An addict of yesteryears has now become an inspiration for doctors, engineers, professors, businessmen and lawyers in Kashmir. Inside Kashmirโs known clinic crowded with confused caseloads, Faizan looked stoned. Sharing a wooden bench with a young woman wearing a flabbergasted face and an elder looking jittery, he tapped his feet while restlessly waiting for his…
From a patient on an oxygen cylinder to a student on exam preparation, the โpowerlessโ winter is once again keeping life hostage to the fair-weather system and grid in the valley. In her candlelit room, Shazia is sitting anxiously. The 26-year-old is a prospective PhD scholar and has recently enrolled for online classes on Unacademy…
In the land of Alim, Adab and Aab, Sonawari has emerged as a stronghold of Kashmiri literature. Outside his window, as Jhelum meanders through the Chinar-dotted landscape, Aadil Mohidin breaks into a thoughtful remark: โYe wyeth roze pakaan (Jhelum will keep flowing).โย This typical Koshur watchword might be a regularโyet resilientโreply from Kashmiris caught in…
If creative marketing of some capsโlike Afghani or Ertugrul headgearsโcan make them global products, why canโt the same be done to conical caps of Kashmir? At the start of Seventies, a young farmer in Kashmirโs Sonawari belt was regularly lifting his moist eyes towards the sky.ย It was the year of drought in Kashmir and…
In the land of โAdabโ, a venerable versifier is speaking hearts and minds of masses with her mystical verses. In her meditatively-calm room, sheโs murmuring the song of storms. The song is a rendition of her verses woven with mystic musings. Thereโs an apparent throbbing heart in the melody transcending sensory perceptions. It talks about…
In the darkest hours, his father would say, โGet out of my house!โ Itโs the year 2015โฆ 10-year-old boy hears some noises on the premises and the sound of a car. From a room on the first floor, through a small window hole, he saw his father getting out of the car. Heโs accompanied by…
Knocking the doors, talking to people, explaining the same thing over and again, convincing them, registering them for the drive, is what the couple has been doing for months now.ย In a bid to boost the battle against the brutal bug, Naziya Hurra braved brouhaha in the form of street sneers and smirks trying to…
With the Taliban takeover once again making analysts predict a speculative storm, a bygone Afghan arrival had only touched countless lives in Kashmir. At the foothills of the Chinar-dotted postcard peak in Bandiporaโs Chekreshpora village, a saintโs school, sanctum, seminary and shrine are speaking about Kashmirโs spiritual Afghan legacy.ย The sacred signposts defy the treacherous…
On International Literacy Day, Mountain Ink brings out the story of the two young girls from Kashmirโs situational-hit families who chose earning over learning. Her home is a piecemeal world of woes where sheโs slogging to bring some smiles on the situation-stricken faces.ย But the perpetual pathos that has come to define the indoor life…
โWhenever I go to Badwan, I sit on the bank of Dam and keep looking towards the gushing waters. I see how the dam took away my home and my fields from me.โ Amir Lone, 26, often disappears from the bustling town of Bandipora and returns home with some refreshing tales. But whenever he walks…