The fairer troupe that once drummed out the political support has now become frowning figures of lost politics. As one โmadamโsโ go-getter from downtown Srinagar, Kulsum is currently living a life of a political recluse.ย Bereft of yesteryearsโ zeal to participate in political pomp and show, she mostly stays indoors and no longer going out…
To retain sanity in trouble terrain, many young Kashmiris have found an escape route in hillwalking. Such recreational trips in times of substance abuse and searing regulations are now involving more and more distressed professionals from different fields. At the summit of the 2010 โsummer stormโ, Owais Shamsi became an โimpatient inmateโ in his own…
Among the cultural symbols which have faded in the guise of modernity is an iconic Kashmiri rug called โGabeโ. But now, fighting this craft demise is a master artisan once again decorating Kashmiri drawing rooms with the revived rug. Change which Ghulam Mohammad Lone had long craved for has already taken place to his contentment.…
The critical cash meant for the treatment of the terminal disease is coming to the rescue of the needy in the Covid crisis. Tech-savvy Sajid Sofi sensed it quite early that coming events would soon cast their shadow in his serene hometown on the banks of Mansbal Lake in the Ganderbal district. It was early…
โI was so anxious that I started crying,โ Naseem recalls her hospital visit a fortnight later. โI wasnโt worried about myself, but for my baby.โ Just when Naseem had lost the track of cases and concern, she felt those startling signs making one a fitting case of Covid. The symptoms surfaced when a barrage of…
After cementing his place as a prodigy whose math mettle won him accolades throughout his academic career, an erudite son of a letterless family is now out to flip the field he served for nearly half a century. Unlike a delusional nerd aspiring to break canons with his mental tryouts, thereโs no eccentricity in Shabaz…
Bereft of a healthcare centre, fire service, bridge, drainage, drinking water, roads, bank, and other basic facilities, a village in north Kashmir is living a medieval life in modern times.ย Disquieting dispatch came at dawn when darkness was literally departing.ย But the arrival of a fresh-faced courier only created another blackout for the countryside caught…
There was a time when many households served as vibrant workstations of the skilled women of Kashmir. After the tradition faded over the years due to the turmoil-hit market and lack of craft intervention, young and educated girls of Sonawari have now revived the old women workspaces with their collective efforts. In the shade of…
In Kashmirโs literary circles, some people are asserting that a poet from Sonawari might be the worldโs only poet to write and read poetry in circles.ย The poetic vision burnished in Zareefa Jan, 55, when she was out to fetch water from her village brook.ย Carrying a pitcher on her head, she soon drifted in…
Love stories and dreams often die a silent death in the larger political din of Kashmir. But when a cupid from north lost both his dream and love in the war, he became loner, went into an exile, only to return and die as a miserable man. As the sun shone on a โghost houseโ,…