Srinagar, June 12
Inside a park on the banks of Dal lake and in the foothills of Zabarwan mountains, an informal discussion between Hindus and Muslims of Kashmir soon turns into reminiscences of an emotional past. A group Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims, who know each other through common acquaintances and social networking websites, had gathered early morning as part of a reconciliation efforts between the two communities.

Among those who reached the venue first was Rajan Nakhasi, a 46-year-old Pandit from Rainawari locality of Srinagar's old city. Now living in Delhi, Nakhasi migrated in 1990 after the eruption of militancy in the Valley. “When all Pandits left in the mass migration, I also left with my family,” Nakhasi said. But unlike many other Pandits who left the valley, Nakhasi’s escape from Kashmir was shortlived.

“Manzoor Malik is a friend whom I can never forget and never repay. He came to my place in Jammu and literally dictated terms to me. He packed our belongings and insisted that we should come back to Kashmir. He told me he had no problem if I wanted to die away from Kashmir, but he would not let my father and mother die here in this camp,” Nakhasi, a former government employee and now a businessman, said.

Then aged 26 years and newly married, Nakhasi, and his family returned to their home in Valley in 1991 and lived here for next nine years when he had to leave the Valley again so that his children could pursue his children’s studies outside. “Now that my children have completed their education, I am planning to come back to my home,” he said.

Nakhasi was the first to send out invites for the meeting on the social networking website Facebook. The invites were sent under the tag of “Lost and misunderstood relations -A revival”. Among those who had come to attend the interaction were a few young Muslims who would have been kids when their Pandit neighbours left the valley. Javed Ahmad, Kaiser, Burhan-all in their early twenties listened patiently while others spoke. “I am here after 21 years,” said Kuldeep Pandita. “When I came here I felt more secure than any other place, I felt more secure than I do in Tamil Nadu or Delhi.” Pandita has a novel approach to the solution confronting the problem of two communities. His idea of reconciliation is based more on selfless and humanitarian work. He said by “interactive job creation” for the youth of Kashmir, the two communities can come close to each other. “What you are seeing here is the technology providing the space for dialogue. You have better understanding of the people now,” Pandita, who works as a consultant in Chennai, said.

Pandita, who migrated from the Valley in 1990, said he felt no excitement when he returned this month after 21 years.

“I was coming to my home. I am not doing any favour to anyone. This is my land, I have to pay it back. I have to contribute. How long will I remain on the run,” he said.

Most of the Muslims and the Pandits during the interaction avoided going into the details of the dark past surrounding the migration of thousands of Pandits from the Valley. “What has happened is the past, let us not go into that,” Ravinder Pandita, his forehead dotted with a red tikka, said. The line repeated often during the dialogue which continued into the afternoon.

As time kept on ticking, more people trickled into the park - many met as strangers bonded by same roots. “We have something, we are trying to find it,” Sunita Kaul, a Kashmir-born psychologist based in Delhi, said. Among the Muslim hosts of the function was Habibul Hassan and a noted author and doctor Majid Siraj, who also lived away from Kashmir for more than 40 years.

“We have lost our Kashmir, we have lost our identity. We have to find it,” Hassan said.

For Nakhasi this interaction was between “friends of Kashmir” who, he said, will remain “friends forever”.