In the past few days there has been a buzz of snow falling in Kashmir and temperatures reaching below freezing point. One imagines a spectacle of white clad serene valley with icicles hanging from the roofs and children making funny snowmen or hurling snow-balls. And if it were the first snow fall of the season a ritual congratulatory exchanges would be in vogue, which I think is part of an avoidance mechanism for the impending invidious miseries that without doubt and exception befall the denizens of that forsaken valley; when the fairy-tale land transforms into dungeon of misery. Eternal condemnation in the form of total disappearance of electricity from cities, towns and village is mandatory for all souls to endure. Like a horror dream the scenario repeats itself through eternity, through years, through decades, through, centuries (not an exaggeration). From my experience of the place, miserable and condemned little folk of the valley cannot even cling to a dream of an improvement with passage of the decades and centuries. The electricity ever since its first traverse through power lines in the valley assumed a retrograde morph with assured worsening of the situation every single successive year and decade. No matter what authorities promise and notwithstanding the big names like Salal and Uri hydel project the people of the valley will be forced endure cold-wintery darkness in total desolation. They have an option to protest but they shall do only at their own peril. There are enough security forces to rain bullets no matter whether the protest is against non-existent power supply or against Indian rule itself. When Indian nationalists gush about Kashmir being inseparable part of India they mean it sans electricity.
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