Agony of past

Tawqeer Hussain

Time is the best healer, these words always echo my ears and heart and I Always feel that this is true, although practically I never applied this theory and don’t know what others have to say about this. But surely during the practice of journalism, I met hundreds of people whose emotions and memories of their past fail out this sentence, and Kashmir is the practical example of such antagonistic clichés.

From past 65 years of conflict in Kashmir, I have witnessed and heard several stories who still haunt me and for those who are directly related to such incidents, life has came to a standstill for them.

In these thousands of stories of killings, disappearances, wailings, Kashmir have witnessed a mass migration in the early nineties where in thousands of members of Pandit community left their belongings and migrated to the other part of the state in a hurry with all their belongings left at their ancestral places hoping that soon they will back to the respective homes, which never happened. These people still have a desire to be back to their mother land. Although decades have passed this black episode in the conflict history of Kashmir still haunts them. They have the memories of their charmful past in this paradise, which they believe has now turned into the hell.

As many as 300,000 people fled their home and hearth, reduced to living the lives of refugees outside Kashmir. In what appears to be a flicker of a moment, they lost almost everything that their lives were based on: their roots, identity, homes, possessions and, most painful, their sense of belonging. Even their memories were full of the trauma and tragedy of being uprooted.

Meenakshi, a Pandit girl who was just few months old although have no personal memories but the tales she have heard from her parents are enough to bring tears in her eyes with the hope that one day they will be back to their motherland –Kashmir.

While narrating the event which made them to left the Kashmir and migrate to the other part of the State, Meenakshi said “ We were forced to leave, to leave our mother land, to leave a place where my grand parents desire to die, where memories of past still have the attraction of hope, a place which always remain in our minds and hearts and whenever we talk or think of that, a ray of charm and sadness fill our hearts, to leave such places which we called home, where my ancestors were born and died”

The migration have not only affected their minds and souls but have left them in the state of quandary where in they have many unanswered questions like Why Muslims didn’t help them to stay their? What happened to the Kashmir identity which they were proud of?  How long they have to suffer? How long they will face the identity crisis?

The fallout of this has been highly detrimental to the collective psyche of people across Kashmir leading to wide-spread stress-related disorders. For the community of Kashmiri Pandits, however, this has been compounded by the fact that they have been rendered homeless and rootless. Now, living in Jammu , they still carry the scars.

As Meenakshi says, “we are neither Jammuites nor Kashmiries,  Kashmir-we were forced to leave and Jammu-they never accepted us by heart, our condition is like the Muhajirs of Pakistan who are still in search of identity”

While sharing her opinion and discussing the place which they actually belong, the visibly disturbed and sag girl whose eyes were ready to shower tears but her mind were trying to control them have a good regard of her mother land in Kashmir,

“we were landloard and were having many domestic animals, the migration made us to loose everything in hurry” said Meenakshi adding that after migration the initial life was very hard in the camps at Jammu which still comes as night mare for many Pandits “Even after 21 years of migration, majority of the Kashmiri Pandits are living in squalid camps in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi with families of five to six people often huddled into a small room. Living in abysmal conditions in camps, they face spiraling health and economic problems. Sometimes, a single room is shared by three generations. At other places, sometimes, six families lived in one hall separated by partitions of blankets or bedsheets. For those who lived in the idyllic environs of the Kashmir valley, this degeneration of life has been unbearable.”

  After the exodus of 1990, most Kashmiri Pandits were hopeful that they would one day return to their homes in the Valley with same honour and dignity they once had. But, the months stretched into years, and, now the years have stretched into a decade-and-a-half of exile. The end is nowhere in sight. The yearning for their homeland is still confined to the dreams of Meenakshi and her family, they  like to cherish once again seeing their precious Chinar trees and apple orchards in the Kashmir valley.

KASHMIRI YOUTH DR ZULFQARUL HAQ CLAIMS INVENTION OF WORLD’S FIRST METHANE COLLECTING DAIRY FARM, REVEALS SHEIKH TAWQEER HUSSAIN
Claiming that he has made the world first methane collecting Dairy farm, Dr. Zulfqarul Haq is all set to reap the harvest of his endeavor. He has applied for patent license for the same. This young man is all set to give an international recognition to the Kashmir, which is in limelight for its turmoil part mostly. At the same time, experts believe that his research will be fruitful in terms of bringing the green peace and reducing the green house gasses from environment, not only in Kashmir, but also in the entire world.
Born in the Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital-Srinagar, Dr. Zulfqarul Haq is a Kashmiri Veterinary doctor presently undergoing Masters Degree in Veterinary Science in Animal Nutrition from College of Veterinary Science Mhow, Indore (MP) and is an alumnus of Tyndale Bisco Srinagar and claims to be first scientist to propose Methane collection in dairy farms to contain global warming.
According to the Dr Haq, the journey to make this plan was not easy, he undertake this work some six months back and today he claims, he is ready with the world’s first methane collecting dairy farm.
“Every body talks of talks of methane and its components for the cause of global warming, and at so many seminars, I heard scientists are working on the process to contain the green house effect, but have achieved little success so far, so I tried to work on it.”
Dr Haq believes that the initial process was very difficult; with lot of failed experiments and continuous research this thing became possible.
“When I started the process, I don’t have any idea from where to start. For continuous five months I read lot of books on the methane, studied its chemical properties” said Dr Haq adding that after hundreds of failed room experiments, I got success and today I can claim that I have made the world’s first Methane collecting dairy farm”.
According to Dr Zulfqarul Haq, who sent a brief description of his proposed layout plan of the world’s first methane collecting unit and talked on length how his invention might revolutionize the efforts to contain global warming. His proposal was widely welcomed at a symposium at Jaipur where he was also awarded for his paper on the project.
Giving details about the layout plan Dr Haq said, “Methane is one of the most potent and influential greenhouse gases on Earth. It is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping atmospheric heat. Each cattle can produce 250 to 500 litres of methane per day, which is the cause of worry as far as global warming is concerned. The heat-trapping gas thus can dramatically accelerate global warming which is a big threat. As the number of cattle in India is highest in the world, the western world blames India for being responsible for global warming.The layout has been proposed to collect methane gas burped by cattle. The dairy farm will have two phases, closed and open. It is closed when methane production is at peak level (2-3 hours after feeding) and animals respire through specially designed Tobin tubes which open at their manger. Rest dairy farm is kept open like normal. Methane is lighter than air so it rises up and gets accumulated under roof ridge from where it is sucked by pump connected to a continuous pipe into methane collecting chamber. This camber would be double walled and would be filled with liquid Nitrogen. Liquid Nitrogen provides critical temperature for methane and critical pressures of 45.4 atm would be applied. During suction of methane from roof ridge other gases like Air, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen will also accumulate in methane chamber. But these gases will not liquefy except methane as their critical temperature and pressure are not attained. Liquid methane could be used as fuel in vehicles, as cooking gas etc and to reduce green house effect”.This hypothesis was presented in the Annual Conference and National Symposium of IAAVR held at Jaipur where Dr Haq received certificate of merit for best innovative idea and his paper has also been accepted for publication in Research Journal.
Experts believe that his innovation if scientifically proven could lead to contain the global level at large level and can control the energy crises round the world.
Prof Shakil Ahmad an environmentalist at the Kashmir university believes that this machine could be useful to contain the Green house gasses.
“Among all green house gasses methane is the lethal one and a machine that can trap it and convert it into the means of useful energy is surely a success for whole of the world and Dr Haq in particular.” He is of the opinion that this machine should be affordable to all, “we have to first ascertain that a farmer should afford this machine for their traditional stables”, said Prof Shakil Ahmad who teaches Environmental science at the University of Kashmir.
Talking to Times of India, Dr G. M. Bhat, chairman Grass Root Innovations and Augmentations (GIAN) cell, University of Kashmir, who funds such new innovations here in Valley, appreciated the task done by Dr Zulfqarul Haq.
“The technology for collecting Methane as proposed by Dr. Zulfqarul Haq appears to be innovative and simple compared to other popular methods worked out by scientists round the world” said Dr Bhat adding that “However, the efficacy of the proposed method is to be investigated”.
Dr Bhat is of the opinion that the technology if successful shall help greatly in containing global warming. “Methane gas collected as such plan can be used as fuel and thus can also help to control the increasing energy crises as well”
Dr Bhat Claims that University of Kashmir is all set to help such innovators and for Dr Haq, our doors will be open.
“The innovator can approach us for financial or technical support to form a prototype of the same and to carry out experiment of his technology” Said Dr G.M Bhat, adding that “We will be glad to render him all the support he needs to prove his concept”.
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/236419)