Diversity in seasons makes our life joyous. In every season there is something to be celebrated. Winter is no exception in this case. The snowfall in winters is much celebrated in Kashmir both by the insiders and outsiders. The tourist resorts in Kashmir become the centre of attraction for the tourists. The snow covered meadows of Gulmarg become the playground for the winter games. So the snowfall is the blessing for the winter tourism and all the people associated with it in Kashmir. Moderate snowfall is taken as a positive indicator for agriculture especially in terms of water availability for irrigation in coming cropping seasons.
The children in Kashmir anxiously wait for the season’s first snowfall. They pray for heavy snowfall. If the snowfall meets their expectations, they celebrate it more than anything. If it falls short of their expectations, children get disappointed. The snow in winters used to be one of the exciting and most adventurous recreations for the people especially children of Kashmir. People from the world spent lakhs of rupees to visit Kashmir to rejoice themselves with the beautiful and live scenes of snowfall.
However, the way we and our children used to recreate from the snowfall in the past has now changed significantly. The people in past used to live by sheen (snow). Snowfall used to be winter break and this season used to rejuvenate the social relationships. The frequency and intensity of social interactions and relations get increased during the period of snowfall. Neighbourhood relations used to get enormous time. The Masid Sofas, in the village was beautiful means for integration of elder and younger generations. Elder people used to share their experiences with the young and children of their village. Such a simple way of spending winter break was strengthening community bonds and reducing the inter-generational gaps. It was beautiful means of embracing advises and experiences from elders and interchange of ideas. The snowfall break on sofas, most of the times used to be the platform for planning about the issues and problems of the village.
Hunting of birds during snowfall was the most excited engagement of youth in villages. They used to go to open fields for this purpose. The little children following the youth in the same way used to catch the sparrows in their courtyards with the help wicker made basket locally known as faet czaed. Arranging grains for the birds was one of the important activities of the children, as birds face difficulty in finding grains during winters. Children were also serious about the shelter of local dogs during winters.
Shin Jung (fighting with snow balls), skiing with help of sticks or co-friend, making snow man, shin-malai (ice-cream making), khand tamul (mixing sugar and rice), ice-breaking that too at the site of water floor mill were the prominent recreating activities among the children in the winters. Every engagement was close to the hearts of children. They were living by these engagements.
Most enjoyable time for children in winters was the late evening time. It was the time for story telling by the elders to the children in the family. Excited was the night, when a guest, expert in story telling would arrive in one’s family. Story telling was the most beautiful engagement between elders and young ones in all the families. These stories were inculcating values in the children.
The rise of nuclear families, occupation centric life with materialistic orientation, advent of new gadgets and the world of mobile screens changed the meaning of living with sheen (snow). Today’s children, over burdened with the school assignments, rat race competitions and strict routines of winter tuitions find snowfall less pleasant. The scenes of sheen (snow) seem less attractive to them than the mobile screens. Child of today is making snowman not for recreation but for his screen worlds. We have time for the birds and animals in the virtual world and miss the real essence of their presence in our courtyard. We have lot of time for virtual games, but find no time for playing with our children in snow. Infact, people go to the snow carpeted open fields to enjoy, but their mobile screens don’t let them to feel the real essence of the snow. They just start taking selfees to upload them on the screens and again move into their virtual world. This way they miss the striking and serene scenes of snow.
The sheen (snow) is too waiting today there for us and calling us to embrace it. But we are busy in the world of screens, distant from living with presence of mind, feeling of belongingness within the network of relationships and blessings of nature. There are numerous things like snow that are same even today as they used to be in the past. But it is our changed attitude and priorities that has made them unworthy and meaningless for us. Let’s now think, how much we are rejoicing the blessings with the spirit of living and essence in the today’s virtual world. These mobile screens are means of helping us and we must control them. These should not control us and subjugate us. A tangible product should not derail a person from real essence of life and its interlinked aspects. We need to maintain balance between the real world and the virtual world.
Author is a School Teacher and can be mailed at dr.naseerwani11@gmail.com
Comments are closed.