The snow-bound mountains surrounding the valley of Kashmir have always kept the world beyond, out of bounds for its denizens.For some the world outside simply didn’t exist and for others it was too far off a place. However twenty years of armed militancy, that devoured a whole generation, saw a change.
With death ruling the roost, and the cycle of life hardly showing any signs of movement, particularly in the last decade of twentieth century, a section of society, in a bid to secure the lives as well as the education and career of their children, sent them outside the valley. This is probably the only dividend of an otherwise blood-soaked period in Kashmiri’s contemporary history.
These youth after being educated in several Indian states or outside the country found suitable employment opportunities in the ever growing private sector and many have reached to top positions in big corporate houses. Many returned to valley and contributed to the troubled economy in their own small ways. The mass migration of Pandits to different parts of India, from an entirely different perspective, also exposed them to newer educational and employment opportunities.
A few of these youth were fortunate enough to get admissions in universities in Europe and US. However the tendency to settle in foreign countries, after completion of their education and securing of jobs, as prevalent before, seemed to be unfound among these sons of the soil.
Majority of these youth not only returned to valley to live among their families, but took the challenge of initiating new business enterprises as well as controlling, organizing and expanding their traditional family businesses. Many successful business houses of valley are currently being run by these foreign educated youth.
On the academic front, the local youth who were groomed in foreign educational institutions sharpened their intellectual aptitudes well enough to make a mark in their respective disciplines. Kashmir is now proud of some of the world class doctors, academicians and of course writers, who after being exposed to outside world, returned to serve their brethren.
If Basharat Peer’s memoir Curfewed Night became a must read for anyone interested in Kashmir, especially in the West, more and more new writers are telling stories from Kashmir. The latest to make Kashmiris proud, is Waheed Mirza, whose well awaited novel ‘Collaborator’ set in Kashmir is releasing this week. Kashmiri is finally looking beyond its mountains.
