Story: The Jhelum Waters

Shinu lives in the Avantipura village in the beautiful Kashmir valley with his grandmother. Their house is surrounded by lush green fields on the banks of the Jhelum. The Himalayas overlook their house and the surrounding fields. Shinu’s favorite pass time is to graze the cattle at the meadow beyond the fields and then sit on the banks of Jhelum gazing at the roaring waters and the multiple cascades it forms flowing through the big rocks in its path. 
Shinu’s parents died when he was two years old and since then his grandmother has been looking after him. The best part of being with the Grandmother was her bed time stories. He loved her stories but they were often interrupted by the sound of bullets and explosions far away in the distance. He had often seen men carrying guns going around in Army uniforms and often in civilian dresses. But he never understood who they were and he was too scared to talk to them. Whenever he saw anyone with a gun he held his breath and waited for them to pass and go out of sight. 

One such night he asked his grandmother, “Dadi, who are these gun carrying men?”

“Strangers”, his Dadi replied.
“What are they fighting for?” he asked.

“This land”, she replied.

“But this land belongs to us…No? These are our fields and we graze our cattle in the meadows. Then why are these strangers fighting for it?” he asked.

“Because the ones who control the fights are far away from here” she said

“How far?” he asked innocently.

“Very far away beyond these hills where this land gets reduced to a few lines on paper and people are mere numbers”, she said with tears in eyes.

“When will this fight stop?” he asked.

“May be when the Jhelum water dries up”, a tear rolled down her cheeks.

Shinu quietly dozed off and Dadi was up for God knows how long.

Next day Shinu left his cattle to feed on the green grass and sat down on bank of Jhelum at his favorite spot. He was enjoying looking at the water below when he noticed some people in army uniform with guns on one side of the bank. They started firing on the opposite side on people hiding behind the rocks in civil clothes. When the cross-firing stopped after a few minutes, Shinu was lying in the water with a bullet through his heart. Jhelum’s water had not dried and may not dry up for a long time to come, but yes, the color of Jhelum had turned a little red that day, though, only for a few moments.