By Binoo Joshi
Jammu, Feb 9 (IANS): With a hot cup of tea in his hands, Showkat Geelani, 15, is overwhelmed by the love and affection showered on him by the people of Jammu , most of whom are Hindus. He is among the several hundreds of passengers stranded on the Jammu and Kashmir Highway for past six days, after the road was closed due to heavy snowfall.

"They are angels," he said. While the government has set up its own community kitchen, seeking registration and other formalities before serving food to the stranded passengers here, the voluntary organisations simply offered tea and food without asking even a simple question.

Several voluntary organisations in Jammu have stepped in to provide food to the passengers who are stranded here for the past six days, due to the closure of Jammu-Srinagar national highway. Their community kitchens are working round the clock.

Showkat could not believe when he was asked to sit and get his plate for food Friday.

"I did not have proper food for the past few days. When they served me food with love and affection, it reminded me of my home and family," said Showkat who is stuck here along with his uncle Munir of Akoora village in Anantnag district in south Kashmir .

Munir is equally touched by the gesture of the people of Jammu . "They are serving simple food but with love and care. It is clean too," Showkat told IANS.

The organisations are aware of the food habits of the Kashmiris, a vast majority of them are Muslims, and have gone in for rice, lentils and vegetables.

"In fact, we have asked them the kind of food they would prefer for the day," said Praveen Kumar, a corporator in the municipal corporation, Jammu . He has organised the community kitchen with contributions from people.

Praveen said, "People have contributed with money and in kind."

"For us it is not a question whether they are from this place or the other, Hindu or Muslim, they are people in distress. And it is our duty to help them in this hour of crisis," he said.

Abdul Rashid, an elderly passenger from Srinagar , who is also stranded, said that the gesture of the people of Jammu , which is a Hindu majority city, is a manifestation of the fact that the human compassion cannot be divided on the basis of religion.

"It is an example of communal harmony, that I will relate to my family once back home in Srinagar ," Abdul Rashid said. Other stranded passengers also have similar plans.