Opinion | Just a Wedding Story on the LOC!

A wedding on the LOC, unimaginable once upon a time say, thirty years back but now it’s happening as if the past has returned for the better!-‘

Someone on the LOC said something and the exact words were, ‘I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.’ At that time I did not know what a beautiful girl was to tell me and she just handed me a hand written invitation’!
-‘It was her marriage but it was not in her place! She stayed somewhere near the Barood post on the Loc where a rivulet separated both the sides’
‘The lady who was going to marry was Saliya!”
‘I did not know how to help her and the father but still wanted to!’
‘We dis whatever we could and the marriage was solemnized in a manner it should have been but not on the LOC!’
It was in her uncle’s house in Manjakote but we gave Olive Greens many assists as we were duty bound to do so! Someone’s daughter and brothers had to rest. Incidentally they were seven sisters and ahe was the eldest and militancy was gaining heat and terror was sreading!’
‘I at that time also said to the family that , the past is a candle at great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you. The family listened to me and are doing well!’
‘What I want to say is that LOC is not a bad place! It is a picturesque joint where humans stay with lovely wobbling tongues that sound so sweet in the lingo they speak!’
‘The difference between us and the people on the LOC is, it is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures. Till a few years back these people never knew that the tomorrow would come!’
‘Many did not!’
‘Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were’!
That is what the youngest of the seven Maira (unmarried but in Jammu University was telling me)! I’m no man Friday but whatever little I earn I do share and books that come for book reviews I definitely put them on shelves for kids to read! Our message is simple, ‘Spread love’
She told me another thing that went something like this:
There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it! I think she was not wrong!’
And she was right as this happened in Uri and she gladly told me ‘Bhai Maine Bola Tha Na’
After India and Pakistan agreed to a truce in February 2021, wedding bells like Shehnai and celebrations are back in the remote areas along the Line of Control (LOC) in North Kashmir.
Along with peace and tranquillity, locals were seen celebrating wedding functions peacefully. In Churunda village of Uri Tehsil along the Line of Control (LOC) in Baramulla district, celebrations could be felt all around.
These days, weddings in the Uri sector of LOC in the Baramulla district of North Kashmir are taking place without any fear of shelling, which was not possible some years back.
One such wedding is the proof that villagers are peacefully celebrating the wedding procession.
Today was my niece’s wedding. But in this village, it is the first such wedding in which guests came and there was no problem. The districts of Baramulla, and Uri, are very peaceful. If this continues, our village can become a peaceful town, a villager said
Today it looks like we are living in Baramulla. Didn’t even feel like we were living on the border. I especially want to thank the army, due to which the marriage took place,’ he added.
Army personnel also came forward to be part of the celebration and bless the couple in their marriages which shows the true spirit of the locals and the love and care the Indian Army has for the locals of Jammu And Kashmir.’
While lauding the efforts of the government in maintaining peace in the border district, the villager said, ‘thanks to the government for making situations peaceful here’; adding that I request the government to maintain it.
Hundreds of marriages have taken place in border villages of Kashmir since the ceasefire bringing back the old memories of weddings in their own houses instead of moving the events to safer places outside the villages.’
Earlier, we used to stay indoors for days together due to intense shelling from across the border but now here people are participating in marriages on a large scale without any fear, Lal Din Khatana Sarpanch of the village said.
It had been a fortnight since I had shaved! My kid sister after having a soft drink and Samosa (which she forced me to have) then shoved me into a barbers shop in Gandhinagar! ‘Bhai now have a look in the mirror, Now you are looking at the brother of Maira! (Some relations are heavenly made, we humans are just connections! Before I had reached home Maia had already informed my wife (whom she calls as Ammi) and her two sisters Aaarti and Shreya (my daughters) to say ‘Bhai ki shave Kara Dee’ ! Some stories from LOC do not end!
I will conclude by saying it is a fact, what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed! I have!