Exiled from paradise

Couple of year ago, I visited Switzerland, and like a typical Indian, who has had an overdose of Yash Chopra / Karan Johar movies, I believed that I have seen the most beautiful place on earth and all the beauty that nature has to offer ! But this summer, everything changed, during my first ever visit to Kashmir. I don’t have words to express the beauty of the place. For the first time in my life, I realised that true beauty, in its supreme form, can actually move you to tears.

While I was there, I came across places like, Srinagar, Anantnaag, Chandanwadi, and wondered, that why would a predominantly Muslim state have such beautiful Hindu names for their towns and cities? And it occurred, of course the Kashmiri Pandits! For the rest of the journey, there was a nagging thought, all the time, at the back of mind – What exactly happened to the people who belonged to this beautiful place? They have been here for a long, long time and suddenly they vanished, leaving behind traces of their past.

In the months that followed, I read so many, many tales of horror. Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits were selectively killed and others were massacred. Women were kidnapped, killed, raped or converted. Men were killed in the middle of night. Even children were not spared. There was a campaign of intimidation and harassment against them by militant outfits. By 1990, about 3,50,000 Pandits were driven away from their homes and homeland. Many of them had to stay in refugee camps under inhuman conditions for years. But because, it was a small community with no vote bank, nobody bothered and nobody cared. It is unimaginable for most of us to leave our homes and the place where our family has lived for generations and live like refuges, homeless and ignored, in our own country. As of now, only about 4000 Pandits are living in the valley.

For the first time, in so many years, the present Indian government has promised to make efforts to ensure that the Kashmiri Pandits return to their homeland, the land of their ancestors, with full dignity, security and assured livelihood. And I really hope, that this time, we as a nation, stand up for them.

And by the way, let me tell you this, our very own Kashmir is way more beautiful than a thousand Switzerlands put together !!