Bringing up kids is no child’s play in curfew-hit Kashmir valley
SRINAGAR: Confined to homes for over 50 days since curfew was clamped all over the Valley in the aftermath of militant Burhan Wani’s death, it hasn’t been easy for either children or parents.
The virtual detention at home meant the Doraemon cartoon series became a refuge for fouryear-old Hadi. His mother Uzra is concerned not only about an overdose of cartoon, but also his obsession with news which exposes him to words and images that are too fraught for him to understand.
Mohammad Hayat, a government servant and a resident of Srinagar’s Nawabazaar area, plays carom with his five-yearold daughter Fatima till the sound of gunfire is heard at a distance. “Want to go to school tomorrow?” he quickly asks to distract her. She looks back solemnly and says: “No. Tomorrow, too, is curfew.” Hayat then tells her the white lie parents in the Nawabazaar area used to tell their children in the ’80s. “It will soon be over.”
Eight-year-old Aidah, the daughter of Sameera, a teacher, wanted to know why they switched off lights for some weeks. “I said innocents have died. So we have to maintain Black Days,” adds Sameera.
Words like ‘blackout’ and ‘pellet guns’ have entered Aidah’s vocabulary through casual conversations. “She saw a dog passing with a spot in his eye. She was convinced he has been shot with a pellet gun,” says her mother.
General knowledge quizzes were also an option to pass time during the curfew, says Sameera. But sometimes the questions her daughter asks stump her.