Rejuri:
Rajouri, once mentioned in a famous pit-stop and ancient texts in the Buddhist journey, is now a district where family does shelter behind trust and sandbags.
The schools of Rajouri are closed – not because they were destroyed, but because it is not safe for children to sit in classrooms because shelling from across the border changes in the day during the night. Frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan – which was a spike after operation vermilion – has hit normal life hard.
The first shells fell as soon as Rajouri slept. In Irwin Khetar village, families scrambled for cover. Walls open and cracked in the door.
Balbir Kumar Sharma remembered the moment when his mother’s uncle’s house took a direct hit. “There were five from the family, three were injured. One child was barely survived. We now sleep at the place of our relatives as our house is no longer safe,” he said.
In Rajouri and its neighboring villages – Mukabarkpura, Patrada Pancharahi – houses are no longer a safe area. They have become bunkers, are leveled in fear. People keep emergency bags ready. Windows remain closed. Families live in a room, often underground or reinforced, waiting for shelling to stop.
Devraj Sharma, a farmer, had only a few minutes to escape. “At 1:35 pm, the explosion occurred,” he said. He said, “We ran out five minutes ago. My children were screaming. My fields – thirty quintals of wheat – all were destroyed,” he said.
Their houses, which are built over the years of hard labor, are now cracks. He said, “These are not just bricks. It was hopeful. It is difficult to rebuild hope compared to the walls,” he said.
And yet, among the debris, a structure is untouched – a small temple near Devraj’s house. “Shiva-ji saved us,” he said, pointing to the temple.
In a land destroyed by gunpowder, faith is the one that changes the villagers again and again.
Geeta Sharma, Tearful, shared her fear. “We were in our house when Khol was killed nearby, my daughter was injured. I can’t sleep at night … This voice would not leave my ears,” she said.
Crops remain unheard, the fields soaked on rainy days become empty. What should have been the time of prosperity, has turned into a struggle to survive. Family has gone with relatives, many are nothing but clothes on their back.
But it is flexibility, underlying this tarnished and broken landscape.
Rajouri can now live between sandbags and silence, but its people refuse to bow down. And when the guns become silent, they say, wheat will be longer again.
