,
10 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
This morning in Srinagar, as I prepared to leave.
I have become a bottle chockful of messages to the world out there.
People to be informed that their relatives are safe, medicines have been delivered, or that somebody has not been located, and who can be contacted...
I have become a bottle chockful of messages to the world out there.
People to be informed that their relatives are safe, medicines have been delivered, or that somebody has not been located, and who can be contacted...
the few numbers of government employees that have been made active.
There is a belated birthday greeting to be sent, satellite TV subscriptions to be paid, and a visa application to be pursued.
There is a belated birthday greeting to be sent, satellite TV subscriptions to be paid, and a visa application to be pursued.
I make notes, take pictures on my phone, which is now nothing more than an alarm clock & camera that also plays some music.
The petty, mindless cruelty of it is sickening.
Parents & children cut off from each other, husbands and wives, lovers & friends, all in the dark...
The petty, mindless cruelty of it is sickening.
Parents & children cut off from each other, husbands and wives, lovers & friends, all in the dark...
about each other’s happenstance, and no idea when the blockade will be lifted, no idea when a whole people will be heard from again.
At the same time the lies of the government are broadcast on every TV channel, the propagandists and hucksters are having a field day.
At the same time the lies of the government are broadcast on every TV channel, the propagandists and hucksters are having a field day.
Memories of the 1990s are rekindled.
XXX tells us about how they had transported Mark Tully, the veteran BBC correspondent to the airport, and how he had managed to slip out again, disguised in a pheran.
XXX tells us about how they had transported Mark Tully, the veteran BBC correspondent to the airport, and how he had managed to slip out again, disguised in a pheran.
There are darker memories, of how she had dropped off her young cousin and five others at an airport.
One was a travel agent, the others were students destined for the then USSR.
A policeman had called her at home afterward to tell them that the group had been de-boarded...
One was a travel agent, the others were students destined for the then USSR.
A policeman had called her at home afterward to tell them that the group had been de-boarded...
by Intelligence Bureau officials, and nobody knew where they were being taken.
If it had not been for that phone call they would not have known where the people had disappeared. It had taken nearly a day to find them, get them back.
If it had not been for that phone call they would not have known where the people had disappeared. It had taken nearly a day to find them, get them back.
The travel agent had been accused of leading a plot to assassinate the then Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, and during the interrogation was forced to strip and stand nude in front of the students.
None of the students travelled to Russia afterward, the detention changing the course of their lives, sending them in different directions.
Now, of course, there is no way to make a phone call even.
- end -
Now, of course, there is no way to make a phone call even.
- end -
*Sorry, this should have been Russia. The Soviet Union was gone by then.
