Srinagar, July 3: Like Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown, Amma Lala is rooted deep in Kashmir’s tradition and language. It is the name of a traditional Kashmiri grandfather. But today it has become a euphemism for Kashmir’s politics and its crisis across cyber social networks.

‘Amma Lala Masla Ha guv hal’ (Amma Lala, the problem has been resolved). The resolution of the land transfer row in Kashmir may be the general sentiment in the Valley today, but the above conversation is a virtual reality.

The quote is the introduction of an anonymous cyber profile on networking portal Orkut, Amma Lala — an old Kashmiri name which people used to have three generations back. Amma Lala is a rage among the orkuting population of the Valley. And a closer look at the profile explains the presence of thousands of youth, mostly teenagers, who didn’t witness the militant years of 90s, were on the streets protesting transfer of “just 40 hectares of land”. Amma lala represents the aspirations, ideology, interests as well as the fears of an average Kashmiri youth.

The profile picture is an octogenarian Kashmiri, clad in a phiran and a traditional Kashmiri thread skullcap. With 3, 471 scraps, 558 friends and a fan club of 128 people, Amma Lala is the most read profile on orkut — and all his friends are real people.

The highlight of the profile is his two photo albums. There are a total of 135 photos, ranging from the traditional Kashmiri cockfights to the pictures of Kashmiri life and society, from beautiful landscape to the decaying Dal lake. More political pictures include women carrying guns and security personnel in bunkers. The most interesting part of the album is the creative captions, mostly in traditional Kashmiri language. The captions don’t necessarily comment on the situation in the state, but at the same time represent the general Kashmiri sentiments.

The best example is a picture of stone-pelting youth as the board of a police station lies on the road. Amma Lala’s caption says his shop has no signboard so he will take it home.

Amma Lala profile on Orkut is fast becoming a platform for the net-savvy Kashmiris to discuss society and politics. One can search his profile on the site but chatting is possible only if the person is in Amma Lala’s friends’ list.

His friends discuss, weather, politics, movies and the recent happenings. One of the recent visitors to his scrapbook prays for the souls of people who died in the recent Amarnath shrine row and congratulates people on their “victory”.

The oldest scraps on the profile date to December 11, 2007.

The scraps include comments over the ongoing Asia Cup in Pakistan and even films made on the prophet in Holland.

“It doesn’t matter if one is Amma lala’s friend or an orkut account holder, everybody reads what he has to say through friends’ IDs. Amma Lala craze is spreading like fire by the word of mouth,” says an Amma Lala fan who didn’t want to give his real name.

The profile says Amma Lala resides in Kunzer, a small hamlet in North Kashmir on the Gulmarg highway. Of course the state is “Kasheer” the Kashmiri synonym for Kashmir and the country is India. His full profile is of an average unlettered Kashmiri, but humour is his forte.

Though he has only studied till class one, Amma Lala aspires to be a “mukdam” (sarpanch). On personal front, while his idea of a perfect date is the “one on Kashmiri calendar”, his ideal match is “Hindustan-Pakistan Kirkth (cricket in Kashmiri).

And going by the testimonials, while some call him genius, others think of him as a rock star. However, the profile also shows communities debating the identity of Amma Lala. There are some who call him fake, others say he exists in all Kashmiris and represents them.