On August 5, when Delhi scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and downgraded the state into two union territories, life came to an abrupt halt. Strict restrictions apart, communication blockade was crippling. Four months later, internet still continues to be blocked.
Shops used to open for a few hours in evenings to enable people to buy essential commodities. One shop, Emm Bee, located in Srinagar’s uptown Baghat belt, however, would remain open throughout the day. People used to come individually or in groups carrying their otherwise useless smart phones and the pen drives.
After waiting in queue, these visitors would handover these gadgets to the shop owner, who would write Content from his computer over them. The shopowner, wants to be identified as Ahmad, his second name. The hoarding on Ahmad’s shop reads he is dealing with cinematography, video shooting, photography, movies, gaming, mobile phones, mobile accessories and allied things. After August 5, however, he is known for the distribution of Content mostly the TV and web series, the only source of entertainment to the urban youth.
“After the clampdown on all sources of communication, people have nothing to do. Every employer and employee had suddenly nothing to do,” Ahmad said. “To ease their mental burden they needed something for entertainment, for which they would visit me,” said Ahmad. Perhaps he is the only person who knows the trends in entertainment. His permanent clientele has exceeded 200. Kashmir has remained an entertainment starved society especially after the cinema halls were closed in 1990’s when conflict engulfed the region. Since then, people used to watch movies on their TVs using movies on video cassettes or CDs.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 22-28, 2019-Ausgabe von Kashmir Life.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 22-28, 2019-Ausgabe von Kashmir Life.
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