[Before I start I would like to dedicated this edition of my article to my late Grand father Mohammad Amin Kundangar who even at the age of 90’s love to share his experience,knowledge related to Kashmir,its socio,political matters or its past history which he witnessed during his lifetime or which he listened from his forefathers I hope I will be able to justify the above phrase correctly.]
Any pandemic episode provides us with great opportunities to investigate ourselves, plan our strategies with which we can tackle any global crisis, helps us to think out of the box© shariqa Maryam
Kashmir the “The Paradise on earth” is not only famous for scenic splendour snow-capped mountains, plentiful wildlife, exquisite monuments, but also famous for its famous phrases,& proverbs.,& today I am going to unveil the story behind the kashmiri famous Phrase “KASHIR ROUD KAHAY GHARI” which I listened from my father,who listened it from his father ( late.Mohammad Amin Kundangar). Being a Kashmiri we all know when and where this phrase is commonly used ! Yes ,at particular time especially while searching for a perfect match or we can say during any marriage occasion ,but today I will try my best to raise the curtain from this phrase. So let me begin!
As all of us are facing the toughest time of our lives, whole globe is under lockdown because of the coronavirus turning into global epidemic. The dreadful corona has literally reversed the famous phase “ united we stand & divided we fall” into “united we fall & divided we stand”. A lot of us are working from home, no more social gathering,religious activities and even the school colleges & rest of educational institution has been put under lockdown.We’re doing all this to minimize the risk of being affected by the deadly virus .While quarantining ourselves in our homes from past 21 days ,I began to realize that the term #lockdown,#Quarantine,#stay inside #stay safe is not something noval for kashmiri people,I have heard from my Grandfather late Mohammad Amin Kundangar that Kashmir has a long history of different epidemic episodes & one of them was of “The June 1892 Cholera epidemic outbreak”in which most of the population were swept out. I don’t know how much true it is but it is said that at that time only Eleven homes survived that epidemic & it is here from which the kashmiri famous phrase “ KASHIRI ROUDA KAHAY GHARI emanates.
Case study
As per British medical association report, published on Aug 1892 in the 6th general meeting held at Nottingham it was reported that there is not clear cut information on death toll from state records,but approximately 20,000 person are said to have died in Srinagar alone and there was a very severe outbreak in 1888 in which about 10,000 people are estimated to have died,(India) out of whom 3,500 were from Srinagar.
Even today if we talk about covid-19 pandemics the number of COVID-19 cases continued to swell with each passing day, Authorities have completely sealed ‘Red Zone’ areas to curtail the spread of Coronavirus in the summer capital, Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir.on March 24, 2020 prime minister Narendra Modi gave 1.3 billion Indians a four-hour notice to restrict themselves with there respective locations for the next 21 days.With time this lockdown was further extended till may /3/2020. This dreadful corona is spreading at alarming rate and has turned into global pandemics & taking high toll.
As per report published in E.T bureau dated April,01 2020, Kashmir is among the highest COVID 19 case density areas in the country which is around 6.14 cases per million of the population. With poor health infrastructure and climatic conditions Valley also becomes one of the the most high-risk zones for the corona virus outbreak. The total number of infected persons has risen to 278. “Out of 270 positive cases, 228 are in Kashmir and 50 are in Jammu,” as per sources.
As many as 252 are ‘Active Positive’, 22 have recovered and four died in J&K till April 13, 2020. As many as 138 people, mostly from Kashmir, were tested positive for COVID-19 in J&K last week.
Srinagar is the worst affected district in the Union Territory of J&K with one death so far making it one of the highest jumps in the COVID-19 infected persons in J&K. With the passage of time Kashmir has developed a resilience against any cataclysm and inshallah I pray that kashmiri will rise and shine again. Ameen.
Resilience is accepting your current situation,even if it is going very low but you have to fight for it & put everything into action that’s good,not for you but for whole Mankind…©shariqa maryam
The author is [MSC{env.sc},M.Ed,Net,Dca,Pgddm resilience
