Bashir Asad
Many years ago, I was attending mehandi raat, a wedding ceremony at the house of my wife’s parents. This is the night families celebrate the ritual of applying Mehandi to the groom in the late hours of the night. Women sing traditional songs of festivities, called wanwun and rouf in Kashmir. I was taken aback when in the midst of joyful celebration, a man started singing a sad song. The song was about mourning the death of a father. Within seconds, the celebrations turned into mourning. Men and women alike started crying, tears trickling down their cheeks. I was no exception. I too cried for a while, seeing my mother-in-law cry brokenly. She is very dear to me, and I cannot see her cry. But soon I got back to my senses. Why mourning during a marriage ceremony? Why spoil the beautiful moments of happiness and joy of a family on the auspicious occasion of the marriage ceremony of their daughter?
The man who sang this sad song was a distant relative of my in-laws. My father-in law was killed by renegades just a year ago. My wife, sisters-in law and mother-in-law – all were present. The man wanted to show sympathy with my family but did not stop to think that this was not the place to mourn.
Since then, I have been observing that we in Kashmir have filled the atmosphere with depression even if there is no reason to do so. It needs just an emotional perforation. Of course there are heartbreaking rather heart wrenching incidents but there is life too. Positivity is lost in the din of negativity. That is why the atmosphere here seems depressing as people refuse to see the positive things happening around. We do our normal business, build houses, work in orchards and paddy fields, remain busy from dawn to dusk, earn livelihood but never miss an opportunity to present things in a bad or even tragic light. Because we want to be politically correct.
Take for example the case of under construction Centre for Invention, Innovation and Incubation Training (CIIIT) at Kanishpura Baramulla. The joint venture of Tata Technologies Ltd and Jammu and Kashmir Government, CIIT is the first centre for innovation which will impart to engineering students in the manufacturing electric cars. The work on the project is going on at a very fast pace and lockdown has hardly impacted the work there. The centre is a replicate of the only incubation centre at Amity University Noida, however, the Kasishpura centre coming up at the cost of Rs 213 crore shall be having more intake capacity than the Amity centre. But nobody is talking about this. The engineering and IT students are jubilant about the project but newspaper reports, editorials and opinion pieces are dedicated to the depressing atmosphere. Even the administration and the people working 24*7 on the project refuse to talk about it. It is an ambitious project and people should have been talking about it but no. TATAs are providing industrial hardware, commercial technologies and machinery support for three years and bear 85% of the total cast while as UT government provides only 15% of the total cast. This will be the first advanced centre in North India which training in manufacturing, assembling of electronic cars besides provide training in 17 other streams. Engineering graduates in all the streams barring civil and chemical engineering will be eligible to undergo a refreshing course for three months. Even undergraduate engineering students and diploma holders will be admitted for the refreshment course. The idea is to create a ready pool of skilled manpower which besides augmenting the industrial growth shall help in generating avenues of self-employment by providing skill development training to the engineer polytechnic students ITI students and diploma holders. The centre will also improve the academic and training curriculum in established technical institutes in the valley by conducting the courses in accordance to the requirements of the job markets and help innovators to develop new products and promote technology startups. This project is an industry-led consortium to facilitate innovation and skill development of students with an annual intake capacity of 2800 students.
The MOU was signed between the J&K Government and Tata Technologies in April this year and the work on the project was started immediately after the MOU was signed and today it is in the final stage. Indian Army has been coordinating between different agencies involved in the project. That is why the Project is nearing completion and there is every likelihood that the first batch of students will be taken in the month of August itself. The Principal Government Polytechnic College Baramulla is the designated nodal officer supervising the construction work along with his faculty members because the site is also supposed to house the polytechnic college too which is currently functioning in a rented accommodation. When this correspondent visited the project site early this month, work on laying the vitrified tiles in two blocks was going on war footings and a little far from the main block a huge workshop was being given final touch. Leveling of the premises and construction of outer wall was going on simultaneously and engineers from R&B and PHE departments were painstakingly working there and a senior army officer was effectively coordinating between various field agencies to ensure time bound completion.
This correspondent spoke to Principal Polytechnic, Engineers and the army officer to get an idea about how the work on the project was being executed even during the times of complete lockdown due to Covid 19 pandemic. It was really a new experience. Synergy and coordination was exceptional and every single individual involved in the project from top to bottom was forthright with target in sight. It was amazing to see workers, labourers, officers and engineers working in complete synergy. The environment was protected to ensure safety of the workers and I was told that Deputy Commissioner Baramulla too was keen to complete this project within the stipulated time period.
Unfortunately nobody is talking about this ambitious project which could really help in innovation and incubation. We discuss encounters, ceasefire violations, China, Pakistan and in certain cases we feel that we can influence the public opinion in United States Presidential elections due in November this year. Our mind space is fully occupied by the negativity and many positive things happening around us we forget. Even at times we forget that we were busy for the whole day in our normal work. Back home from the normal business we talk about continued clampdown since August 5, 2019 and we shout on social and mainstream media that we are under continued siege since August 2019. Soon we will be commemorating the “one year of siege” and provide horrible accounts of clampdown by the authorities.