The season of yummy popsicles is here! Yes! The much awaitedand loved season of Kashmir has finally knocked on the door of the year, which,in response to agog Kashmiris, has thrown the door open to embrace thedelightful season whole-heartedly! Summer season is the essence of life in thevale of Kashmir where the winter season lurks a little too long, thus makingpeople thoroughly sated with it and meanwhile much ecstatic to welcome the newseason with zeal and zest. And why they do so makes quite sense, especiallywhen one lives in Kashmir and is well-versed with the biting winter and itsnumerous troublesome accomplices. Even in scorching heat, the remembrance ofthe excruciating cold of the Winter season is enough to startle a Kashmiri whorather delights in absorbing and assimilating the intense heat of summer, wishingone could store it beneath the skin and later on derive the capacity from it tostand up to the freezing winter temperatures.
Among other things that add to the agony of winter inKashmir is the shortage of electricity. While hamams and gas heaters are on thego in winters, electric heat convectors and geysers too are pretty much indemand. Yet, the electricity makes sure to give only guest appearances, only toamplify the afflictions of anguished Kashmiris. The previous winter season wastruly one of its kind when the weather lords showed their vagaries and poorpeople faced the music. Now that it is the onset of summer, people look forwardto an end to the long endured troubles but the actualization of their hopespartly depends on the mood of the weather and partly on the suppliers ofelectricity – the Power Development Department. Queer as it may seem, but likeso many remote villages of India, Kashmir is one such place which craves for asufficient supply of electricity so as to make ends meet. The age we are in isan electronic age. Our lives are so overloaded with electronic gadgets that aneight hour snap of electricity can lead it to a stand still, leave alone ten totwelve hours. We have been conditioned in such a manner that we are prepared forlittle or no electricity in the winter season because of excessive loadshedding. While the well-off manage to compensate the loss of electricity byinstalling solar panels and gensets, the middle-class rely on inverters, andthose who are next in the line are left to bite the bullet. They use thefreezing waters for various purposes and not being able to manage extraexpenses of a gas heater, they rather endure the cold with the help of theirkangri which may be a boon for Kashmiris but is pivotal only as an individualsource of warmth. These people end up being the victims of cold. Therepercussions are obvious: a deteriorating health which one has to carry onwith until the weather gods decide to give some respite.
While the periodic load shedding of electricity makes sense,the unscheduled power curtailments for hours altogether seem just but anattempt to infuriate the already suffering masses. The so-called helplinenumbers circulated through media are seldom available and even if one isfortunate enough to get through some official, he considers it beneath hisdignity to address your issue and refers you to a lower official. The chaingoes on and on until you are made to put forth your issue to the lowest officialin the line who might hardly be concerned but has a rhetoric of phonyconversations and hence can make you believe in the frivolity of your issue orelse dismiss it by referring it to just a ‘fault in the lines’.
Last winter, the sky kept bombarding the earth with snow orelse lashing it with rains. Therefore, it is quite obvious that all this canlead to some fault in the terrestrial wiring systems. And one could easilysuggest that authorities should devise an underground wiring system to evadethis problem of electricity failure in winter once and for all. But if the samepathetic scenario persists in spring and then continues in Summer, then itindeed is a matter of grave concern. The people of Kashmir don’t need to goback to statistics to ascertain the amount of electricity produced andsubsequently supplied to different parts of the valley. Instead, they are wellaware of it and of the recurrent faults in the transmission lines. This year,the intermittence of electricity did not cease with the end of winter butcontinued in the same manner in most parts of the valley. It did not even sparethe holy month of Ramadhan where every sehri and almost every iftar ischaracterised by a power failure. Being technologically ahead then hardly makessense if we are not able to make the basic necessities available for ourselvesonly. Tired of pleading, the people can only hope that things get better intheir favour. For now, all that can be seen is that the winter ended, thesummer shall end, but there seems to be no end to ‘the fault in their lines.’
(The title of the article is based on the 2012 novel by JohnGreen ‘The Fault in our Stars’)