Losing hope in paradise

Losing hope in paradise
I am a Kashmiri pandit who has been living in delhi since 1990. Like scores of other Kashmiri pandits i have seen the worst that can possibly be dreamt of, destruction of your home in front of your eyes.That too when home was paradise,not only for us but for anyone who visited.Why? I ask this question perhaps a thousand times, why did I flee.I was only eight, so my decisions were left to my parents. In a fit of rage, i blamed my parents on their cowardice to abandon their home as do many second generarion displaced kids like me. But my father's eyes told me about a fear that i may not realise or understand today, a fear that haunts any father.........the fear of losing a family. Slaughtered, thats what we would have been had we stood in the way of the violent uprising. Valiant but slaughtered. More than martyrdom we desired a life full of oppurtunities and more importantly, we desired a life. Is there anything wrong in being hopeful?We were born humans and remain humans to this date. Fear is a part of human nature. Isnt it the fear of god that keeps us from wrong. The fear of god is considered as a prayer, then why is the fear of death cowardice? One who fears death is one with hope, hope that eludes this staggering community still coming to terms with the harsh reality of our homeland.

I destest the stands of biased journalists who talk about Kashmir as an issue between India and Pakistan. We as Indians should know by now that there is no issue regarding the ownership of kashmir. Kashmir was and will remain a part of India. The issue is us, where do we go? We are a community that has a literacy rate of close to a hundred percent, yet a majority of us are forced to live in camps. I have never seen NDTV or any other news channel visit a Kashmiri camp. Why? How many of you have made a conscious effort to find out about the real reason behind the plight of that state?We are too bothered with pakistan bashing and human rights violations in the valley to ignore the core issue.What about the thousand homeless families that are still surviving on the relief program. For crying out loud, relief for sixteen years. It is a plight none of us can imagine sitting in our homes. Yet no NGO takes up the cause of these people. Why? Is it because we are cowards? Or is it because our existence is not important? I may sound bitter, but thats what this issue has turned us into. I am an Indian too, i have a right to exist, i have a right to hope, hope that seems lost in a paradise of hopelessness.