The graves are covered over with lush green grass, under the solitude of trees-вЂњ it seems like the dead are in Paradise.вЂќ Memoryscape by Numair Qadir As for the flowers on the grave, the graveyards of Kashmir are so beautifulвЂќ, says Numair. I understand her fears, for I have seen people dying on the roads and this stays with me every waking moment of my life. His mother would be happier, he says, if he sat at home and did not go to the University. Numair speaks about the daily ordeal for him and his family. The cause of death becomes the only record of their life.вЂќ They have no name or identity the grave digger gives each of the dead, each grave a number. The grave digger keeps an account of the dead he makes a note of the cause of death in his diary. These are of people whose faces have been so badly mutilated by pellets and bullets that they are unrecognisable. вЂњ On my way to the University I have to pass several graveyards and a few of them are of unmarked graves. вЂњItвЂ™s a baggage that we must carry everywhere we go,вЂќ said 22-year-old artist, Numair Qadir, whose work Memoryscape shows rows of unmarked graves punctuated by flowers. There are also credible reports about the discoveries of over 6000 unmarked and mass graves.вЂќ (Read here: The Language of Resistance, an excerpt from Kashmir, Rage and Reason.) Independent broadcast journalist, Gowhar Geelani, in his book Kashmir, Rage and Reason, quoting human rights body JKCCS, writes that there have been more than вЂњ8000 to 10,000 enforced custodial disappearances since the eruption of armed uprising 29 years ago. Once again, at Fort Kochi, the haunting wails of women followed us from room to room tormenting our indifference to sorrows of a distant part. He tells of a body he had buried and how he had to dig it up over and over so that people who had come in search of their disappeared loved ones could identify the body. He tearlessly lamented about burying countless dead that were brought hurriedly to him. A video installation in the adjoining room told the story of the conflict in Kashmir through a grave digger.

We saw that tormented theme earlier too at the Srinagar Biennale, Kochi (KMB 2018), where coffins of infants took centre stage of an installation, with the horrendous high-pitched wail of widows and mothers as the background score. The recurring theme of their artwork was of graves and grave diggers of Kashmir. And as the Valley shut down cutting off all communication with the rest of India, all five artists -Arona Riyaz, Numair Qadir, Anis Wani, Ahmad Muzamil and Tabeena Wani-who had returned to Kashmir only days before the lockdown, were unreachable the enforced Silence in the Valley had sealed them off. Though they refused to speak on politics, their installations reeked of it-showcasing death, displacement and sorrow. These students were among the 11 who bagged the Students Biennale national award at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018. Love is being mindful of that supreme wholeД®ven as additional Indian troops were rushed to Kashmir and security was intensified, five students from the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, University of Kashmir, were winding up a month-long residency programme at Fort Kochi recently. Violence is only forgetfulness of being a part No part can exert violence on any other part Equal parts, powerless parts, ephemeral parts

Silence fills the empty grave