I am, more than often, left at my wit’s end when it comes to understanding the psychology of Kashmiri people, mine included. The collective persona of Kashmiris is dauntingly hesitant in divulging its character, so much so that prejudging our own actions is rendered impossible. No predictions work here, as far as my knowledge goes, and by predictions I do not mean the “speaking parrot” but rather elemental and reasonable forecasts based on solid statistics. Speaking of the past – all that has gone by, again everything is so very smoky that drawing a decisive conclusion is difficult to the degree of contemplated disaster.
Taking the bull by the horns is not my forte. I would rather retire than resist in the face of this gargantuan task. All I have managed to do is circumspectly take up one facet of Kashmiri collective psyche and construct a point of view around that. This intriguing facet of Kashmiri psyche is manifest in the sustained and by all means our survival-friendly “attitude of apathy” towards the situations that be. We are apathetic to what goes on around us, not in a mean and cunning way but by way of developed instinct. “I do not care”, stands out clear in our attitude towards life in general, even though we neither lend our mouth to such utterances nor like to be spoken of in such a manner. This “I do not care” attitude of ours is perceptible as an intangible truth rather than a discernible mold.
All said and done, I am of the belief that this “attitude of apathy” is not intrinsic to us but rather cultivated by force majeure, as for instance the widespread range of violence that shook the fiber of lives over the past two and a half decades. The exact term for this psycho-sociological condition is “desensitization”. Desensitization, in the classical sense, is the reduction of the responsiveness of a subject. My understanding of this vastly configured term is “developing a nerve”. We have grown desensitized or in my terms developed a nerve to the conditions around us over the years and that for no fault of ours. This is a resultant circumstance and therefore we do not stand to blame. But we must realize this potential truth amongst ourselves – the truth that we are vulnerable “I do not care” individuals and a society as such. This is where we start outgrowing this attitude of ours.  
One exact and concerning outcome of this condition, desensitization that is, is that of living on, carrying on, with our day-to-day affairs despite major outbreaks of violence every now and then. Yes, we manage to go undisturbed as if we do not even happen to know what has taken place in perspective of linear circumstance. We know, we stand affected and we suffer but we do not seem to care. Now the question is whether we can afford to go on with all this without running the risk of eventual degeneration of our rational and intellectual faculties.
Now that we have developed the nerve for all that is bad around us, we need to develop the knack for undoing this conditioning by opening ourselves up. We cannot afford to stay shut and rot inside. We are human beings and not thingalings meant for experimentation. Let us stand up for each other and for ourselves and talk it out – talk out the sufferings that have fossilized our feelings. Let us all stop the blame games and walk the extra mile to land somewhere good, where our valued traditions of warm-heartedness and sympathy abound.

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