Jaibeer has started an initiative across several online platforms, Raabta, to connect Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits who were once inseparable in their neighbourhood.
In 2004, Jaibeer Ahmad put out a message on Orkut, looking for his school friend Sameer Dhar. It took a few days and several comments until they finally connected. The childhood friends from primary school at Mattan in South Kashmir’s Anantnag met in South Delhi, within the hour. Jaibeer was in Delhi and Sameer in Gurgaon, “That same day, he drove all the way and came to see me.”
Thirteen years since, Jaibeer has started an initiative across several online platforms, Raabta, to connect Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits who were once inseparable in their neighbourhood. After the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir in early 1990, as families struggled to rebuild their lives, communication with old neighbours was not a priority.
Sameer describes their reunion: “I recognised him immediately and we hugged each other and shared a silence for the first 15 minutes or so. I was one of two Hindu students in an Islamia Hanfia school and the friendship was one my fondest memories. We had not seen each other since 1989 and seeing him again was almost surreal.”
His family moved to Delhi and his father, a doctor, was able to set up practice with the help of friends and the family started over. Nostalgic about the time spent in Anantnag, when religion was not a conscious part of anyone’s life, Sameer says he took a 21km bus ride to school “in someone’s lap or the other.” Meanwhile, Jaibeer moved to Aligarh to pursue higher studies and subsequently to Delhi to work in the advertising sector.
On New Year’s Eve this year, Jaibeer, 43, vice-president and executive business director at James Walter Thompson in Gurgaon, sat talking to his maternal grandmother in Mattan, reminiscing about his childhood. “She mentioned Dina Nath uncle again, as she does on any festival or important day. He was more her son, less her neighbour.” Three years after Dina Nath left Kashmir, he wrote to Jaibeer’s grandmother, “you forgot your son”. That letter still tugs at her heart and she hopes to see him again someday.
“I realised a lot of people carry the same sentiment and want to reconnect with their old friends/neighbours. There is a deep sense of loss about those lost relationships,” he says. The idea for Raabta was based in this conversation. He put up a Facebook post out asking if anyone knew where Dina Nath was or how to find him.
While that search is still on, Raabta has connected several friends, neighbours and a student with his teacher over the last two months. In February, Ashima Kaul put out a message looking for her friend and neighbour from Baramulla, Abbas. Someone said he is a lawyer and put out his number.
“I was overwhelmed and then I saw his picture and he looked just the same,” she said on a radio show, before dialling Abbas’s number for the first time. She described the family — the boy, his sisters — before speaking with him. As the RJ jogged Abbas’s memory, Ashima sat beaming next to her. “Hi Abbas,” she said. They asked about each other’s parents, laughed about having growing old, enquired about each other’s children, and other friends, between bouts of laughter.
The initiative connected Srinagar-based cartoonist Suhail Naqshbandi to his primary school teacher, Manju ma’am. “I was frightened of maths. While other teachers told my parents they should take me out of school, Manju ma’am was kind. She helped gain confidence and took the fright of school away.”
Then came the exodus and Suhail lost his teacher, “She had a big impact on my life. My parents sent her blessings everyday for helping me.” He heard of Raabta, and about a month ago, he put up a post asking about Meena Mujoo. Her brother saw the post and gave Suhail her number.
“She now lives in Bangalore with her husband. I waited for a while and then two week ago, I spoke to her on video call. She was overwhelmed,” Suhail adds. They spoke about Woodlands House school, where she taught him, about his family, about hers. Suhail recently lost his mother and his father passed away last year. “Whenever you miss your mother, call me,” she told him.
Raabta’s Facebook wall and Twitter timeline are filled with messages, accentuated by Tritha Ghosh’s illustrations, from people torn from each other through time and hoping to rekindle memories, reconnect old ties and re-live the past.
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