‘Many mothers of my Kashmir will cry today’

This article was published in The Times of India editorial. Iam only presenting this as a work of, and copyright of Dr. Syeda Hameed. 

On June 30, last to last year, Asif Rather, aged nine, ran out of his home in Baramulla in search of his older brother. Minutes later, he fell victim to a bullet fired by securitymen. He was just 150m from his front door. An elegy on the death of an innocent by Dr Syeda Hameed , writer and member of the Planning Commission.

He stood at the sunlit door

A nine-year old with tousled hair

Asif Rather, student of class four,

Baramulla, 55 km from Srinagar

'Where is Touqeer?'

He sought his older brother.

'Nowhere! You come back now

Here's tea and last night's bread

My baby, let me comb your hair'

Outside, the sounds Allah o Akbar

Chanting at once, one thousand strong

'Mother, I'll get him back'

'No child, Touqeer is big, he's with friends

My youngest, you're too small

See here is cream skimmed off the milk

Now come, you make me angry'

The little form at the sunlit door

Ran out, unheeding

The face appeared, smiling at the window pane

'Mother, you can't be angry; I'll make you cry today'

And he was gone

Outside the milling crowds of tall and lanky youth

And one lost boy in a forest of long legs

And long sticks cut from poplar trees

Some hands clutch roadside stones

'Touqeer!' he called out

Was that his blue shirt?

But there were hundreds in blue

He felt the tears well up

Quick jammed with grimy fists.

He stood confused, afraid, ashamed

'I should have had the milk and last night's bread

So hungry and so far from Ma..

But Touqeer, where's he?'

And then it burst

The tear gas shell tore his tender flesh

'Allah' he cried his small hand

warding off

the evil that drew blood.

The crowd stood still

A dozen hands reached out

To hold the falling body

His bullet broken neck

Gently rested on still hands

Of weeping boys

The tousled head of hair

Blood drenched, hung in strands

On a shining forehead...

And twisted in the sinews

of my mind

Are seven words

(Seven lines of Quran's first Surah)

'Mother I will make you cry today'

How many mothers of my Kashmir

The place where I was born

Will cry today?

Will cry tomorrow?

This beautiful elegy by Syeda mam presents the condition of Kashmir, a beautiful place, the heaven on earth, torn between strife and life...the place battles with numerous struggles, internal, external, political and demo-graphical  my heart reaches out to them, to people, the 'hoi polloi' who live in perpetual fear of death, longing for a peaceful life in the lovely valley. the place which once sparkled as "firdaus" now tries to find living, tries to find its life amidst terror attacks, tear gas, bomb shells! this heart wrenching work of prose touches a cord with every mother, every human. i cried when i had read this in paper. i silently cut and pasted it in my scrap book. and today when i stumbled upon it again, i felt i need to share this. so that all my friends who missed the article, can ponder over the struggles, the battles, the life in valley. and probably figure out what they, as youth, can do to improve or at least aid the situation. each of us has it in us to work in our own mild manners to help the mankind, to help our brethren. may be our politics, our system, our cops, everything needs to be revamped. and don't we as countrymen, lay responsible to bring those winds of change?? think.... ponder...introspect...and act.... in whatever, howsoever little ways...... 

Vulgar Fractions!

Got you!!! :D the reason I chose this title is simple. The word catches attention! Else you won’t be sitting there, reading these lines and trying to figure out what I am up to now…. Today I don’t have anything philosophical or intellectual, as one of my friends commented on the last to last post… no photos, no poems…. Just a few quick things!

Call me geeky today :p but I intend to impart some information today…

1.       Vulgar fractions: out of the 12 years(school) + graduation (3/4 yrs) + pg (2 yrs) and further for scholars…. We always calculate fractions, decimals, sums, products….. We keep on doing that and yes, we do know what a fraction is… but coming across this word fleetingly a few months back in a preparatory book, this term fixed me! For all those who don’t know the meaning; basically the ones like me ;) ; vulgar fractions are those fractions whose denominator is not 10 or a multiple of 10.

For example: 34/57, 1/99, 25/53, etc….

2.       Vinculum: next in line is another term from mathematics. Vinculum simply means a bar. The bar that we mark above numbers on the right hand side of the decimals to mark that those no are recurring ones.

For example: 45.8989898989898989898989898….. is denoted with a bar over 89 to mark that they are recurring digits.

3.       Co-prime numbers: ah! This one’s easy but tricky still. We tend to forget some terms easily. Co-prime numbers are those whose HCF (highest common factor) is 1 i.e. the numbers who have no common factor other than 1 are called co-prime numbers.

For example: 2 and 5, 7 and 11, 77 and 80, etc…

4.       “the”: now this one’s interesting! :D many a times we hear people speaking “the” as “” and also sometimes as

Now how should we figure out the difference as to when do we pronounce it as “da” and when as “di”. Well, one of my beloved school teachers, Mrs. Sanyukta Sharma once taught us this. And I would like to present the same to you all.

Whenever “the” is followed by a word that starts with a vowel, we should pronounce it as “di” and whenever “the” is followed by a word that starts with a consonant, we should pronounce it as “da”. I know it sound a little weird but yes, I have followed the principle since ninth now… J

For example:  1. the school is “da” school

                           2. the oven is “di” oven

5.       Adverb: lastly, this part of speech which remains neglected in exercises in the workbook at school makes it a little unfortunate on its reach front. I have seen many people forgetting what an adverb is. An adverb is a word that qualifies or supplements the meaning of any verb, adjective or clause. A word that tells you how the verb/ adjective goes is called an adverb.

For example: I found the film incredibly dull.

                         Crabs are known for walking sideways.

So friends, I hope I taught at least something new or rather something that had been neglected somehow during those incredible schooling years! :D

Toodles!  J

One post dedicated to my Dream :)

While ruffling through the paper hurriedly one day, I chanced upon this piece of text. And the moment I read these lines, the words- naam, namak aur nishan, sat fixedly in my mind. I don’t remember what news was doing circles then but as a random guess I would put the Indian Army crisis.  One of my friends recently went to attend the Army SSB in Allahabad and came back with a very inspiring quote on his sleeve- join Indian army as mortals and become immortal… something like that. On one hand we have people in our country, dying to become a part of this force; on the other hand we have various scams, controversies and loopholes coming to the fore now and earlier. The immortalizing force does have mortals ultimately, do we stand right in blaming some and defending some? Living through the defence circles since childhood, I know that defence news travel fast but only internally. No civilian has any right over it. We, from defence talk like mongers among ourselves, but for civilians we stand united. Nobody knows the inside stories but the blame game goes on and on. Media presents whatever tit-bits it gathers from its sources and the rank and file of the forces reacts in a limited manner. The biggest manipulation is done by the politicians who try to gather mileage for their parties by highlighting these issues and the govt functioning at that time…… anyway, I  don’t really want to go into that topic so let’s just talk about what I actually intend to share…

I never understood when my spirits and longing for the uniform raised so high that today I run on any and every call from the force. Maybe the lure of the uniform and those salutes inspire me, but then it is the discipline, the code of conduct that truly makes it my calling. I know clearing through SSB makes the toughest part but then who achieves his/her dreams without utter struggle?

Those words- naam, namak, nishan... they really stay with me. Maybe I sound cynical and utopian in my words but they really transpire from my thoughts. People close to me know how much I am into this. Trials, rejections, friends’ selections… these things depress and inspire me at the same time. When I see my friends making it, I feel …I too can. When I don’t get recommended I feel maybe next time ….. When I go and stay there for those beautiful 5 days, I live my life to the fullest! 5 days with complete strangers at the onset but too good and fast ones towards the end, those meals in the mess, the single cot with blankets and mosquito nets, morning tea, wake-up radio alarm, the bai jee-s, those lines in the bathroom and hot-water taps, the mysterious GTOs, pysch tests, interviews, GDs….and what not! Those 5 days at the board change you every time you go there, loading you up with some more wisdom, some more introspective improvements, some more skills and a mighty set of new bustling friends who would stick with you forever. Maybe those friends don’t make up for your school buddies but then, they have their own place in the hearts, their own settlements or should I call the billets :P :D

Who knows where the future lies but our dream, our vision is worth some struggle, some trials, some rejections, some tears, some smiles, some time ad surely some words…. ;)

My set of SSB friends are worth some space too… so let me start with my first batch :-

MYSORE (26^th dec, 2011): Mythraye, Sheetal, Divya, Aakanksha, Pooja, Pallabi, Suganya

                                                I miss you guys… you were the first set of people who transformed from being complete strangers, all coming from different states, to becoming my great friends! <3 p="">

BHOPAL (17^th july, 2012): Kanika, Rachana, Jagdeep, Sunishtha, Madhu, Swati

                                                This being my second conference time, I was a little skeptical in the starting but meeting you all was the best thing that could have happened to me! I truly love you all and long to see you soon <3 apne="" bade="" completely="" ek="" hn="" nbsp="" p="" rock="" se="" together="" toh="" we="">

 I would not mention the VARANASI batch coz that is marked as my screened-out one L still the journey was worth its while J with Jammy, Jaya and Aparna, I saw some thrifty times in Benares ;)

The little travels to different parts of India has left me equipped with some beautiful memories, be it living and travelling with cousins, or hanging out with friends, or having the ugly war of words with people on roads, or going live on air…. Everything is a beautiful memory, framed and kept beautifully safe in the locker of my heart…. I hope such sojourns continue in the coming trips to Noida and Dehradun but then I also hope that these be my last ones too…….. that end on recommendation! J  

I have earned the most important part of my life in SSB so after all these trips, it was worth one post J

Fingers crossed for coming ones!