Humko Maloom Hai Jannat Ki Haqeqat Lekin .....

Below are the excerpts of my mail sent to my friend (name has been changed), who was moving to the US with his family. At that time I was posted at Udhampur overviewing certain constructions. The mail was sent on Feburary 12, 2003; despite over 7 years now the situation in Kashmir has only gone from bad to worse.

Udhampur, J&K.

Feb 12, 2003

Dear Akhil,

Good to hear about your decision of moving to the US of A with bhabhiji and kids. All the best and Njoy!!

These days I'm in Dharti ka Jannat- Kashmir. Its on account of an official visit that I am here. Internet access is not so frequent here and so I do get down to it whenever possible. The place and people here are beautiful. No doubt it was known as the Jannat on Earth. Though there certainly are some things which one cannot help feeling bad about. The plight of the localites is bad. And bad means bad. Poverty looms large. They are very dedicated and hardworking folks and with no means of livelyhood. Perhaps thats the condition with most of India.

Being and living with the Army people is not so safe here. They are the prime targets. Its advisable not to venture out with them much. The uniformed people have been deployed here for too long a time now and that has also resulted in various types of exploitations. Empathetically speaking I cannot blame them from taking to wrong means just as I became a supporter of Phoolan Devi on seeing the movie.

At first we had all Bihari labourers but then I replaced them all with the Kashmiris. They are much more dedicated and needy. Today being Eid almost all of them were on leave though. They were even inviting me to visit them at their villages in the remote of Kashmir. I was even tempted to go but then being a vegetarian it would have been difficult for me.

You know the other day I trekked for over 15 Km in various villages around. Both the localites and the security personnels were watching me with suspicious eyes. I wonder when and how this place will come back to normalcy.

At this time I feel bad taking the sides of the terrorists the so called terrorists against my own soldiers but sometimes you cannot distinguish between the terrorists and the terrorised. Its all so confusing. I can see that these faces of Khurshid, Naushad, Bashir, Gul Mohammed may be in some of the newspaper headline as dreaded criminals which we may not even stop to have a re look. But is life that cheap, should life be that cheap. They can be harnessed to better productive works but how is a big question.

Better not to ponder much about it. I am an Indian and would continue to be with the mainland people for "...Dil ki Kushh Rakhne ko Gaalib Yeh Khhayaal Achchha Hai."

Best regards,

Anupam.

Developing Roots

From Kuhuks Visit to Jim Corbett National Park

I always feel that an individual is like a tree. Wherever he goes he needs to develop roots so as to be able to stand upright. By developing roots I mean, the individual needs to visit the hinterlands of the area he is moved to, so that he is able to aclimatize himself with the surroundings.

I have recently moved to Varanasi with a new assignment and now at times I do get time to sit back an realize. Realize, the opportunities I enjoy of being able to develop roots in so many different parts of this great country India. I have travelled out of my home since 1994 but it was when I joined MBA at Indore that I started realizing the importance of developing these roots.

During those days my grandfather was staying at Jhansi, at my uncle's and I used to visit them quite often. Once I remember, my grandfather mentioning to me that even the trees in around Jhansi do not seem familiar to what we had been accustommed of seeing at Allahabad. It was then I made a resolve to make myself familiar to the surrounding flora and fauna of wherever I dwell.

Since then I have stayed at so many places for work from Indore to Kolkata to Pune to Delhi to Bangalore to back to Delhi. My stay at Kolkata was short and thus I was not able to develop roots around the place but I can proudly say that I have loved each and every place I worked or each and every place I could develop roots.