Are my principles, paradigms, likes-dislikes, notions etc, all misplaced? Do I see Kashmir as a test bed of my beliefs or fundamentals? Well, I think I am confused as a Kashmiri and I will tell you why. 

A wonderful musical event was conducted a few days back in my hometown. The performer enthralled the public no end. People from all age groups and walks of life were truly delighted. The young people in particular were enamoured on listening to their favorite songs ‘live’ and could not help dancing to the peppy beats. There was euphoria in the environment and everything was well within the limits of decency and morality.
All went well till the videos of the event surfaced on the social media. The event was trolled and criticized as against Kashmiriyat, religion, culture and what not, in most indecent manner in many cases. I thought about the main issues.
'Kashmiriyat' - a profound subject less understood, otherwise the Pandits would not have been thrown out. ‘Culture’ - Is dancing and singing forbidden in Kashmir? NO….it is part of our lives….see the celebrations after the recent elections where women danced on the roads…see our marriage and other family functions!! When outside Kashmir, don’t Kashmiri boys and girls go to music festivals, discos and pubs? …And Religion -If the traditional ‘Rouf’ dancing is permitted then why not other decent dance forms?
There were some who were trying to rake up the North and the South Kashmir issues, saying that North Kashmir is on the way to destruction? Destruction? By participating in a musical show? Why don't we criticize when the grenades of the terrorists’ kill innocent people?
Some were talking about immorality but were themselves commenting on the girls in most disrespectable way using worst expletives, now, is this not immorality? Those who criticized the event should ask the older generation as to what kind of nefarious activities the foreign terrorists indulged into, in this very society of which these people have become ‘self-styled sentinels.’
I cannot help thinking…. has the criticism got something to do with gender bias? Well, it appears to be, because MOST of the criticism was by men. We do not want girls to ride two wheelers, wear jeans, go out to coffee shops with male friends, visit a beauty parlours... and when we see them enjoying, it hurts us somewhere …and when we see them dancing merrily it is ‘murder’. Women as per us should be sitting inside the four walls and let men have all the fun….the way it happened in the medieval societies. Interestingly, a Kashmiri girl is free to enjoy life as she wants once out of Kashmir but not here. Aren’t these double standards? It reminds me that gender bias was behind the criticism of the felicitation of women who attended the Women’s Empowerment Day.
Or are we scared of normalcy coming in? Because then we will not have anything to fight for? Are we thus attention grabbers? Or are we pseudo in nature? If we do not criticize a thing that as per our beliefs is haram, will we not be considered as pious? We enjoy every privilege in the rest of the country but we do not want them here and then we crib about restrictions…..who has placed these restrictions on us ? We have!! We can consume alcohol but not openly, we can have cafeterias but would not be comfortable if women came in there, we can enjoy cinemas in rest of the country but have closed down ours but can watch any type of movies on our mobile phones.
So I think we are confused. We do not know what we want. We blame the whole world for our woes but what about the woes we have created for ourselves?