Arshid Malik

Kashmir has gone through very turbulent times and the people here have been subjected to oppression for ages now. But it is inspiring and at the same time very flummoxing to know that despite the decades of torture and pain, the people of Kashmir somehow stay calm and happy, at least a majority of them who manage their daily affairs in a manner as if they have seen no strife at all. What is this element that keeps them going beyond all odds? I believe it is not the people but the valley itself which is blessed and owing to that the people down here get to breathe easy.

Kashmir, since times immemorial, has played host to scores of civilizations, Saints and Seers, who visited this land during their journeys and eventually blessed this land with their formidable knowledge. In return they created a wealth internal to Kashmir – may not be seen with the naked eye – but it can be felt in the breeze here.

Kashmir has been referred as the “paradise on earth” and rightly so. But it is not just the scenic beauty, the majestic mountains and the water glades that have earned Kashmir such a title, but it is the intrinsic beauty of the land, the Ingrid knowledge wealth to which Kashmir is an abode. No matter how hard the oppressors tried to obfuscate the truth, Kashmir retained its intrinsic beauties that no man can rob or pillage.

The people of Kashmir, without knowing so, derive their strengths from the formidable wealth of knowledge that Kashmir has inherited over the centuries. No matter how hard the oppressor tried to “rape” the beauty of the land of Kashmir, they won’t ever be able to touch it. And so is the case of the people who reside here; they go on living life despite heavy losses suffered during the past few decades and perhaps more. But will this vast reserve of great wealth and blessedness that we have inherited as a people last us forever or have these resources began to dwindle.

It is not the man from outside, the suppressor who has succeeded in destroying all that comprises the valley of Kashmir and its abundant resources, but the people, yes the very people, who live here who have surpassed every oppressive regime, every targeted attack in destroying all that is or was our own. People have forgotten the vast reserves which they tap to stay happy and blessed and most of us now think that we have created the “magic” ourselves.

Our task was to add on to the vast reserves of knowledge that lays buried in Kashmir and all we have succeeded in doing is throwing our values to the winds. We cannot blame the oppressor for it is us, people here that have destroyed what was our own. All that we were blessed with, we chose to plunder our own wealth and soon there will be time when we would realize that it is not the outsider, but the man and woman who are known as Kashmiris who have chosen to bestow “evil” on that what was blessed and it won’t be long before we realize that we have lost it all.

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