Srinagar Jan 10: The extreme wintry weather conditions that valley has been experiencing these days has disturbed the normal life. The minimum temperature has reached the all time low in decades. The non-availability of water and erratic power supply has aggravated the sufferings of the valleyites. Most of the people prefer to stay indoors in their comfortable and cozy rooms.
The most hit by this harsh winters are the homeless. The abject poverty is forcing hundreds of homeless people to spend the wintry nights in small makeshift tent hutments.
As one moves towards the outskirts of the Srinagar city like Ellahibagh, Ahmed Nagar and 90-feet road, one comes across many small clusters of makeshift tent hutments. Majority of these belong to the nomadic Gujjar bakerwall tribe.
The nomadic Gujjar Bakerwall tribe traditionally arrive in the Kashmir valley in the earlier summers and migrate back to the warmer plains at the onset of the fall. The majority of the Gujjar Bakerwall community still follows this tradition. Most of these are engaged in rearing of animals.
However, there are exceptions as well. Some of the members of this community stay back in the valley. Sadiq Bahliwal, 37, is one such exception. Sadiq and his family, which consists of his wife and three children, have spent the last eight winters in their makeshift tent hutment. ”winters are difficult time for my family and me. I have no alternative but to live in the tent hutments”, says Sadiq.
Sadiq the father of three children, the younger one as young as two months old, does menial jobs to sustain his family. When asked about the reasons for not migrating to the warmer plains, ”i had the piece of agriculture land in Rajouri which i sold and like others i am not even involved in the rearing of animals”, said Sadiq.
“Moreover if i move out my family will die of starvation. Here i work as labourer and i am able to sustain my family. The people living in the neighbourhood are also generous and they help us in the form of clothes and food”, added Sadiq.
Sadiq’s wife shameema, 34, recently gave birth to triplets. Two of them died within 24 hours of their birth. She also helps her family by doing odd jobs in the neighbourhood.
“Fetching water from a distance is the hardest tasks that i have to do”, said shameema.
Sadiq’s family is not only family who live in tent hutments in these severe winters. There are other families and their tale is no different from his. Abject poverty and very little opportunities of work in Rajouri and Poonch forces them to spend the cold winters in the tent hutments.
“We don’t get work opportunities in Rajouri and Poonch. Only those who own large herds migrate”, says Hassan Bahliwal.
As for as Sadiq goes, he is optimistic that weather will improve. “Like the previous winters this winter will also pass by”, said an optimistic Sadiq.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
orkut mania in kashmir
: Waseem Mushtaq, a media student from Kashmir University is a frequent visitor to cyber cafe for the last few months to surf his favourite social networking site Orkut. He visits his favourite site to be in touch with his school time friends and the new ones he made recently on orkut.
“Orkut has turned out to be a blessing for me. It is through orkut that i got in touch with my lost friends. After leaving the school almost all of my friends went to different places of the country for pursuing their education and we lost contacts with each other. But now thanks to our school community on orkut i have re-established the contacts with almost all of my school time friends”, said Waseem.
“Social networking sites like orkut also provides platform for socialising and making new friends”, he further added.
Orkut, which has become a popular name in world, is the brainchild of Turkish software engineer Orkut Buyukkoten. The search company Google officially launched Orkut in January 2004.
In orkut, a user creates a profile, in which he provides social, professional, and personal details. Users can also upload photos and videos into their profile. “Scrapping” is the most popular feature on orkut, which allows a form of offline and online communication.
The other important feature of orkut is easy to set up forums called communities. Anyone with an orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them question or just play games. There are more than one million communities on orkut with topics ranging from pizzas to pasta or from film star Aishwarya Rai to big B Amitabh Bachan.
Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil with 62.9 % traffic coming from Brazil followed by 19.2 % from India. A significant portion of internet users from Kashmir particularly the youth are taking keen interest in social networking sites.
“A year ago very few of my friends knew what orkut is all about. But now almost all of them have their profiles on orkut and even some of them have put up photos and videos”, said Tariq Ahmed, a university student.
“The students of Kashmir University have created a community called “Kashmir University” on orkut which has some 700 odd members. This community has become a perfect place for discussing matters relating to students and academics”, added Tariq Ahmed.
There are certain security concerns on orkut as well. A number of fake and cloned profiles exist on orkut.
“People should be very careful while making profiles on social networking sites. Personal information and photographs should be avoided as they can be misused”, cautioned Imran Amin, a software engineer.
“Orkut has turned out to be a blessing for me. It is through orkut that i got in touch with my lost friends. After leaving the school almost all of my friends went to different places of the country for pursuing their education and we lost contacts with each other. But now thanks to our school community on orkut i have re-established the contacts with almost all of my school time friends”, said Waseem.
“Social networking sites like orkut also provides platform for socialising and making new friends”, he further added.
Orkut, which has become a popular name in world, is the brainchild of Turkish software engineer Orkut Buyukkoten. The search company Google officially launched Orkut in January 2004.
In orkut, a user creates a profile, in which he provides social, professional, and personal details. Users can also upload photos and videos into their profile. “Scrapping” is the most popular feature on orkut, which allows a form of offline and online communication.
The other important feature of orkut is easy to set up forums called communities. Anyone with an orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them question or just play games. There are more than one million communities on orkut with topics ranging from pizzas to pasta or from film star Aishwarya Rai to big B Amitabh Bachan.
Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil with 62.9 % traffic coming from Brazil followed by 19.2 % from India. A significant portion of internet users from Kashmir particularly the youth are taking keen interest in social networking sites.
“A year ago very few of my friends knew what orkut is all about. But now almost all of them have their profiles on orkut and even some of them have put up photos and videos”, said Tariq Ahmed, a university student.
“The students of Kashmir University have created a community called “Kashmir University” on orkut which has some 700 odd members. This community has become a perfect place for discussing matters relating to students and academics”, added Tariq Ahmed.
There are certain security concerns on orkut as well. A number of fake and cloned profiles exist on orkut.
“People should be very careful while making profiles on social networking sites. Personal information and photographs should be avoided as they can be misused”, cautioned Imran Amin, a software engineer.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Road barricade annoys residents
Afaq Balkhi
Srinagar Jan 04: The barricades erected by the CRPF near the petrol pump, on Soura Buchpora road is resulting in frequent traffic jams and inconvenience to the commuters and pedestrians. Accidents and mishaps are routine scenes and the local residents attribute it to the barricades.
“There was no such barricade or bunker at this particular spot for the last 17 years, not even when the militancy was at its peak” said Lateef Ahmed, a local resident.
“CRPF removed many bunkers and barricades from the city last year but to our surprise they erected this new barricade. It is not only causing inconvenience to us but it is turning out to be a major bottleneck for the smooth flow of traffic”, he added.
The barricade is not only creating problems for the pedestrians but also for the moving traffic. Abdul Hameed a driver said “I have witnessed many accidents at this particular spot. The presence of two schools increases the chances of mishap at this place. Recently a school going boy had a narrow escape while crossing the road”.
Many private vehicles take detour to avoid getting stuck in the traffic jams. “The frequent bumper to bumper traffic hold ups forces me to take the long detour through 90 feet road which consumes extra time”, rues Bashir Ahmed, a government employee while on his way to office.
When asked about the inconvenience caused by the barricades to the people, PRO CRPF said, “The barricades have been set up at various places for security reasons and the CRPF regrets the inconvenience.”
Srinagar Jan 04: The barricades erected by the CRPF near the petrol pump, on Soura Buchpora road is resulting in frequent traffic jams and inconvenience to the commuters and pedestrians. Accidents and mishaps are routine scenes and the local residents attribute it to the barricades.
“There was no such barricade or bunker at this particular spot for the last 17 years, not even when the militancy was at its peak” said Lateef Ahmed, a local resident.
“CRPF removed many bunkers and barricades from the city last year but to our surprise they erected this new barricade. It is not only causing inconvenience to us but it is turning out to be a major bottleneck for the smooth flow of traffic”, he added.
The barricade is not only creating problems for the pedestrians but also for the moving traffic. Abdul Hameed a driver said “I have witnessed many accidents at this particular spot. The presence of two schools increases the chances of mishap at this place. Recently a school going boy had a narrow escape while crossing the road”.
Many private vehicles take detour to avoid getting stuck in the traffic jams. “The frequent bumper to bumper traffic hold ups forces me to take the long detour through 90 feet road which consumes extra time”, rues Bashir Ahmed, a government employee while on his way to office.
When asked about the inconvenience caused by the barricades to the people, PRO CRPF said, “The barricades have been set up at various places for security reasons and the CRPF regrets the inconvenience.”
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