On Shivratri, Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims bond over walnuts
SRINAGAR: Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit living in Old City, has soaked walnuts on Shivratri and he will be distributing them to relatives, friends and neighbours, most of them Muslims, next week. This has been a routine for Tickoo on the occasion of Shivratri, locally called Herath, for the past many years now. Even at the peak of militancy after most of Pandits migrated in early 1990s, he continued this practice.
“In-fact this walnut has kept the emotional bonding alive between Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits during these years,” he says.
Kashmiri Pandits celebrate ‘Herath’ a day before than the rest of the country. Like Tickoo, hundreds of Pandits, living in Kashmir, performed prayers during the night on Thursday, immersed flowers in the Jhelum, soaked walnuts and then cooked special delicacies on Friday.
“Today it is the day of ‘Salaam’ which has its own history here. We cook special delicacies like fish, lamb and lotus stems. Personally I have prepared Rogan Josh (a special meat delicacy which is part of the Kashmiri cuisine Wazwan),” said Tickoo, who runs Kashmiri Pandits Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS).
Ratan Chakoo, a 40-yearold employee of a private company, who lives on the banks of the Jhelum in Old City said,
“In the morning we offered flowers into the Veth (the Jhelum). After few days, we will open the walnut pot and distribute them among friends, and families . This has been my routine for the past 30 years,” he said.
“Earlier the preparations used to precede the festival a month but now it is not the case,” he said.
According to KPSS, some 808 families are currently living in the Valley while some 3,500 Pandits are working here. Most of these families live in districts of south and central Kashmir.
Sandeep Mawa, chairman J&K Reconciliation Front,whose family opened business in the Old City last year after decades of migration from Kashmir, said that he took many things from Valley to celebrate the festival with his family in Delhi.
“My luggage from Kashmir contained walnuts, lotus stems, apples, spinach, which i distributed among the neighbours in Delhi,” he said.
“We are all in pain, both Muslims and Pandits. Let this day, God bring peace and harmony to Kashmir,” he said.
70-year-old Khatija Begum remembers the days before militancy when Pandits used to perform pooja on the banks of Dal Lake and Muslims and Pandits would visit each others’ homes.
“My elder sister would take me to her Pandit friend’s home on the occasion and gift her walnuts. Similarly her friend would come to our home on the occasion of Eid and bring sweets. Now we hardly see any Pandit here,” she said.
Tickoo believes that the bonding between majority of Muslims and Pandits was still intact despite the migration. “Like the kernels of the walnut, we may have partitions but on the whole we are a single unit. People from both the communities have kept this bonding alive,” he said