On the day when Kashmiris are observing the 175 years of the inhuman Treaty of Amritsar (the pact which sealed the fate and sold the valley along with its people, livestock and trees to Dogra rulers), many are recalling the treacherous regimeโs prime minister for his principled conduct with the Fourth Pillar of Democracy, now…
On the day when Kashmiri Pandits are celebrating Herath, Mountain Ink presents the living legend of Mohini Raina โ the beloved nurse who sought salvation in her sisterhood and spiritual roots to overcome an overwhelming situation in her homeland when her tribe members migrated from the valley. When Indian Home Minister Mufti Sayeed played his…
After Akbarโs invading army faced an โoppressedโ hatredโโPogi moghulโโfor being the first alien arm-twisters in the valley, the koshur slang only progressed with political shades and slurs throughout its โNaya Kashmirโ resurgent phases.ย As the two political pals rose to address the monarchy-liberated masses in Kashmirโs Red Square in the late forties, the celebrated Persian…
Kashmirโs Persian connection mightโve elapsed from public memory amid the blitz of the distorted narrative over the years, but a sanctum sanctorum in old Srinagar is still making these ties as obvious as it was back in the reformerโs time. A turret rising from a rusty pyramid-shaped rooftop in downtownโs defiant pocket populated by polemic…
His โIndian Muslimโ shrill mightโve cemented the slot his โbuddyโ promised during an emotional farewell, but in Kashmirโs Congress camp, the former chief minister remains the leader whose central canvassing continues to baffle even his contemporaries. The silence from the Delhi-based Congress headquarters over the retirement of the โGandhi family loyalistโ Ghulam Nabi Azad has…
Four JK lawmakers in Rajya Sabha are retiring in coming weeks. In absence of J&K Legislative Assembly that is the electoral institution via which the new members would be elected, the speculation and the debate within the political circles remain about the empty benches in the Indian parliament. Before Kashmirโs โabrogatedโ political landscape would create…
The time started when a regime manโs rogues were crushing a popular movement in Kashmir. It continues when the dummyโs fiddling heralded the time feared most during the red squareโs regular rendezvous. Ghulam Nabi Gadisaaz had sensed the fast-changing pulse of the time when he began his journey as a watchmaker in Srinagarโs historic Lal…
As frozen taps and snow-wrecked rooftops became stark signs of the resurgent harsh and hostile winter in Kashmir, life inside the concrete structures bereft of insulation and warmth became a telling comment on the delusional lifestyle in the valley. Amid this frozen agony and anxiety, longing for good old homes is only surging. At a…
Thirty one winters later, Ghulam Mohammad Dar still carries the first carnage of militancy-era in his head like a nightmarish strife. Besides changing Kashmir, the bridge butchery altered this erstwhile newsagent forever. Itโs been a sad transformation, he says looking at a dead pigeon floating on frosty waters under the bridge. That day, he recounts,…
A British-era photo-studio on the iconic Bund had taken some rare shots of the pre and post-Dogra-ruled Kashmir before its ace lensman would make its classic capture a thing of beauty forever. Unlocking the main door of the studio where almost five decades of his life have passed, Ghulam Mohammad Sofi turns pensive as he…