Saturday, February 13, 2010

I am a stone pelter. Who are you?










FIRST PERSON

------- and what else can I do to express my resistance against oppression, writes Imran Muhammad Gazi an MBA student.

I have been shot in the ribs. I am on a stretcher in an emergency ward of a city hospital. Who am I? I am a stone pelter from a busy commercial area of Srinagar. This is my comprehensive introduction, no need to have a name, surname, qualification and profession. Just one word sums up my personality” Stone Pelter”. I am not that educated but some of my educated peers tell me I have always been in news right from 1931. You will find me everywhere, i have stood the test of time, leaders have changed slogans have changed but I have not. Yes there was a time when I was sidelined, and gun wielding elders occupied the centre stage.



Situation has changed and I am again in business in urban Kashmir, Ragda 2008 restored my lost glory, you called it a revolution, I watched spell bound vast multitude of people filling the streets of Kashmir, it was on that day at historic Eidgah, the gun wielding elder passed the baton on to me and with a smile on his lip and tear in his eye said” your turn mate”. I still don’t know why those tears in the eyes of the elder, perhaps I am too young to understand this.

You can find me on any street of urban Kashmir, although I have some favourite spots, I love jamia Masjid and Maisuma, old town Varmul, Sopur, and Malakhnag Islamabad to name a few. You can easily recognize me as I am the best dressed youth of my area, trendy jeans, smart sports shoe, whacky jacket and few fashion accessories, they say I buy them from the money I get for stone pelting. My income is being discussed everywhere and there is no unanimity on that it varies from 100 to2500,at times I am afraid that I may be brought under income tax net. My attire has little to do with fashion, and more with the nature of my job, I am supposed to be athletic and nimble footed and I have to mingle with the crowds, hence my attire. Ideal day at work is thrilling and exciting, the suspense, the drama, the surge and the chase is right out of 80s blockbuster Hindi cinema.

I dodge shells and bullets, ala Rajnikanth, only difference is there is no retake on the street, either you dodge in first take or you are down in the gutter. Stone pelting used to be an art but with the passage of time it has developed into a science, it is more because of those chocolate pelters, some of whom are students of best schools of Srinagar. Purists moan the adulteration; pragmatists call it the need of the hour. These chocolates talk about projectile motion, angle of projection and range, I don’t get a bit of that. They introduced “sling”, whatever oldies may say it is an effective combat weapon. I have not talked about my adversary ,most of the time it is the “Ponde police” sorry local police, it is an honour to have such an enemy in the battlefield, the most professional and business savvy police force in the world, highly well versed with economics. Such is the level of efficiency that they no longer waste bullets on us but use teargas shells for dual purpose of chasing and killing us, you can not blame them after all world is going through a recession and cost cutting is the mantra. They perfected this technique under there former boss, whose name was a tongue twister for us, we remember him as Asif Mujtabha the paki batsmen. He was a brilliant officer, disciplinarian, had a penchant for cleanliness, smoothly killed almost sixty of us in a span of few weeks, yet you could not see a speck of blood on his hands nor his immaculately worn uniform, as I told u spick and span. He treated us like his kids, ensured we did not suffer any pain or agony, bullets hit us, either on head or chest, he was such a noble loving and caring father. We miss him, they transferred him, must have been promoted, I feel good at least our blood helped someone to make a career.
Why do I pelt stones, this thought had never crossed my mind, I just instinctively new when I had to don the armour and start the battle. It was only after Ragda 2008, I heard some whispers, hushed tones, and few glances of suspicion on the street. I am street smart, I realized I am not the darling of the masses anymore, people who fed me with (Teher) even in the midst of the battle, now hated me. I should have seen this coming, it all started with the fatherly police chief Asif Mujtaba, quoting Hadith against stone pelting, learned man he is, after securing our (duniyah) worldly life, he immediately focused his attention to secure our (akhirat) life here after. We miss him; he was our real benefactor, trying to ensure us peace in this world as well as other world.

A (molvi saheb) priest who calls himself a Puritan, and who lead many processions in Ragda2008, seconded the view and said the hadith is from Bukhari shareef, it was a bolt from the blue (nabi trath) for me, same molvi used to quote Bukhari shareef in 1990s and would read out from Babul jihad (Chapter on jihad) why this hadith was never read to us until now. What had changed, Bukhari Shareef or Molvi Sahib, it was for the first time and not the last time that I have wept, yes warm tears flowed not from my eyes but the stone cold heart of a stone pelter. I wiped my tears, with my rough hands and yes mourning the death of conscience of our Ulema I did what I knew best, yes I pelted stones mocking at the simplicity of the molvi sahib.

A columnist picked up the thread from were the molvi left, writing smoothly with his “LEFT HAND “. He mocked at my lack of education, it is easy to doge the bullet than a writer’s pen I was pinned to the ground, argument lost. There is a saying in Kashmiri (Asoolus kyah kari ghulam rasool).I don’t know the English meaning of this as I am a petty stone pelter. Agreed I am not educated, but my journo brother is, if he is writing today it is because of me who is fighting in the street for the very honour he is trying to defend sitting in his study with a laptop on the table and Coffee Mug in his hand. His colleague who shot frames was shot in broad daylight; he could not get an FIR registered. I did what I knew best, and yes I pelted stones in protest against this cowardice of the police. Street is my school, and this is what I have been taught. Get an FIR registered for your colleague with your university degree in hand and we will talk my brother. Intelligentsia scorn me, to them I am a ruffian, and they refer to me as the lumpen proletariat. They are all learned scholars, poets, linguists, writers; they are mirror of our society.

When I and my friends were slaughtered on the streets some Rahi lost his way in the commotion, and found himself in a hall were some Gyan Peeth award was given to him by someone whose hands were smeared with our dirty blood. He accepted the award with hands folded in benediction, feeling at last he has found his way not knowing Rahi has been lost in wilderness forever. When men of intellect stoop so low I do what I know best, yes I pelt stones in despair. I have one question for all you learned men. Do those Shawls of honour have smell of our blood and warmth of the breath of a dying stone pelter? By the way was it not the proletariat who brought a revolution, an old news paper I found with” Sulla Masala” talks about that.

Enough of arguments, after all I am a stone pelter I can not win an argument with you, for you are learned men. It is clear to me my countrymen that I am an impediment to your progress, it pains me, I don’t want you to be backward, I want you to prosper. What then is the solution? I can not stoop to your level nor can you rise to my level. Don’t you worry I have a solution. Let there be a role reversal for a day, you be the stone pelters and we the perennial stone pelters the target. I will gather all my friends at Eidgah and you stone us to death, we will take all your stones with a smile on our lips and a tear in our eyes, smile we will for your prosperity and tears will roll, for we won’t be there to see the smile on your lips when you achieve your prosperity. Having stoned us don’t you think you won, it is we who have won for once from masters of inaction you have become men of action, and did not we pelt stones all our lives just to make
you act.

One last request my countrymen, please do not make a graveyard for us, for you will make a ritual of visiting it every year along with our respected leaders , who will come separately, as they come to our funerals individually, strange not even our blood unites them. They say unity is possible only on principles, true how can blood of a stone pelter or chastity and honour of a common Kashmiri woman be a principle to unite on, and it must be some high principle. Even if you bury us don’t ever visit our graves for old habits don’t die we will rise from our graves and pelt stones on sight of a Hypocrite. Tell my mother I will miss her, for I had two Homes Street and her lap, and yes her lap was comforting but it was the street that was my calling.

As everything in the hospital room is becoming hazy and death is waiting to embrace me, I remember a couplet by some Iqbal, I read on the back of an auto rickshaw of a fellow stone pelter.

jis khak Ke Zameer Main ho Atish Chinar
Mumkin Naheen Ki Sard Ho Woh khake Arjmund.

Is it true my country………….

(Imran Muhammad Gazi is an MBA Pass-out Kashmir University. Feedback at gaziimran@yahoo.com)

Appeared in GK:

16 comments:

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iramsaba said...

I read ur piece few days back. The title caught my attention n while I was going through the content, I found my heart racing and when it ended, I couldn’t stop my tears. Praising u for ur literary skills would b no less than insulting the feeling ur write-up conveyed. All I would say is that I felt the pain, I could smell the blood, I felt the misery n helplessness. I could read the frustration in my head in ur words. And today I read the counter viewpoint written by a doctor.. To me he too was right in more than a way and u were right aswell.. I find myself in the same paradox again..
I am helluva scared of violence of any sort. Just the scene of uniformed men carrying their bamboo armours makes me shrug in fear. Leave alone the broken glass and burning tyres on roads.. But my fear does not stop me from feeling the rage when some Asiya and Nelofer are raped. I do feel the pain when kids are murdered in cold blood. I do see how demons run this democracy. Sometimes I too want to resist. Sometimes I too feel like pelting a stone. I don’t know on whom. I just want to do it. May be, to vent out the anger. Ofcourse I never do it . I am just one of those cowards who read the news paper and fold it back neatly. But at the same time I can not explain to myself the logic behind not letting kids go to school, patients to hospitals and men to work. I don’t understand what good would damaging our own cars bring.. However, I can not suggest any better way to protest
I always find myself in the same dilemma___ whom to support? Who is right? Today’s doctor or the stone pelter? But this is nothing new to me. In this attempt to know my political opinion, I have failed time and again …
Just wanted to thank you for the wonderful piece u’ve written.

iramsaba said...

I read ur piece few days back. The title caught my attention n while I was going through the content, I found my heart racing and when it ended, I couldn’t stop my tears. Praising u for ur literary skills would b no less than insulting the feeling ur write-up conveyed. All I would say is that I felt the pain, I could smell the blood, I felt the misery n helplessness. I could read the frustration in my head in ur words. And today I read the counter viewpoint written by a doctor.. To me he too was right in more than a way and u were right aswell.. I find myself in the same paradox again..
I am helluva scared of violence of any sort. Just the scene of uniformed men carrying their bamboo armours makes me shrug in fear. Leave alone the broken glass and burning tyres on roads.. But my fear does not stop me from feeling the rage when some Asiya and Nelofer are raped. I do feel the pain when kids are murdered in cold blood. I do see how demons run this democracy. Sometimes I too want to resist. Sometimes I too feel like pelting a stone. I don’t know on whom. I just want to do it. May be, to vent out the anger. Ofcourse I never do it . I am just one of those cowards who read the news paper and fold it back neatly. But at the same time I can not explain to myself the logic behind not letting kids go to school, patients to hospitals and men to work. I don’t understand what good would damaging our own cars bring.. However, I can not suggest any better way to protest
I always find myself in the same dilemma___ whom to support? Who is right? Today’s doctor or the stone pelter? But this is nothing new to me. In this attempt to know my political opinion, I have failed time and again …
Just wanted to thank you for the wonderful piece u’ve written.

Madhura said...

I'm cross posting this here: http://kashmir-hr.blogspot.com/

Also, the GK link doesn't work. Have they removed the article from the site archives?

Anonymous said...

I kinda have been expecting this in a way...
But I reali dun think da world is going to end...start a new era maybe but the world is not ending.
That's not gonna happen till a thousand years later! Ok, I'm not sure bout that either but that's not the point! The world's not gonna end! Full stop!
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saliK said...

Peace be with U! I have read this article a thousand times. Don't panic!!! I am just an UNEDUCATED STONE PELTER so I Have to read this many times to grasp something from it! Every time, I read these lines, I feel something new in it! I know our "INTELLECTUALS" have opposed the article. I don't read newspapers since i belong to the UNEDUCATED class of STONE PELTERS but a friend of mine told me that my respected countrymen,a doctor,has even replied to this article. But, since we dont READ and Understand these newspapers and all that stuff, we'll not be benefitted by his NOBLE THOUGHTS...unfortunately and so we'l continue Pelting stones for we are PAID,as they say it!!!

Anonymous said...

Not sure where to post this but I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of National Clicks?

Can someone help me find it?

Overheard some co-workers talking about it all week but didn't have time to ask so I thought I would post it here to see if someone could help me out.

Seems to be getting alot of buzz right now.

Thanks

Musadiq Ali said...

one of the very few seriously written pieces with all the true emotions of being a kashmiri...
brilliant!

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aamir said...

one thing is sure u r a real stone peltr..stone pelting does't start out of blue.itz a well calibrated attempt started by separatist ad oppostn partities..these are operated by well organised ganges..earng gud amount of money. i live in downtown area...even though the major part of mob are locals doing out of sheer fun..bt those who are organising it are doing it under instruction frm there bosses...
we are just minnows..this is pure politicz and nothing else...
and modus operndia is simple..
A INNOCENT IS CAUGNT IN THE CONFLICT AND GET KILLED
B SEPRATIST GIVES GIVES CALL FOR PROTEST
C AGAIN INNOCENT IS KILLED
D GEELANI SAHIB GIVES ANOTHER CALL FR HARTAL
AND THE CYCLE CONTINUES...
THIS HAS BEEN GOG FOR LAST TWO AD HALF YEARZ..
LUK DEAR THERE IS NO POINT ROMANCING THE STONE PELTING...U HAV'T SEEN THE PAIN PEOPLE GO THROUGH..HARTALS ARE ONE OF THE MOST HUMAN RIGHT VOILATION...WHN U DO NOT ALLOW ANY ONE TO EARN HIS LIVELYHOOD..WHN U DO NOT LET PATIENTS REACH HOSPITAL...WHN U DO NOT LET STUDENTS GO TO SCHOOL...
CONFLICYS ARE EVERY WHR AROND THE WORLD...LUK AT TAIWAN IT HAS CONFLICT WITH CHINA..YYHY DO NOT INDULGE IN SELF DESTRUCTION...
EVEN DURING WORLD WARS GREATEST INVENTION IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE WHR DURING THOSE PEROIDS..BEC THEY DONT DISTURB THE NORMAL MODE OF LIVING...SAY NO TO 'HARTALS STONE PELTING '..HOPE BETTR SENSE PREVAIL...

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Anonymous said...

Salam

A very good blog indeed. May Allah give you success in your Jihad against Indian Occupation. We, the Paksitanis, are always with you and will do whatever we can for end ot Indian Occupation.

Thanks.

Saj
http://www.markthetruth.com

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