BY DR.ABDUL AHAD
But a platoon of poor, fragile, unclean, slangy, sullen and sunken native labourers, both skilled and unskilled, dressed in tatters and rags, that had come out on streets early in the morning in search of employment on daily wages, had grown thicker and thicker by now with their upraised arms desperately looking for work. These uncared for arms had grown thinner and thinner over a period of time, barely making both ends meet. Chronic penury, recurring neediness and unvarying malnutrition had reduced them to nervous wrecks, smashing their urge and initiative so increasingly that they were weary of repeating this process over and over again. By accepting unrelentingly what was assigned to them by the community and, thus, allowing the brutal appropriation of their surplus labour by its goons, they were plainly exhibiting their ever-increasing naivety, unflinching fatalistic outlook and remarkable endurance to put up with all the societal dirt and filth without a murmur. In the process of doleful saga of their exploitation they had become first ranking pessimists and defeatists; complacent enough to attribute their plight to God’s reprisal for their sins they contemplated having committed at some point in their lives. Their unshaken fatalism had completely denuded them of hope and desire for a new, fairer and better tomorrow. And, thus, having no craving and thirst for change, they were only trampling, humiliating and mortifying the widely acclaimed Marxian dictum that uneven distribution of wealth, unemployment and social injustice breed revolution and revolt and provoke the most exploited to strive for a prosperous and egalitarian system.
Around two o’ clock the main bazaars of Shehr-i-Khas were quite abuzz with a lot of activity and great hustle and bustle. At Maharajgang, the hub of whole sale trade, the roving kakars with their hukkas were roaming around the shops facing the historical walls of the regal mausoleum of Badshah’s mother in search of their customers; irresistibly luring the smokers to their fancy jajeers and chillums. Fairly a large number of shoppers were seen puffing hukka at and around these shops while negotiating and bargaining with the Khatri Lalas, the owners of these business establishments who were mostly from Punjab.
Likewise, ubiquitously wandering fruit vendors with their hand-carts; all pervasive hawkers with their bundles of merchandise; omnipresent chapr-i-wallas with a variety of eatables on their huge tagaras; insidious surm-a-faroshs with their impressive containers filled with cosmetic items; persuasive meth-ai-wallas with their phem-b-methai of different colours and tempting ringing bells and omniscient saed-makars and puckish fortune tellers were seen vehemently engaged, at many places, in beguiling their gullible clientele, especially women-folk, with their communication skills, knack and panache.
The narrow road between Zaina Kadal and Maharajgunj had by now been struck by traffic jams due to rampant movement of tongas with an overload of passengers and tonga raidas (load carriers) with huge trade consignments. Both were driven by horses that came galloping down the streets creating noise pollution. The frequent coming and departing of pedestrians; the huddling together of beggars and mendicants who bounced coins in their bowls as they passed up shops heedless of running the gauntlet of passers-by the spreading of huge leather sheets on the road sides by the shoe menders for ending the damaged toes and scuffed heels of shoes and stitching up the worn out khurbanas, pazzars and jutties; the unrestrained extension of modest portable shops of a variety of readymade eatables like nauder-munje, mmattur chann-e-chabile etc; the moving about of read-e-wallas and phar-e-wallas with their bits and pieces of caps, socks, mufflers, shawls etc; and the unyielding rush of petty village shop-keepers, who had come from distant places for a wide selection of merchandise on reasonable rates and credit basis; had further complicated the situation beyond control.
The unbridled multitude of passers-by, who were lured to come hurtling towards lizards and oil bottles of quacks and the great tricks and tamasha performed by noted baezgars with the sleight of their hands and the story teller, laddyshab, and a mobile singer who sang melodious songs, with the help of a handmade equipment of tin that amplified his voice to reach a wider audience (to promote the sale of lyric books composed by Mahjoor and Azad for Gulam Mohammad and Noor Mohammad Tajran-i-Kutb) also created traffic impediments, hardly allowing an easy passage to people through the narrow paths.
Engrossed in paisa phank tamasha dekth khel of these baezgars and quacks, and intensely enjoying the story-telling and singing, they were quite oblivious to the stinking and pungent smell emanating from the manure and urine of tonga and raeda pulling horses that had accrued on the main roads to plague and pollute the whole environment.
Up above the main road in the nearby lane of Dookan-i-sangeen there was a terrible mudslinging going on between two neighbours whose kids were caught up in a trivial brawl over punching up of a small wooden toy while playing the hide and seek game. Followed by a hot exchange of accusations and abuses in typical Kashmiri style, the scuffle provided a sadly stunning scene that attracted a lot of attention and comment of passers-by. But at Bagh-e-Dilawar Khan many boys and kids where raptly captivated by different games which they were merrily playing at the historic grounds. With their eyes riveted on saza loong, kabbadi, tulay lungun tulan cheus, goarmoug gorus, chour-i-tchepi etc; these little boys mostly in their teens had swamped the Bagh of yore after having absconded from their jabbr-i-schools.
The great bustle, merry making and fun enjoying, together with the comnercial activity that had received tremendous thrust by now, soon came to a rapid decline due to sudden appearance of an agitated mob of pip-squeaks who were grabbing public attention by chanting slogans and, thus, creating incessant barrage of noise to disturb the tempo of life beyond any body’s guess. The sloganeering of these young men, who came clattering across the Zaina Kadal bridge from the Pather Masjid side of the Jhelum River and were approaching the bagaars in a procession with red flags in their hands and false wooden guns hangıng on their shoulders, upset the people so thoroughly that they could not make out immediately as to what they were up for. They were completely shaken and pushed into the quagmire of dilemma and a sticky situation of trepidation and consternation by this miserable spectacle of youth pageant. They were horribly frightened by the grotesquely abhorring façade of atrocious anger which these boys maintained unswervingly throughout their street demo. With their fists up slamming into the air and nosily flippant tone, they were strengthening the onlookers’ feeling of dismay, forcing them to hang around to watch when they run amok and rampage through the streets to loot shops and houses to their heart’s content. Their non-stop loud screams Hamlawar khardar/ Ham kashmiri hain tayar’ that rent the sky, only aggravated their angst and uneasiness even further; compelling them to jostle the roads and rush home through narrow lanes and by lanes without wasting time. In fright the people began running in all directions with a helter-skelter dash to reach the gates and doors of their houses. And on reaching nearer their homes they smashed the doors so forcefully that inside most of them fell prone and hurt themselves badly.
…to be continued
Dr. Abdul Ahad is a noted historian from Kashmir with number of books to his credit.
