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Camera: Athar Rather
Video editors: Rahul Sanpui and Kunal Mehra
Additional footage courtesy: JWT and J&K Tourism’s ‘Kashmir: The Warmest Place on Earth’
A vice president at one of India’s largest advertising firms has made it his hobby to reunite long-lost friendships in Kashmir. His modus operandi? A Facebook page and an ever-growing online community!
The page currently has a following of over 22,000 people and has successfully managed to reconnect many who were separated by the conflict in Kashmir.
Jaibeer reminisces, “She often talked about him and wanted to get back in touch, wanted to meet him once. And then one day, it suddenly struck me. I discussed it with a few friends who also felt the same about their friends and neighbours and I realised that it’s a common sentiment across both Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims. They want to get back in touch with their lost friends, neighbours and schoolmates.”
We asked Jaibeer, “How do you manage the time to run Raabta despite having a full-time job? And what’s your personal return on this investment?”
To explain what he means, he shows us a post on Raabta by an Ashima Koul, who was looking for her friend and former classmate Abbas.
Raabta worked wonders for Ashima and Abbas too. Jaibeer recalls with a smile, “I remember, for the first time, when Ashima and Abbas saab reconnected. Ashima called me after that and she said that she had spoken to her friend after 28 years. I think that the tears I had in my eyes at that point in time are worth a million bucks.”
But he regretfully adds, “Suddenly after 1990, all of that changed. Now, if you see social media, any Kashmiri Pandit and Kashmiri Muslim interacting, it is full of bitterness and anger, and a lot of hatred, if I could say that. Having said that, at an individual level, we are still very good friends. It may sound like a paradox, but it’s the reality. Offline, when we meet, we are the best of friends. There was this hope that at an individual level, we could rekindle that relationship. That’s what Raabta is trying to do. ”
Where does Raabta go from here?
Here’s a poem that Jaibeer penned, dedicated to all the long-lost friends of Kashmir.
Born to the same seed, you and I are of the same weave
You a Pandit, I a Muslim, I a Pandit, you a Muslim
You and I are one soul
A storm may have swept us apart but we stay tied together
By the same thread, the thread we call our home
I don’t know where you live today
And you must be wondering how old have I grown
But our memories keep us together
Wasn’t it your pheran I wore that night when it turned cold?
Do you remember the naps we took under the shade of the Chinar tree?
Remember the evening strolls on the banks of the Lidar?
Have you learnt to swim now?
When was the last time we had a meal together?
Was it nadur (lotus root) that your mother cooked for us?
Or was it haakh (collard greens) that my mother fed us?
When was the last time we stumbled into each other?
There is so much we have to catch up on
The Kangri (earthen firepot) that kept us warm, has turned cold
Let us warm it again...
Where are you?
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Published: 09 Jun 2018,07:26 PM IST