Of Met Galas' And Pulitzers'

Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan, and Channi Anand have unflinchingly positioned themselves as renowned photojournalists, paving enough ground to have bagged the Pulitzer. Virtually though. This is a huge silver lining amid the thickened clouds, especially during such tumultuous times. What’s more delighting is ‘The Valley’ grabbed headlines yet again, just that this time, it exudes a sense of extreme pride, obsession, and also love to some extent.

Kashmir has chronicled a plethora of great happenings, most of them have made their way up to the pages of history owing to their grand extravagance. In ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ author Arundhati Roy describes a tete-a-tete between two protagonists Musa and Tilo. Tilo, a carefree, independent, outspoken woman gets interrupted by her lover, an ever calming Musa, when she attempts to pronounce a cuss word. Musa gently places his hand on her mouth and says, ‘Babajaana, this is Kashmir, in here we don’t speak harshly.’ Babajaana….

Those worlds are magical, calming, loving and quite an ingredient to gleam up the relationship. Even more magical and divine was the behavior of the people, where everything seemed to be golden. Golden time, golden memories against the tide of time, everything seemed to be wrapped with divinity. Amid such divine intervention, there were people that fought for the rights of communities, deprived sections of the society, and also for women. Yet all of this with a pure heart that loves unconditionally…

What is heartrending, however, is to note that such people have been deprived of basic Internet facilities since a long time and people have taken to social media to express their wrath, however, not every time were their demands fulfilled. Students complained that due to the poor internet connectivity and no telecom connection they couldn't get to hear from their families.; while they put up in a different city. This is appalling, deserting and depressing that those poor souls were left helpless with no options to contact their families back home. 

In this era of digitisation and globalisation where 5G technology is soon going to be the talk of the town, people still struggle to communicate! How very unbelievable! Yet this is the truth of life and with this lockdown, everything seems unified, not to mention QUARANTINED. A bang that began with Kashmir, has now spread its wings to Gujarat, Mahatashtra, Bengal, Kerala. 

Yet the difference today is that Kashmir made it to the news for a great reason to celebrate like bagging the Pulitzer, whereas its counterparts are making headlines with the number of positive cases everyday, sadly, a number that's aggravating with each passing day. 

Usually, in our so called 'old normal' routine, Met Gala creates a buzz on the first Monday of May, yet this year it's deferred indefinitely, and there's no doubt that a virtual event would do the honours. Last year Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone's attire did a lot of talking. This year it seems that things really have gone for a toss. Yet, amid all such disappointments, Kashmir has turned out victorious. Shining and its head held high in deep spirits. Pulitzer is here. Pulitzer is ours!