A DREAM.....

GET SET

OH! NO

THE RIGHT TIME IS YET TO COME

One fine morning I woke up to hear the biggest news story of the century. The news hit all the newspapers, local, national or international (so called global), everywhere in the electronic media, radio, Television and Internet. Wherever my eyes possibly went, I could only see that news only appeared. I could not believe that that it was true. The first words I could hear from a TV news channel said, “Kashmir is an independent state now. The struggle freedom has finally born the fruits of self-determination. Both the big giants had decided to withdraw from this game, and, people were given right to choose what they want.” I could read and hear a flurry of mind provoking sentences – There will be no nation that would rule the Valley. The people of Kashmir will have their own government, own nation, their own set of laws, rights and duties and very soon their own currency. No more fighting, agitations and bloodshed for the struggle of freedom. Every Kashmiri will be a citizen of his own land. No other nation of the world would possess any right over Kashmir Valley. A complete independent nation just has born – Kashmir.

I just started thinking over the entire matter. Hardly before I could start imagining, those news items kept coming on. I kept on swapping all the news channels but there was nothing more than news about the freedom of Kashmir. Speculations started creeping over minds, “who will get what” was the core issue. Every media had its own version, though the story was altogether the same. The credentials will go to whom – this was another question that hit the stands. The consequences of this freedom struggle were put forward and the future was predicted. Each and every party involved in the struggle had his own tale to tell. Nobody would afford to be the second in this rat race. I could see the so-called “leaders” of these parties giving interviews and statements regarding the uphill struggle they did to bring out this result. The claim for superiority was from all sides. In a way none seemed wrong but neither did they sound altogether right. But the ‘right to choose’ was actually left to the people – a common man.

I decided carry out my routine work. Somehow things seemed quiet different. Though my breakfast tasted the same (same tea, same bread and the usual omelet), I could hardly have it. I could not get even the slightest feel of happiness regarding this news. It haunted me more than anything else. It was more of a shock and trauma to me. I was feeling too heavy for no reasons. The air that I breathed seemed more poisonous than ever .I was not able to take whatever was there. Not because that I don’t want freedom, may be I am not ready for it. May be, none of us is ready for it. The time of acceptance of any proposal for solving this dispute is not now, and may be never, till minds change. We might have polygonal conferences going on with people from all chairs but it is I –a common man who has bear their so-called developments. We are no more puppets. We might not be clear about as to what we call for and how, but it is we who can and will change the tide.

So many minds, such diverse opinions and different methods to achieve, we seem a lost crowd. Lost among various democratic, extremist, mainstreams, etc etc parties and leaders. Lost among the different definitions of freedom, autonomy, self-rule, mutual governance, and so on. Lost in our own personnel lives. The basic necessities of a life bound all of us and we hardly get any time to think for our nation. A peculiar phrase ‘third party involvement” is something that made me laugh. The future of Kashmiris’ is decided and the same are a third party, can only be possible with the people here. We have become prisoners to our own work and the minds seem to have stopped thinking about Kashmir Problem. Things are taken for granted that nothing will change and one has too live with the same. Such has become the inherent character of a Kashmiri. Though he is not happy with the system but being a part of it, doesn’t matter. He listens to every leader but follows none, says nothing but knows everything.

There might be certain other reasons also. History has proven that for any uprising to succeed, we need revolutionized leaders. Leaders that stand for people and hold out in the toughest of the circumstances. They have the will power to carry all the people of nation with them. The do what they speak of and they are also humans. One has lost faith in freedom struggle because of this also. There are such a huge number of leaders that one even doesn’t remember the exact figure. Each one of them has its own formula for solving the problem and claims to be the common man’s leader. Well if all of them cannot come under a single roof or arrive at any conclusion, how do they expect the entire nation to be with them? Things are very simple to be understood than they appear to be.

The question to be asked is whether we are clear about what we want and do we really means the same? Just an honest answer can do it for us.