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Milchar
October-November 2003 issue
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Kashmir's Silk Embroidery with floral patterns
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Between Ourselves
… M.L.Mattoo, President
Namaskar.
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On
Sunday, the 19th October 2003, we had a unique occasion at Kashyap Bhawan
where we had organised the 4th Kashmiri Quiz Contest under Project Zaan
and simultaneously the inauguration of the much awaited renovation of the
accommodation reserved for patients coming to Mumbai for specialised
treatment. A large number of Biradari members were present on the
occasion. Along with this we also had a visit and blessings of Jagatguru
Shankaracharya Shri Swami Amritanand Devtirthji Maharaj of Kashyap Meru
(Kashmir Peeth, Srinagar), nominated by the Varanasiya Vidvat Parishad,
Kashi Governing body of the 'Shankaracharyas' who has assumed his Aasan at
Shankaracharya Temple, Srinagar on 13th September 2003. The renovated flat
was inaugurated by Smt. Somavati Wazir W/o of Late Shyam Lal Wazir along
with Jagatguru Swamiji. A small pooja was performed by our guruji Shri
Ramji Sabni in the flat along with the B.O.T. members. A lunch was
sponsored and served by Shri. Om Takoo, Proprietor 'Poush' restaurant,
Andheri (W). Our sincere thanks to him for his voluntary service.
Swamiji explained to the members his action plan for Jammu and
Kashmir. He also had an exclusive and brief meeting with the B.O.T.
members, giving details of the priorities he had earmarked in a Memorandum
submitted to the President of India. Text of the Memorandum is given
somewhere else in this issue.
•Project Zaan :
4th Kashmiri Quiz Contests under this Project were conducted on the same
day in the afternoon. For this, lot of efforts had been made by the
organisers but the participation was discouraging. Trophies were also
given away to the last year's winners.
Our assessment is that we desire and talk a lot about maintaining
our language and heritage but fail to act on it by non-participation.
World over is a cry by our community that language is the only bonding
factor which should be learned and spoken by all of us, more so by our
children, but action is nowhere. Kindly give it a thought again.
•B.O.T was
pleased to authorise a donation of Rs. 10.000/- to A.I.K.S. and a DD was
handed over to the President A.I.K.S. at New Delhi recently.
•During my recent
visit to Jammu, I had a lot of interaction with various Kashmiri Pandit
organisational heads, like Shri T.N. Khosa, Shri Vaishnavi, Shri
H.L.Chatta and Shri R.K.Bhat (AIKS youth) about their activities and
fulfilling various social obligations and mitigating the miseries of the
migrant community. A great service being done by them indeed. One of the
unique occasion observed was performing the mass Yagnopavit ceremony of
nearly 30 boys by the All India Kashmiri Pandit Sanatan Dharam Sabha,
Jammu - a laudable community service taken up by its leaders every year.
•I had a long
standing desire to visit the Migrant Camp Schools in Jammu.
I took an opportunity to visit the Muthi, Purkhoo & Mishriwalla
camp schools and collected some first hand information. One of the visible
and often spoken plight of these children is undernourishment, due to
which they suffer from joint pains, rickety legs and paleness. The basic
requirements for this is medicines
like Calcium, Iron and other energy revitalisers. I shall try to make a
brief report of this to circulate among the Biradari members and try and
procure these medicines through their good offices. Another pathetic
situation in the Camps is the problem of unemployment of youth who have
completed their graduation or high school education. Many of these youths
are prepared to return to the Valley and get killed rather than remain
unemployed.
On the other hand the Chief Minister, Mufti Sayeed has thought of a
novel way of giving jobs to the Muslims under the guise of combating
militancy by planning to give a stipend of Rs.3000/- to each terrorist who
surrenders to the government and would also be on the pay roll of the
state government like any other employee. In addition an amount of
Rs.2,00,000/- would be kept in a fixed deposit for each of the surrendered
militant. The irony is that not a single political outfit of the Kashmiri
Pandits has raised their voice against this policy of the government. This
the reason why the government of India has taken us, the Kashmiri Pandits,
for granted and Mufti has the audacity to say in a recent press interview
in London, that the Kashmiri Pandits are a miniscule community and are
capable of taking care of themselves.
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