Instagram is flooded with content creators – some showing you their craft, others sharing ins and outs of their lives. Social media has given people space to speak their mind, talk about their heritage, mobilise like-minded users for a noble cause, and make information reach a wide audience.
However, among billions of users are a few thousand trolls – faceless, vicious, and vile. Not only are they self-obsessed and convinced of their own righteousness, but they also leave no opportunity to comment on someone’s body, accent, skin colour, parenting style, or way of living.
Zirish is a Kashmiri Pandit living abroad. Her bio reads, “Carrying Kashmir in my habits, chai, and silences.” Recently, she took to Instagram to share a video calling out trolls who mocked her Kashmiri accent.
“My Kashmiri accent is not an invitation for mockery, and I won’t normalise that anymore,” the text on the video read.
Zirish said that she had to come forward with the video because she had been witnessing many people mocking her Kashmiri accent. “I want to say it clearly: if my Kashmiri pronunciation is wrong, please correct me. I will genuinely appreciate it. However, if someone tries to make fun of my Kashmiri accent, that is not correction. That is mockery,” she said.
