Kashmir: The three sides

What India Thinks:

For India, Kashmir represents a crown on its head. The majestic mountains of Kashmir gives India the image of a beautiful country. It has always been a part of India and the prospect of a Kashmiri state is not acceptable for India. Its a shame India does not care as much about the Kashmiri people as it does for the land.

What Pakistan thinks:

For Pakistan, kashmir represents a part of themselves that was snatched away by unfair means. This caused widespread resentment since then and has been the main reason for the three wars that have been fought between the two countries. 60 years after independence, Pakisthan still tries to exert its influence on Kasmir. The fact that Pakistan cares about the people of Kashmir is agian really questionable.

What Kashmir thinks:

Kashmir has been a part of India for over 60 years and has since come to accept its position in India. The sheer number of army personnel deployed in Kashmir even in times of peace shows how important Kashmir is to India. But still the fact remains that the people of Kashmir have more in common with Pakisthan than they have with India. A single 2 lane road connects Kashmir to the rest of India. There isn't even a proper railway track between Jammu and Srinagar. The people of Kashmir have many relations across the border and want to maintain the relations. To them, India and Pakistan are the same. Considering the obsessive hatred of Pakistan by the rest of India, such attitude should be considered noteworthy.

Kashmiris believe they are a part of both India and Pakistan and there is not much sense in the fight over Kashmir. They live very simple lives. The men don't have much choice in profession. Most men join the tourism industry by serving either in boats or driving cabs or other such services. Others join BSF and the local police. There are not many notable educational institutions in Kashmir and most students leave the place to pursue higher education. People survive mostly on tourism here. Violence in Kashmir is the last thing people of Kashmir want. As such there is no endorsment of the state sponsored infiltration from Pakisthan in Kashmir. Violence in Kashmir spills the blood of Kashmiri people. It defeats the very purpose of infiltration attempts by Pakisthan. All that the people of Kasmir want is peaceful dialogue between the nations so that they can maintain their relations. Given the continued instability in Governance in Pakisthan and stubborn Indian attitude towards the issue, I doubt it if the people of Kasmir will be happy anytime soon.

Dogged

Look at them. Who would think something so pretty and innocent on the outside would be filled with hatred and malcontent inside. What did I ever do to them? In this life or the past life? The answer eludes me. Why choose this fateful day, it being a holiday, to extract revenge from me. And the time at which they choose to strike me! 5.30. 5 fucking 30. Who chooses to take revenge at 5.30 in the morning? Maybe it had something to do with what they were to do to me.

Every plan has a flaw. I have believed this fact with all my might all my life. Imagine my mindboggling, mindnumbing, mindbashing, mindthrashing, mindexploding shock when I realised that their plan had no flaws. What a plan! Even god's plan to create this universe was not so perfect. If there was a flaw, the limited one hundred billion neurons in my brain could not discover it. "The most destructive things in life are the most simple" how many times have I heard this. I could never understand it. Now I understand. 'Yelp and Run’. It was this simple. The most destructive, the most effective, the plan to surpass god's own plan of the universe, was this simple. There is only so much a man can do.

What was I doing? I was in my bed. Sleeping. Dreaming about princess charming who would come and sweep me off my feet. Little did I know about my impending predicament. It started as a yelp. A beating in my subconscious mind that would never die down. I was forced out of my slumber into the wakefulness of twilight. By what? Yelping. I sat confused, trying to figure out what was happening to me. Why was I awake? Who was torturing me? And why? I got off my bed, fumbled in the darkness for my slippers. I switched on the light and walked outside my room.

The sight I beheld. I had never seen anything like this in my life. I thought I saw angels, only they were devils. Cute little puppies they were. Eight of them. They had destroyed my sleep. Smouldering fires of hell rose inside me. I ran after them. They ran too. All in different directions.

No team of astronauts ever did function with such perfect teamwork as these puppies displayed. They taunted me and ran. I didn't know which one to chase. I hoped to catch their leader and put an end to their struggle. Only, I could not find their leader. They did not seem to have a leader. Each one of them was a leader in their own self. A leader who led them with the single goal of torturing me to my end. It amazed me as I saw them. Despair I did. 5 minutes of chasing and I accepted defeat. They were too fast for the likes of me. I turned back, tail between my legs as I walked back to my room. Songs of victory and joy I heard them sing. I entered my room, closed the door, switched off the light, sat on my bed and started contemplating about how to commit suicide. In the end I decided that my life was not even worth ending. I was resigned to bear the torture they inflicted until they saw it fit to give me my release.

By 6.30, they had grown bored of their game. They stopped shouting and went to a corner to huddle and sleep. They must have been content, knowing they had defeated a human. I was left to gauge my life. To see what it was worth. I had been defeated by dogs. Puppies at that. They reminded me that my superior size and increased intelligence did not entitle me to rule the world. They had shown me my place. They put me out of my illusion. I am grateful to them. May this be a lessen to all of mankind. They may be dogs, but we are not their masters.

Of Life... and Relationships...

I have this theory about the relationships that people have among one other.I have tried to simplify the complex nature of relationships and group them on the basis of understanding and acceptance that people have for others. I have derived this theory after considerable soul searching, observation and extensive brain storming sessions with a few great thinkers who are my friends.

In my hypothesis, I have grouped the nature of relationships in three categories or "stages". Such a grouping is very rough and there are no clear boundaries separating them. In spite of the crudeness in the theory, I hope it will provide us an idea about what we really feel about those around us.

The "first stage" of relationships in my theory is what I call Acquaintance. This is a stage of a relationship where people formally get to know each other. When we meet at public places we wish each other or talk about general issues. We know nothing personal about the other person and the acquaintance is formed out of compulsion or chance. Since we know nothing about the person, we cannot judge the person as being good or bad etc. It is at this stage that we make the choice of whether we want to take the relationship to the next stage or to leave it as it is. Most of the times when we meet other people, we try to get to know more about them. We get to know their tastes and interests, their goals and most importantly their attitude towards life. Getting to know each other personally may help us in our dealings with that person but it also creates problems. When we get to know a person, we are inclined to like or dislike the person. It becomes difficult to stay neutral to a person if we do not like the person. People at the corporate level sometimes prefer not to personally know a person so it becomes easier to make choices concerning the person.

The choice of getting to know a person is in our hands most of the times but it may also be thrust upon us sometimes. Circumstances may force you to get to know a person whom you might otherwise keep at a distance. I feel that the first stage of relationships does not apply to family as the family we have by birth is not a choice that we make. The transition to the second stage happens rather quickly. It may happen in a matter of days or even hours.

The "second stage" of relationships can be called friendship although the term friend can be a bit misleading. In the strict sense, The second stage of relationship in my theory is the stage in which people actually get to know each other. We like people for their good qualities and find faults in their bad qualities. This is the difficult stage in a relationship where we have to bear with others shortcomings and paranoia. We find it difficult to accept thoughts which we do not agree with. We fight with people over small matters and sometimes grow apart when we cannot resolve our differences. We can move on to the third stage with only those people with whom we are compatible. This process of understanding and acceptance takes a lot of time. Sometimes even years.

The last Stage of a relationship or the "third stage" is characterized by total understanding. We see the shortcomings of others and accept them for who they are. We enjoy their company and have faith in them. This Stage of relationship may also be called love. It is extremely difficult to be in this stage with many people and we must count ourselves lucky if we have many such friends. An ideal person is he/she who can be in stage three with everyone, regardless of whether they are our enemies or friends. Needless to say, it is very difficult to be the ideal person. People who have broad minded thinking are able to accept others thoughts easily and hence find it easier to love people. Our relationships with people are a reflection of our attitude and behavior. The ideal person will be good to everybody. To be the Ideal person should be the goal of every individual in life.