Can I get away with the claim that the shrillness in the Jammu and Kashmir political sphere has toned down? Or is that the eternal optimist in me speaking out of turn?
Everyone I meet -- from former J&K chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and his bete noire and ruling coalition partner Mufti Mohammad Sayeed through intelligence officials and security advisors to separatist leaders such as Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Professor Abdul Ghani Bhatt -- appears circumspect. Even Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the ailing 78-year-old ardently pro-Pakistani politician, long-labelled the 'hawk' by many quarters, comes across less fiery.
Expectedly, this mood is reflected in the regional newspapers as well: there is relatively less of rhetoric, less on violence, less on security excesses in the English newspapers I pick up, and more column space to other news -- sports, environment, healthcare, education, even on Shakespeare and 'the game of love'.
"For once I have to work hard for my story," says journalist Shamim Meraj. "I need to go and find them; they stopped dropping into our laps."
Image: Dr Farooq Abdullah, chief patron of Kashmir's main Opposition political party, the National Conference, at a golf tournament organised by an international watch company in Srinagar. Golf tourism is one of the popular attractions of the Kashmir valley. Photograph: Rouf Bhat/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Srinagar's picture-perfect course beckons golfers
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