LEST WE FORGET As our thoughts and prayers are with all those still marooned in the Kashmir valley, my parents and I would like to publicly acknowledge the enormous help of all those who helped us miraculously survive this great disaster: The brave jawans of the Indian army who rescued us from our home in a paddle boat and took us to a safe point on the Bund near the Flood Channel in Rambagh. They rescued us, not because we were well connected, but because they were doing their duty diligently - trying to evacuate everyone in the area. Let me put it on the record that the Indian Armed Forces are the only institution capable of dealing with a disaster of this scale. The civil society must work in tandem with the forces to SAVE KASHMIR - for this is no short of a real battle for survival! We are enormously grateful for the help and generosity of strangers, all of whom I had never met in person. My faith in the indomitable spirit of the people of Kashmir and their generosity has only been reinforced by this tragedy. Advocate Ashraf Bhat, Secretary Bar Association, and his son who walked with us till Barzulla Chowk, helped my parents traverse through waist deep water, and thereafter took us in his car to a point near the airport through Go Go ground. There was a traffic jam and despite Bhat Sahibs insistence we decided to walk to the airport, not wanting to inconvenience him further (he had driven for over two hours looking for ways to avoid the flood)- but we had not realised that the Airport was quite a distance away. Young Suhail who runs a travel agency, helped us take a short cut to Barzulla Chowk, through his house and he and his family helped my parents cross a wall to the safety of Barzulla Chowk. Dr Sheikh, of SKIMS, and his family, who live in Hill Colony, spotted us walking to the airport, and insisted that we all move into his car and he dropped my parents to the Airport. Sherwani Sahib, who saw seven persons cramped in a small car, and asked me and our help Ashok to sit with him and dropped us to the airport. Young Sajjad, a lawyer from KC College Jammu , who was in the same Spice Jet plane as us , and his friends who should inspire other young people in the valley. They had been volunteering and saving labourers, who were not the target of immediate attention for rescue, and they had not slept for 48 hours. They were now going to Delhi to buy boats to return to Srinagar the following morning to continue with the rescue effort. Sajjad, if you are reading this, please do let me know if you were able to bring back the two additional boats - a small humble contribution from our side? All those who asked us about our welfare and helped us including the young DSP, not on duty, who volunteered to drop us to a point in his car towards Tenkpura- a route we finally did not take. We salute you all!! We remain eternally indebted to you. We can only pray for you all, but if ever there is an opportunity to repay - even in small measure - this enormous debt we will consider ourselves fortunate. God Bless you all!! And let us all - at this moment of grave crises - bury our differences and work together to SAVE KASHMIR!
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:18:09 +0000
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