Countdown to end of 2025: 55 days
It gets worse before it gets better is how I feel. Today, I have found myself 7 hours behind schedule. I may have only slept 6 hours which is the average I am getting of late but I didn't get to sleep till 0400hrs (an hour after the time I am supposed to be waking up!) and got up at 1000hrs.
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This is a young man who could have emerged as a genius for this State but personal problems and particularly a failed marriage at a young age shook him to the core. He has been in a disturbed state of mind and has been missing from his abode of Khwaja Seri, near Sharda for over 4 months.
He was last reported to be seen in the vicinity of Bagh and Rawalakot and there is a possibility that he may even have crossed the LOC/CFL at Tithrinote. Citizens on either side in these areas are asked to report any citing or knowledge of his whereabouts.
This message is reproduced here on behalf of his family and well wishers.
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Here is a guest article from my somewhat estranged Kashmiri Pandit brother:
Kuldeep Pandita of Rainawari Srinagar
(Living in enforced exile in Chennai Tamil Nadu India)
Azadi’s Shadow
The Myth of Sati Sar, Camouflaged Realities and Kashmir’s Militant Struggle
The myth of Sati Sar—created by Lord Shiva for his wife Sati, later reborn as Parvati—symbolizes divine union and cosmic harmony in Hindu mythology. Shiva’s act represents cosmic order, and Sati Sar stands for the sacred connection between divine powers. Yet, the story’s paradox arises when a revered sage, Kashyap, is said to have violated or drained the lake—an impossible affront given Shiva’s supremacy. This contradiction suggests that this element is symbolic, a crafted narrative to address dissonance within the myth.
To justify the violation, myth-makers introduced a demon who seized the lake, plunging it into chaos and necessitating Shiva’s fierce intervention to restore order. This demon is not a mere historical fact but a narrative device playing on humanity’s deep-seated yearning for moral clarity—the “pleasure and obsession with goodness syndrome.” Across religions and cultures, the production of demons or asuras serves to legitimize divine authority by emphasizing a cosmic battle between good and evil.
Without such figures, religious doctrines lose the ability to frame ethical struggle and spiritual triumph. This dynamic has powerful analogues in modern political landscapes—none more relevant than the militancy that gripped Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the 1990s.
The militant insurgency disrupted peace, much like the mythological demon disrupting the sacred lake. This “demon”, armed with ideology and violence, sowed chaos and fear, eroding the hopes encapsulated by the promise of Azadi ("freedom"). Yet, the state response—reasserting control over northern Kashmir by raising barriers and fortifications—mirrors Shiva’s restoration of order by raising a protective mountain wall around the sacred waters.
In reality, the militancy in PoK was deeply camouflaged by narratives of liberation and justice, but beneath lay strategic interests—Pakistan’s desire for depth and leverage rather than a genuine quest for freedom for Kashmiris.
The echo of this political camouflage resonates with global movements where ideological fronts mask complex realities—Arab Spring’s omitted Islamist undercurrents, India’s layered 'Quit India' movement, or the 'Black Lives Matter' movement’s evolution from symbol to broad systemic reckoning.
Similarly, PoK’s claim to Azadi under the euphemism “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” cloaks a curated reality of settlements, curfews and silenced voices. The scale of conflict and control dwarfs idealistic appeals. As in global agitations, millions are mobilized not by nuanced truth but by powerful, simple narratives—lies or camouflaged truths felt viscerally by crowds.
The draining of Sati Sar by Kashyap and the demon’s oppression allegorize the leakage of hope in PoK, where fears and power games outvote ethics. The military’s containment of militancy is the reversal of Kashyap’s violation—restoring Shiva’s will in a tangible form. It isolates and neutralizes the demons who infiltrate, raising barriers analogous to the mythic mountain walls, pushing back darkness with force. Thus, the mythic and the real intertwine.
Myths do not merely recount history or preach morality; they mirror enduring human conflicts—between order and chaos, truth and camouflage, hope and fear.
PoK’s struggle, seen through this mythic prism, challenges us to reckon with the harsh scale at which ideas operate, the cost of camouflage and the complex dance of reality and myth in shaping human destiny. In confronting this, the question remains daunting: to abandon mythic idealism in favour of cold realism, or to forge from both a truer fire that can truly liberate. Until then, silence sustains—and the demons linger.
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