the foundation of Hindi being the staple language of the household with sporadic bouts of Kashmiriby the grandparents. I think I was in 5th standard when I started reading a Kashmiri storybook written by myuncle Mr. M.K Raina who was and still is an active promoter of Kashmiri language. Those days he had freshlypublished a Kashmiri storybook called “Tsok Modur” which found a curious reader in a 10-year-old child.One day my grandfather heard me reading one of the stories aloud while we were collectively basking in thesun on our terrace. He was so elated listening to me that he promised to pay me Rs. 10 for every Kashmiristory I read to him. Parallelly, my dad also started a scheme for us siblings offering rewards for a full spokenday of Kashmiri. These new attractive proposals put me back on track. I participated wholeheartedly becauseof the sheer joy of being able to revive my lost language skills, and also because it was fun and easy way ofmaking quick pocket money! My brother struggled a lot, but he tried his best. Subsequently the moneyrewards didn’t last, but our habit of speaking in Kashmiri with elders of the family did; although we still laughat my brother’s pronunciation!I was very jealous of my Kashmiri Muslim classmates who spoke Kashmiri with great clarity amongstthemselves. On the other hand, I had some Kashmiri Pandit friends and cousins who were almostembarrassed of speaking in Kashmiri publicly. Seeing other Maharashtrian, Gujarati, Tamil kids speak to theirparents in their mother tongue while Kashmiri kids fumbled even trying one sentence upset me. Today I seenew age Kashmiri parents conversing with their children in nothing but English. Those kids can hardly speakfluent Hindi, let alone Kashmiri. Kashmiri mothers are proud of their kids these days, flaunting the fact thatthey can understand 5 instructions in Kashmiri. Personally, maintaining my fluency sometimes becomes achallenge when I go out of spoken Kashmiri practice for some time. I’m sure many other young Kashmirismust have experienced something similar, and we cannot really blame ourselves. After 30 years of exodusand having to forcefully scatter all over the country, Pandits have arrived at a generation who is morecomfortable in the respective local languages, somehow able to understand their mother tongue but unableto speak it. Seeing the current scenario, possibility of what might happen 30 years down the line makes meanxious. It is really exciting and gives me hope to see young KPs of today taking initiatives such as thisnewsletter to preserve our beautiful culture. What we must also remember is that language is an importantpart of our culture which also needs to be nurtured. I hope more parents of today encourage their kids tospeak in Kashmiri at home, and more young KPs make efforts to overcome this unfortunate language barrierbetween us and our motherland. For kids born post exodus, Kasher zabaan can be a soothing assertor of ourotherwise messed-up identities.

CROSSING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER

By Vidushi Dembi

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 I V O L 5

Donning uniforms after nearly seven months, thousands of students on Monday turned up at their schools thatre-opened across the Kashmir Valley after remaining shut since August last due to the situation followingabrogation of Article 370 and winter vacation.All security arrangements were put in place for the students toattend schools, officials said.The students were happy to be back at the schools after remaining home all thesemonths.It is a good feeling to be back at the school, to attend my class, in fact a new class, after so many months,a smiling Ziya Javed, student of Class 6 at a private school here, said.Javed said the students felt bored at homeand it was exciting to be among friends and classmates once again.There was not much to do at the home. It wasboring to sit, not do much all these months and wait for the schools to re-open. Finally, there is some excitement,he said.The only time the students or their parents had visited the schools in the last few months was to eithercollect or submit their home assignments in the absence of any classes.I had gone to the school a few times inthese past months to collect assignments, but there were no classes. I wanted to attend the classes because Iwant to study and become a doctor, Numaan, a class 4 student, said. Abid BhatTeachers expressed hope of agood year ahead so that students get uninterrupted education, saying the education of the children suffered lastyear due to the situation in the valley.Without getting into the politics, I want to say that children’s educationsuffered last year. I want regular, uninterrupted education for students this year and hope there are nodisruptions this year, a teacher at a private school in the city here said, wishing not to be identified.While thegovernment had made several efforts last year to re-open schools in a phased manner following the Centre’sdecision to do away with Jammu and Kashmir’s special provisions, its attempts failed to bear any fruit as parentskept their wards at home due to apprehensions about their safety.Towards the end of the year, few schoolsopened, but asked students to attend their classes without wearing school uniforms.Director School EducationKashmir, Mohammad Younis Malik has urged teachers to work with dedication for building capacities of studentsfor their better future.It is our responsibility to extend our support to them and redouble efforts to get theirsyllabus completed well in time, the director said.He has instructed field officers to visit schools regularly tomonitor the follow up of academic planner for timely accomplishment of set targets.