Kashmir, Oh my Kashmir !

Much as i would like to,I cannot get my thoughts away from Kashmir,especially at this time when the biggest festival of Kashmiri Pandits,Shivratri,is close at hand.I remember how we used to look forward to this festival,how excited we used to be.The celebrations of shivratri or Herath as we call it,used to last over 15 days and culminate on the actual day of the festival itself.Those who are not familiar with this Herath may consider it unusual but just think of the way diwali is celebrated,Shivratri for us is like diwali for non-kashmiris.
We play cards,we play with cowrie shells,we sing songs,we stay awake till late nights and all members of the family are supposed to be together.I have used the present tense,hoping that some kashmiris may still be celebrating it the same way.At the same time i know that things have changed since the mass exodus of pandits from the valley.We are all scattered now,families have broken up,our children have never experienced the herath of yore.So much has changed,we live in alien lands surrounded by people who have no idea of the importance of Shivratri for us.
When people become separated from their roots,they also start drifting away from their culture and the same seems to be happening to us.Slowly but surely,we are moving away from our customs and at the same time we are also beginning to adopt the customs of the places where we we have landed up.Let me cite a couple of examples.In kashmir,Navratras were not important,we never used to fast for nine days but now many of us have started fasting and also the non-vegetarians among us have stopped eating meat during these days.Another example is our following vegetarianism on Tuesdays,which was never the case in kashmir.Many of us,who ,as per tradition,used to cook non veg on Shivratri,have stopped doing so mosly for fear of what the neighbours will say.Another disturbing element is our inability to communicate in kashmiri with our kids with the result that our children cannot speak kashmiri.When we forget our language,we are in danger of losing our cultural identity and this frightens me!

We,the Kashmiri Pandits,are are in the midst of a huge crisis,we face the danger of losing our identity completely.As it is,we are very few in number,we are not united,we do not have anyone to lead us,some want to go back to Kashmir,some are happy where ever they are,some are content to live their lives in extended nostalgia and a few are more than willing to shed off their Kashmiri identities.All these are very disturbing trends and therefore we must ask ask ourselves-do we want to keep our Kashmiriyat alive or do we want to become an extinct community-?

Another question which crops up here is -what is Kashmiriyat,is there any such thing as Kashmiriyat at all-? Some say there cannot be a unified kashmiriyat ,Kashmiri muslims and Kashmiri pandits cannot have a common culture.I can understand the point of view of those who say this,they believe that people of different religions cannot share a common culture but i beg to differ,Muslims and Pandits have different religious practices which is natural but culturally we have so many things in common.We speak the same language,we,more or less,wear the same kinds of clothes,our eating habits ,with slight differences,are the same,our genes are the same,our way of living is the same and above all our love for Kashmir is the same.Can this not be called a common culture?As a kashmiri pandit,i feel that if we want to survive as Kashmiris,we must reach out to our muslim brethren,try to re- kindle the love of the past,join hands and move forward together.Let us all be one,let us forget our differences,if we are able to do this we will save ourselves from total extinction!