Saif Ali Budgami described the effects of India’s lockdown on Jammu and Kashmir and how the people can engage in self-building despite the present circumstances. RNA – In an exclusive report for Rasa News Agency, Saif Ali Budgami, an activist in Indian-occupied Kashmir, described the effects of India’s lockdown on Jammu and Kashmir and how the people can engage in self-building despite the present circumstances.
The 2019–20 Jammu and Kashmir lockdown refers to a security lockdown and communications blackout imposed to prevent protests during which thousands of people, mostly young men, have been detained in Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government stated that the lockdown is aimed at curbing terrorism.
The lockdown started on August 5, 2019 following Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir via scrapping of the Article 370 of the Constitution of India, Article 35A of the Constitution of India and the introduction of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Since August 5, no foreign journalists have been granted permission from the Indian government to report in Kashmir.
Kashmir has been the hub of undeniable personal, public, social, political, religious, emotional, educational and professional issues and problems that have sown the seeds of thorny bushes as hurdles and barricades that ultimately pinch and scratch the careers of students. The growing essence of the modernized lifestyle and the need for modern and civilized education places greater importance on maintaining and balancing the student’s career under this severe lockdown crisis. The continuous closure of educational institutions in Kashmir has led to great changes in the system and has perhaps led to disaster.
Most of the parents and guardians desire to send their children outside Kashmir or abroad for education in an open and unaffected system to develop their educations and career in peace and without any outer interference. Knowing the consequences and loss of their children due to continuous closures, this undoubtedly worked for many of the parents and guardians but at the same time, it has been very difficult for most of the people who live a middle-class life and can’t afford to send their children to develop the state or country to achieve education in a peaceful environment to build their career successfully and the students gaining an education in the Kashmir Valley have gotten used to this environment. There are students, able to analyze the losses and enough mature to cope with the prevailing circumstances, there are students who take the lost opportunities to earn and help their family and there are students who learn while they earn.
I will address all such categories with few suggestive and recommended approaches while experiencing and living such a barricading and hurdling life.
I put myself into the same position that you are in because sometimes to grow and to truly change your life yourself under such depressive circumstances, undoubtedly you have to make difficult choices on the gambling table to thrive and become better first, mentally, emotionally and socially, in times of pain. You get so comfortable being uncomfortable that you settle for less when you are destined for success with greatness. Don’t let past sufferings or failures define who, what and where you are because your past doesn’t dictate what your future will be. When you make your plan of transformation remember to visualize to see the end goal, the results of success taking all the prevailing sufferings on the to compromise to struggle. Map out your storybook of triumph under educational and professional disasters.
Whether you start any examination or anything major for your career under these circumstances, being under lockdown, it is worth achieving. This means it will take time, discipline, focus, resilience, and determination on your part. You need to be self-reliant and self-dependent during this career crisis. If you quit, you will never know what could have been.
“When the unexpected nature of life comes at you full force, disease, divorce, the death of a loved one and a lost job. it will test your faith, but in these difficult times you will see what you are made of when everything changes dramatically.”
You see such a crisis will often throw you off balance to the point where you start playing the pity game. Everyone has a right to take a little time to wallow in their grief but then there will come a time when you will have to stop playing the pity game and start taking one-hundred percent responsibility for your life and choices you have made now. Dreams and goals are your responsibility, so if you are not where you want to be in life at the present stage, don’t continue to blame your parents, teachers, institutions, friends, government or God. Instead, even on these darkest days, take just a moment to find a bit of happiness and gratitude compromising with this acute crisis to break all the shackles that stop you from balancing your time despite the crisis.
I know what tough conditions you are facing and I am walking with you on the same path. Thus, to better yourself, and live your best life, you must be willing to learn, grow and change. Let go of anyone or anything that doesn’t add to your growth. To continue to have toxic people in your life or to continue to engage in negative and self-defeating actions or behaviours will put you in the same spot one year from now. It’s difficult for sure. Be mindful that in your journey to transform your life now, you will be met with backstabbers, naysayers, those won’t see your vision and those who will call you crazy for daring to do great things these days. Just start to spend your time without fear.
How to escape from a depressing life to a successful life?
Are you in a quandary about what to lose and what to choose? Don’t make it too difficult. Set a target, be courageous and get all your veins to push your mind and use it for all its conscious, sub-subconscious and preconscious strength. I don’t guarantee that all may change their twenty- or thirty-year long career or ambition within a few months during the lockdown. Yet, I believe what we couldn’t do in our twenty- or thirty year-long educational or professional careers can be done within these few months of lockdown. Imagine! You are being locked up and served everything on the table. All basic needs are placed in front of you. After spending some time, you find it too difficult to live a life as an animal in a zoo, just eating and sitting. Rather you desire to add more things to your life. Therefore, you must find the best means to spend this lockdown to rebuild and heal yourself to become stronger and mature. This can simply, wholly and solely be focused on the target set whether any examination, research or project. You may not get all the resources, materials and necessities for your respective mentioned fields but you simultaneously need to assure your conscience that better compromises or find the best alternative rather than to spend your whole time in demanding and demonstrating for all your necessities. You need to cope with the situation, to cross all the barricades and break all the shackles to imprint your footsteps on the path of success during the lockdown crisis.
Therefore, being in the same position as you, I hereby add my final thoughts as you continue with your journey to success, happiness and greatness during these lockdowns. Never let mishaps, mistakes or missed steps derail the dreams of decades. Look when you stumble and fall, you may be bloody and bruised with a few broken bones, but don’t let that stop you. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and then push on toward the finish line.
Rasa News Agency