Ahead of Eid, Srinagar comes to life by dusk

A soothing freshness of early autumn is in the air, but the legacy of unrest that began during the summers looms large over the situation impacting the life of people from all sectors.
Those belonging to varied sectors of education, tourism and harvesting of the agricultural and horticultural produce are badly affected due to the unscheduled restrictions or shutdowns over the last two months.
While there is a complete shutdown during the days, shopping has been restricted to a couple of hours in the evenings as per the schedule given under the “protest calendar”.
“There are more shoppers as compared to the ‘relaxation’ period during the recent days,” says Kousar, a housewife. She says it is because of the approaching Eid-ul-Azha that many people are thronging markets.
Hilal Ahmad, a newspaper vendor, has his fingers crossed and fails to find any answer as to how far the “too-long stretched” situation would continue like this before the return of peace and normalcy. The (CRPF) man in uniform is “amazed to see the crowd of shoppers, converging in haste after remaining indoors throughout the day”.
The vendor has been dealing only with the sale of local dailies as the Delhi-based dailies and magazines have stopped circulating after July 9. There are no tourists strolling around and looking for the Kashmir handicraft, papier-mache and wood carving decoration items.
“Only the poor man suffers,” laments a junior officer of the CRPF on duty at Lal Chowk.
“There may be only 20 or 25 per cent of people wanting to create trouble,” he says and points to the nearby Maisuma locality that may anytime hum with the clashing groups—protesters, police and CRPF men.
To avoid any trouble, the “Ghanta Ghar” or the Clock Tower and the area around it has been sealed from all sides since early July.