My story begins

They call it paradise, we call it home. And nothing about home ever seems special until time makes you realize what you have or in much unfortunate cases what you had. Is it not said that we don’t realize the worth of something until we lose it?

Only those who have gone through bad times know how to value the happy little things that happen in life.

Being born in Kashmir, I never knew how special a thing my origin was.

Beautiful EVERYTHING – We have mountains, we have rivers, we have the freshest of airs, we have the loveliest of weathers, we have a rich culture; a fairytale backdrop.

But how can there be a happy ending without all the characters fighting for happiness, love, and freedom? How can we have something without earning it?

Growing up I never knew that we were fighting a war – a war for our own existence. I didn’t know that someday I too would be fighting, fighting for freedom, the freedom to live.

While in Delhi on one of those common trips that we Kashmiris make to Indian cities in winter, I realized that there was something very different about this place. It didn’t have those men in uniform at every corner that I was accustomed to see at home. It made me feel special, like when there is something that you have and the other person doesn’t, it was that moment of joy and pride. Something to show off. I was a happy child oblivious to the fact that they were not there for us, but to watch us because prisoners must have watchers so that they may not dare to dream again. Dream of free existence.

It was dark, it had been so ever since.

But what does one who has never known light know what dark is?

And then the silence was betrayed, the word came out, out loud:

We are not who we are,

Our existence holds a lot more,

Something about which we were never told,

Painful times our fathers never dared to talk about.

But a word once uttered, can never be taken back,

A truth once told can’t be denied.

Knowledge is not of much use until we put it into use. We knew of the prejudiced life we were living but would we do something about it?

In this world there are all kinds of people. There are those who wouldn’t fight, those who would fight to win, those who would fight to prove the other side wrong and those who would fight because they knew that they were being wronged; they would fight for justice.

Allah states, “O My slaves, I have forbidden injustice for Myself and forbade it also for you. So avoid being unjust to one another.” (Saheeh Muslim)