Holding Hands

Some young minds of Nawakadal area in downtown Srinagar wanted to do something to help the needy. They started a charitable organization Athrout and tried to go beyond the tokenism of local mohalla committees.

They had just entered their teenage, some of them were not even born, when armed insurgency broke out in Kashmir. Still they were aware that the number of widows and impoverished was increasing. They wished to contribute to the society. The five or six of them gathered in the Darasgah (where Quran is taught) of the local Masjid, to come up with some idea. They wanted to save lives. “One who saves a single life is as if he saved the whole humanity”: they were taught at the Darasgah.

Athrout was started in 2006. Initially, they used to contribute money themselves as all of them were in some employment. The chairman, an Imam in the Masjid recalls that in 2006 he was giving a Eid sermon exhorting the people to pay the Sadkai-Fitr (Eid donation). “The people showed interest and paid their pending Sadkai-Fitr,” Imam of the masjid Bashir Ahmad Nadwi said. The money was distributed among the poor.

The members’ contribution continued to grow as many others joined in.

“Other people were showing interest and we found that many people were in need in our society because years of conflict had pushed many families into poverty,” he said, adding, “Some families could not even afford a single meal, how can they pay for medicine”.

They started counselling the elders, and youngsters, about religious binding on Muslims to pay their Zakaat and the Prophet’s (SAW) practice and teachings about helping the needy.

Imam Bashir Ahmad, a scholar from Nadwat-ul-uloom Islamic University, Lucknow is a businessman and all of the elder members of Athrout are working in private and government sectors. But they spare time in the evenings and on Sundays for social work.

Abdul Majeed, accountant of Athrout, says, “When we started providing help to people, we received cases of kidney failures, cancer patients and other serious ailments and we realized how such ‘deadly’ diseases have become burden on those families who cannot afford costly medicines and then we started a clinic where we are providing free consultations and free medicines”.

They hold free clinics on Sundays where volunteer doctors- physicians, pediatrician and gynecologists, see patients without charging any fee. Some medical representatives are also associated with Athrout. more

Home Alone

Single mother, single parent taking the responsibility of upbringing of her child might be common in the West too but in this part of world where family relations are very close, the separation of one parent usually father, leaves the family shattered, all alone and in suffering.

Tasleema, 33, is living in a single room which serves as a kitchen and bedroom as well. For her and her two children aged 8 and 6.

After the death of her husband, she returned to her father’s home but “felt a change in her parent’s attitude”. “They asked me to live separately in a room which was meant for paying guests,” She said.

Tasleema has no permanent source of income but she feels “God has put His hand on her and she manages to run her one room home”.

Her sisters have been a continuous support; her in-laws send her half the produce of their 2 kanal land, Bait-ul-mall gives her monthly fee of 1000 rupees, an orphanage is providing her some daily kitchen commodities and she has herself started tailoring to meet the expenses. “But despite of all these helps, it is still difficult to run a house and most importantly the growing children. I don’t hesitate if anybody tells me this is the organization and they can help us financially. I can do anything for my children,” says Tasleema.

Tasleema’s parents are well off, however, they don’t help her. “I have two brothers and they are ashamed of me because I wander go orphanages and other such places but they don’t want to spend a single rupee on my children. They have disowned my children. They don’t allow my children to enter their house,” she says.

She if during night somebody knocks the main door they get frightened. And if any of her children falls ill she has to call her cousins for help despite her parents and brothers living next door.more

Sopore Massacre

An eyewitness of the infamous “Jan 6 Sopore massacre”, Abdul Hamid Bhat, narrates the horrid tale of the slaughter and arson by men in uniform.

On Jan 6, 1993, it was 8:55 in the morning and there was an explosion somewhere nearby. From a young age I have the habit of reading the newspaper every morning on time. As usual I went to the newspaper stall near Degree College, to get my newspaper. Everything appeared to be okay, still there was some unease in the air. People were talking about that explosion which, it was later known, was actually an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) blast in the ‘New Colony’ area of Sopore.

I got my newspaper and went to a nearby shop, Nishat Textiles, in the Main Chowk to get something. It must have been around 9:55 am that a sound of a single bullet shot was heard. Nishat Textiles was visible from the bunkers of a nearby BSF camp housed in the State Bank Building. We ran a few paces towards main Bazar, which we thought was a bit safer. It was just behind the main Chowk where a J&K Bank branch is located now. We took shelter inside a building and went upstairs on the 2nd floor. More gunfire was heard.

There were around 10-12 men and some women in the room. Everybody lay flat. I was youngest among the people marooned in that room. Unmarried and just over 24 then, I tried to peep through the window. Other people wouldn’t move even when we heard heavy footsteps on the roads and the BSF men saying, ‘Jo be samney aayai maar daalo sab ko. (Kill whosoever comes your way!).

At 10.30 a.m. we heard a bus coming and I again peeped through the window. A SRTC bus, JKY 1901 was moving on the Sopore-Bandipora Road. The BSF men stopped the bus and ordered the driver out. Some BSF men boarded the bus and started firing on the passengers indiscriminately. There was a bloodbath but some still escaped bullets. They were bundled in the groups of threes and shot one by one. More than 20 people were killed in that bus alone.

After killing the passengers, the troopers started spraying gun powder, petrol and kerosene on the surrounding buildings and then torched them. They building that we were hiding in was also set on fire. The BSF men were looking like hungry beasts; they were slaughtering anybody coming their way.

We thought we would die any moment. If we left the building, the marauding troopers would kill us and if we stayed there in the room we would be burnt alive. As the ceiling of our room caught fire, we started think that death was now imminent. It was so close. I said to the other people in the room that “if anybody among you survives and my body is found, please tell the people that I was actually a resident of Islamabad and was working here in a finance company.” I also requested them to send my body to my native town for burial only if my face was recognizable. “Otherwise get me buried in Sopore”, I remember telling that to the people in that room. more

Sleepless in Srinagar

Shazia, 21, hasn’t slept well for a year now. She takes sleeping pills every night which makes her feel drowsy, but her eyes stay open. Shazia has insomnia—the chronic inability to fall asleep or remain asleep for an adequate length of time.

Shazia says she feels bored, and hates her life. Her mind always remains preoccupied with new job opportunities. She wants to work, and feels she should be financially independent. Shazia is a graduate, and says that if she gets a job, it could help be a distraction from her problems. After exams in 10th, she wanted to become a doctor; so she went to ask a doctor for memory-enhancing medication to help her study. Unfortunately, she says, her memory only started fading away.

Shazia has been aggressive since her mother died while Shazia was still a child. Back then, if her father or siblings did not give her what she wanted, she would start banging her head against the walls. Shazia remembers, “Once, my father said no to my demand, and I started hitting my head against the wall. That day I got five or six stitches on my head.” But with time she realized that this behavior was dangerous, so she stopped.

“Sometimes, I feel like I should kill myself for all the mistakes I’ve made,” she says. “I know I used to irritate my father a lot and my siblings too. Last time I scratched our childhood photographs, and now I’m feeling sorry for that too,” says Shazia while she frowns and looks down.

Dr. Arshid Hussain, a psychiatrist of Kashmir says, “Insomnia is not a disease, it is the manifestation of something underlined—either physiological or pathological.” Sometimes physical illness or even environmental changes like room temperature changes can also cause insomnia. “It usually occurs in patients who are going through stress in life or are suffering from other health issues.”

Shazia is one such patient. She actually has epilepsy—a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

She also has a thyroid disorder which adds to her sleeplessness. “At night I feel cold one minute, and hot the next,” she says. “And I always feel restless.” When her family started noticing her gradual memory loss, they consulted a Unani doctor so she did not have to deal with the side effects of allopathic medications. When the herbal medicines did not help, she consulted a psychiatrist. Her family says they are seeing some improvement now, but there is still a long way to go; because Shazia still feels tired when she wakes up every morning.

Shazia’s sister says, “She used to help me in the kitchen and with other day-to-day responsibilities, but now she prefers to stay in bed. All she says is that she doesn’t have the energy to do anything. I believe that all the medication that’s been given to her since childhood is responsible for her condition today. Her sister adds, “Yes, she had problems, but the medicines have only added to her problems.”

The human body works in a systematic pattern with coordination between various chemicals and hormones released from body organs in response to stimulus. The adaption of this response to stimuli is regulated by the brain in a circadian rhythm. To perform various functions, a body needs energy in the form of nutrition and adequate rest in the form of sleep. Anything which disturbs the balance between work and rest leads to an alteration in the sleep pattern. The human body usually requires 8 hours of sleep. more

Safety First

The fire at Kolkata’s AMRI hospital that left at least 90 people dead served as an eye opener to the government of Jammu & Kashmir. After Kolkata incident Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah issued instructions for a safety audit of all major hospitals in the state. Its preliminary report has revealed that all major hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir lack the proper safety standards, putting thousands of patients at risk.

The audit was intended for 157 hospitals across the state and Dr. G.A. Bhat, Director General of Fire and Emergency Services says, “We were not able to audit all the hospitals as per our own norms as some of the hospitals did not share their building blueprints, layout plans with us and where people cooperated we gave our recommendations but the problem is whenever we give our recommendations they remain on papers only, nothing really happens on the ground.”

Dr. Bhat further says, “During the audit we found SKIMS hospital is the only hospital which was at least having Riser system and the basic firefighting equipment available on all floors but either the pipes were not attached to nozzles or pipes were not available. System is there but it needs maintenance.” He also says SKIMS hospital is an institute where there is always a heavy rush of patients but they don’t need to panic, as the fire service station near the hospital is always ready for their help. This station has an imported fire tender which costs Rs. six crores and it is exclusively available for SKIMS.

Before the report was sent to the chief minister, hospital management had already started working on the defunct firefighting equipment. Fire extinguishers which are available in almost every ward have been refilled; fire alarms and fire detection equipments are under renovation. Presently, the firefighting systems are put in place, but surprisingly none of them are connected to water sources.

Jang Bahadur Singh, Chief Security Officer SKIMS, who is reviewing the system thoroughly says, “Nozzles attached to the underground water storage were not functioning, but we have directed our engineers and it is going to be functional in two or three weeks. Besides that we have different kind of fire extinguishers available for different kind of fires (electric, chemical or others) and if God forbid any bigger incident happen were to happen, we have two exits on both sides of the wards from where patients can be easily evacuated along with their beds.” SKIMS hospital has an underground water storage tank with a capacity of 250000 liters and a terrestrial tank as well. In this hospital, even a circular has been issued to all officials of the hospital to switch off their room heaters, gas heaters, and air conditioners while leaving their rooms. more

Trail and error

A shopping mall, shopping centre or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops for shopping that is all under one roof, but in the Kashmir the meaning changes to only ‘selected garments under one roof.’

The concept of shopping malls in Kashmir developed with the inauguration of Srinagar’s MS Shopping Mall in 2005. Since then, private and government organizations have been working to establish more malls in Srinagar and its outskirts.

The first year of business for the privately owned Al Hyder Shopping Mall in the Parraypora area saw every branded store doing business of more than one or one and a half crores, which, according to storeowners, is a good start. But after three years, every branded store had turned into a multi brand store. Mushtaq Ahmad, a salesman, says his transition from working at Priknit and then New Wani Arts made him realize how unpredictable business can be.

“Initially, companies would request all stores at a mall to keep a stock of goods, but since the 2010 hartals and curfews, these companies only send us limited older stock, due to which we have lost valuable customers,” he says. “To regain our customers, we kept our own new stock in stores, and changed our stores into multi brand ones. But people come and ask for company discounts, which is not possible now, and so many end up not buying anything,” he adds. This store still has summer stock on display as they weren’t in good financial standing to get a fresh winter stock. But it’s not just the older stock element that plays a role in failing to maintain customers. The high rates with minimal room for discounts also contribute. more

Life of a Journalist in kashmir, tells Yusuf Jameel

A parcel bomb blast in Srinagar Office of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) changed the life of its then correspondent, Yusuf Jameel. he still sits in the same office but never dares to sit in the same room where he lost his friend in the blast. more