by Babra Wani
SRINAGAR: The charity is charting new territory in Kashmir. While people have traditionally been doing charity for a peaceful afterlife, an unknown young man is helping people break the Iftaar fast for his love.
A video has gone viral on social media showing the Iftaar breakfast kits the boy, or the man, distributed on a Srinagar road, carrying a chit pleading for prayers that his love story succeeds. The video is garnering attention and views, as it was widely shared by different pages on their social media handles.
The story is rooted around Srinagar city’s Dr Ali Jan Road, where some people distributed packets of iftaari among the people. One commuter who received two of those packets took them home and when he opened the packets, it contained a packet of juice, dates and a small chit.
It was the message written on the chit that caught the attention of the man. “Asalamualaikum,” the chit read, “please pray for me that I marry her”. The same message was written in Urdu language as well.
Finding the charity interesting, the unknown racier decided to make a small video of it and put it on social media. In the last three days, it has gone viral.
The user who shared the video can be heard reading the message aloud in the presence of his family members, with a female family member correcting his pronunciation.
As soon as the video went viral, it was met with insane reviews. Some of the comments were appreciative as people thought that the boy asked people to pray for his love, while some other comments were a bit mean.
In Kashmir, a huge section of people is often seen thronging shrines where they make their wishes or take vows, by either tying pieces of cloth or tying strings or by presenting jewels or by making sacrifices. These knots of faith are known to the rest of the world as Shimenawa, mostly in the context of Shinto shrines. In certain peripheral shrines, there are rag bushes as well where people tie pieces of cloth for fulmillment of their wishes.
However, this video comes as a breath of fresh air as the boy or the man; the protagonist chooses to ask for the wishes and duas of his people by distributing packets of iftaari. Credit goes to the boy that he neither revealed his identity nor offered any hint that could identify the lady.
Distributing iftaari has been an age-old practice in Kashmir, where young boys in particular are seen distributing Babri byoul treash (a traditional drink made of milk, water and basil seeds) and dates to the people travelling on roads. In Srinagar, at Iftaar time, groups of youth are seen stopping buses and distributing Iftaar packets to commuters.
Whether or not the people prayed for the lovelorn Iftaar-feeder, the fact remains that his struggle to succeed will stay in the public domain for a long time. Besides, this is the first time that somebody has taken an interesting route to seek blessings from the unknown for something so close to his heart.
