August '19 - THREAD

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
- WB Yeats, The Second Coming.
Remember this line, it's going to be very important for three reasons. Google the context and meaning if you wanna but there's no need.

It is 4 August, daytime. I sat at my house in Srinagar, there was no university since the exams were on and we had a few off days to prepare. Both the Kashmiri cyberspace and the streets of the city were abuzz with chatter, 'Dapan' being the operative word.

The phrase 'Dapan' essentially translates to "It is being said". But what exactly was being said? Answering that will take me another thread entirely but here's what I heard and read from my own ears.

DAPAN:
India is going to war with Pakistan.
We are going to be massacred by the regime.
India is going to war against China.
Pakistan has invaded through Gulmarg.
The "governor" of the territory claimed there was no need to be frightened, it was just routine.

Suffice to say, he was considered a massive joke by the 'qoum' ever since the fax machine fiasco and most people said even he had no clue what was happening which turned out to be absolutely prophetic and true. The governor's masters in Delhi parroted his rhetoric of all is well.

The puppets of Delhi were in an absolute frenzy, the Abdullahs asked questions, so did the Muftis, Lones, and Feasals, this entire cabal felt lost, except for Omar since he had prior experience with being left out in the cold by his Delhi puppet-masters when Afzal was martyred.

But let us relegate Delhi and its pawns to the footnotes of history, in exactly the same manner that Delhi did after that fateful day. Pretend, for the duration of this writing, that you and I, the Koshur, the wretched of the earth the center of this universe. This is our story.

Now see the day and the progression of events through my eyes. Maybe some of you saw the same things I did in the same places. Even if you didn't, that is irrelevant. All of us suffered the same stings of fate and power albeit in different places and circumstances.

I am in Jawahar Nagar, opposite the departmental store named Cash 'n' Carry. There's a huge crowd flocking in and out of it, I was there because I wanted to eat American Sweet Corn. Hey, a man's gotta eat even if war's coming, doesn't he? The shopkeeper said he was leaving.

I asked said shopkeeper why he was leaving so early? He told me that war is coming and India is finally gonna duke it out with China. I walked away, hungry and disappointed. I received a video, a truck was hauling a large anti-aircraft cannon in Jammu. Hmm, Alarming indeed!

The individual who shot the video was mumbling something in Dogri or Punjabi about Modi bringing development through war. I briskly paced back home, witnessing large crowds outside ATMs and filling stations. How typical of my ilk but hey, I won't blame 'em.

Now if you're a non-Koshur, you might ask why are me and mine prone to panicking? That, reader, is because we have seen about half a century of occupation and have always learned to expect and prepare for the worst that fate can hurl at us.

But I suppose the constant psy-ops the Indian regime regularly pulls in the Vale might be a contributing factor. From braid-chopping to issuing wartime contingency circulars, my nation has seen it all. So reserve the judgement since you haven't survived what we have, barely.

I got to my living-place in Srinagar and took out the book I often revisit when I want to turn off the world around me and enter one that I have come to understand, if not exactly love. The book is The Stand by Stephen King. It's quite a lengthy tome, around 1100 pages.

The book tells the story of a world ravaged by a plague with the survivors banding together around two central figures, Mother Abigail - the emissary of God and Randall Flagg, the Man In Black - the agent of Satan. How the book ends isn't important here, but the world in it is.

Shortly after, Qazi Shibli, unearthed evidence that large -scale troop movement had taken place and around 10,000 soldiers had been flown into Srinagar. And this is something for which he is still being relentlessly hounded by the state. So, yes, do not forget #QaziShibli.

Was this war or the preparations for a massacre? Earlier on, Delhi had claimed that there were credible threats of terrorism in the Vale and hence asked all the tourists to flee from Kashmir. What a shitshow, I'd grumbled to my friend in the phone.

Soon enough, there were rumours that A370 was about to get bumped off. One of my professors, Yasir sir, laughed at the suggestion on social media and explained how it was technically impossible. Guess who's not laughing now? Anyway, the regime completely denied these rumours.

And I recalled Otto Von Bismarck's sardonic remark which goes,"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied by the government." Bismarck will be relevant in every age. But I didn't expect an overnight constitutional hack so I sat back texting my friends.

Why is everyone purchasing Haldiram's Dal, biscuits and diapers, guys? Is this what you city-dwellers do in a crisis? I joked. And @_aahmed7 ignored the quip and talked about the troop movement. My mother was sitting in the adjacent room, absolutely panicked.

Soon enough, the internet services were suspended because Hindustani sarkar ki paramparaa, prathishthaa, anushaashan when it comes to the belligerent and rebellious population of Kashmir. By 1:00 am, the calling & SMS services were shut off as well. Now, this worried me.

Because the last time I recalled calling services being cut off was in 2008. And I read the prologue to Stephen King's The Stand and asked myself what rough beast was slouching towards the valley of Kashmir?

This was day one of the August lockdown. There is nothing particularly interesting about this thread. It is merely a memoir that I tried to sprinkle with humour. I am yet to process the events of August completely, to be very honest The story will get progressively bleaker.

If people like this thread, I'll write day two which is August 5 tomorrow. But please leave feedback in the replies so I know whether I should or shouldn't write another on August 05 which I don't really look forward since the situation only got darker and grimmer after that.

And if I end up writing another thread, I'll take you from the city of Srinagar to my village and we'll see how us village-dwellers reacted to this entire shitshow.

Oh, something I forgot to add. The last thing I did the internet was snapped was put up a red DP as my profile picture and I'm glad I did so. It was an act of collective dissent by scores of us and one day, it'll be in the history books even if I have to personally ensure it.

Special thanks to @Kashmirception for convincing me to write this thread since I was initially very reticent owing to the fact that even recalling the events of August, 2019 makes me feel extremely anxious. Shukriyah, booye.