As I am writing this article at office our team is feeling jubilant. And we have a reason for that as the publication is successfully in its third year of uninterrupted journey. In Kashmir to run a newspaper was never so easy and considered as herculean task. Life in the Valley is stressful so are business ventures. To run a successful business venture here the bigger challenge is its survival not its progress. So we have been through the same conditions all across these years.
We have tried to maintain the highest level of professionalism in our work and tried to live up to the commitment of our readers. We have been offering our esteemed readers the fresh and soothing content and try to be different. Kashmir has been changing for worse and the conflict that struck since past three decades has not only shattered the economy but has bruised us socially. In such situations every heart and soul of Kashmiri is filled with tragedies and traumas which they continue to live with the rest of life.
On top comes the media exploitation, the pain is more exploited for the vested interests nationally, internationally and locally without any cure. In last thirty years media has adversely failed in showing up the positive side of Kashmir and has been used as tool of propaganda by national and international media. Ironically, the local media too has not been so positive towards the Kashmir and continued to push the people towards the hopeless destination. We forget our heroes of yesteryears who shaped our today better to survive and kept the lineage of positivity for coming generations.
At The Legitimate we realised what it means to sustain a venture where abnormality is the normalcy of the times. Shutdowns, curfews and the violence is the regular feature of life. Where the peak season for economic growth gets disturbed with the political uncertainties and rest of the times becomes hard to survive due to chilling winter season and diminishes the possibilities of business.
We too started our journey in the December 2015 and were first hit by turmoil in July 2016 when militant Burhan Wani was killed. Since then the economy of Kashmir has never been on the rails. As the survival of media industry much relies on the advertisement revenues, it has increasingly become difficult for us to maintain the financial requirements. However, unfortunately so many like us were not so lucky who started their ventures at the same time and were compelled by the circumstances to close their businesses. We sailed through and will Insha Allah continue to keep run our journey with the support of our trusted and beloved readers.
As the team of The Legitimate is optimist we had an idea floated at office to celebrate the third year of our journey with positive and successful brains of the Valley who have independently scaled the heights of success and contributed something positive towards their home land.
We dwelled into the government run schemes for the youth of Kashmir to start their own ventures but only had to return disheartened. They were not only messy but murky as well. Number of youths who spoke to us were disheartened and stressful for believing and relying on such initiatives which looked fanciful on papers and zero progress on ground.
I don’t find reasonable here to report them and may be in coming regular issues we may report those issues in detail. We switched over to the much touted schemes launched by our own Jammu and Kashmir Bank and if there are any young business people who may have grown with their support. Unfortunately, here also there were no success stories.
This bank has served more to the influential class then the talent youth. There was no encouraging story of any common man supported by this premier financial institution. However, lots of stories where the elite class businessmen, politicians and their relatives, bureaucrats and the relatives of Bank officials have been unconditionally benefited though many of those have never returned the loans and the accounts have been frozen without recovery.
But still there was a hope; our own businessmen who have in real terms build the economy of Kashmir in tumultuous times. We decided to celebrate our journey with such positive minds. We were over excited to see many such brains who stood as a hope for the better tomorrow and for our future generations. As you flip the pages of this special edition dedicated to these entrepreneurs of Kashmir, I am sure you will find lots of positivity, hope and encouragement in case you too want to become an entrepreneur of Kashmir and help its economy to build. I wish you bests and a happy read ahead.
