Indo-Asian News Service
Haripora: Ghulam Muhammad Magray, 42, is fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but still toiling away at his small, golden brown paddy field in this northern hamlet of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The rice crop has been good this year. There were timely rains and plenty of irrigation in our area. I expect a bumper crop this season. Hopefully, it will last and feed my family of six the full year," Magray said while taking some time off from his work in the paddy field.
Like thousands of local peasants, Magray works round the year in his half-acre paddy field in Haripora in Ganderbal district, sowing, transplanting, manuring, irrigating, de-weeding and finally reaping his crop. His wife, Sara, 35, also helps him. In fact their four children, three sons and a daughter also lend a hand.
But like thousands of other peasants in the valley, they will also have to depend on the government ration depot to buy rations for at least six months each year.
Asked why he started harvesting a little late this year as his field looked all ripe and ready, he replied "I had gone to attend the Hurriyat march at Eidgah. Then there was a curfew in the area. I couldn't start early harvesting as my field is close to the highway where vehicles of the army and police keep passing daily."
Like Magray, there are thousands of local peasants for whom peace is intrinsically linked with prosperity. And peace was certainly disrupted when land transfer to the Amarnath temple shrine board and its subsequent cancellation led to protests across Jammu and Kashmir two and a half months ago, resulting in the death of 50 people.
Prosperity for honest Kashmiri villagers means living happily among their families, being able to afford two square meals a day, sending their children to school and dividing their time between the field and as unskilled labour for a local contractor.
The simple peasant's demand solution to their woes, which even the best minds in India and Pakistan are perhaps still unable to provide.