JAMMU: Celebrated IAS topper from Kashmir valley Shah Faesal, currently serving as MD J&K State Power Development Corporation on Monday once again triggered buzz by writing a lengthy post on the social networking site.
Faesal said, “There was a time when people would ask where is Jammu? Is that in Kashmir? Now people ask where are Kashmiris; are they in Jammu?
He began his post by claiming that the best part about Jammu is that it is a city with an ego.
“It has stopped looking at other over-hyped towns of the State for inspiration and is emerging and expanding out of its own inner impulse. Also, it has now become a meeting point for Ladakh and Kashmir, a distinction that belonged to Srinagar once upon a time”.
Commenting on the large rush of Kashmiris’ roaming around in Jammu, Faesal wrote, “When I see hundreds and thousands of Kashmiris merrily walking down the shopping lanes in Jammu; when I see Kashmiri youngsters tapping their feet on loud Karaokes in the Wave Mall; when I see little head-scarved school girls attending tuition centers around Tawi and gleeful Kashmiri families coming out of the movie theatres, I get a sore feeling of what is lost back home”.
“Whenever I meet fellow Kashmiris outside Kashmir I find a restrained smile and a pallid nostalgia in their eyes. I find an impatient longing for happiness mixed with a sense of deep loss on their faces, an urge to unshackle and break free. It is an irony that we, atleast those of us who can afford, find solace in other cities but for home we have nothing more to offer other than poetic solidarity and a prayer for status quo”.
At this moment Srinagar doesn’t need to look to Singapore or Shanghai for inspiration. It should look at Jammu. If there is development and freedom anywhere in the State, Hameen Ast.
Faesal had earlier attracted lot of traffic on his post when he had reacted angrily at the “national media” for making him part of its “sadistic propaganda” and drawing his comparison with slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani.
“By juxtaposing my photos with the images of a slain militant commander, a section of national media has once again fallen back upon its conventional savagery that cashes on falsehoods, divides people and creates more hatred,” Faesal, had written on his Facebook page.