My son took a bathput on new clothes,left home,riding a horselike a prince;came homeas kilos of ripped flesh. one foggy winter day,some two decades ago,my brotherlost his fingers;an eagle feastedon his eyes. meadows, haunted hamletswhere the grass grows uphill-armed men storm the villageand take men out of their houses,beat themand force them to carry their…
โAzadiโ contains several essays in which Roy gives us a powerful but partial look at the situation in Kashmir. Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. is a collection of essays written by Arundhati Roy through the eyes of a novelist. These essays were written between 2018 and 2020, two years that in India have felt like two…
Rave reviews apart, veterinarian Shabir Ahmad Mirโs debut novel is poetry without rhyme. The Plague Upon Us is not about the rampaging coronavirus crippling the world and making billions captives in their homes, including 8 million lockdown-stricken Kashmiris. Itโs a plague that has consumed the life in Kashmir since 1947. This is a story of…
In the year of Imperial sunset and rise of the new power structure in South Asia, the valleyโs versifiers flocked together to float a literary movement. Years later, the movement remains a contested legacy between Left and Right. Throughout his eventful career, Ghulam Nabi Khayal wore many hats. As a writer, he had his brushes…
In Kashmirโs literary landscape, Shafi Ahmad comes across as an unassuming wordsmith driven by an old school authorโs belief. He lets his pen speak for himself. But the absence of the public eye doesnโt make him any minnow, especially when it comes to capturing the strife-torn stories of his homeland. With his debut novel spark-plugged…
One can experience loneliness in two ways: by feeling lonely in the world or by feeling the loneliness of the worldโฆ And when you feel that you are dying of loneliness, despair, or love, all that you have not experienced joins in this endlessly sorrowful procession. ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย …
It is not how the world is that is mystical, but that it is.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ๏ผLudwig Wittgenstein This book is the…
I donโt dream aboutthe divine spirits of revolutionabout ghosts in the shapesof struggles, protestsand fightsblood and bombs. I donโt dream abouta place whererain is born to weave the rainbowswhere from there is no exileno head is bowedno sinsno sorrow. where every griefeach sufferingin silencemake up slogans. Azadi. Azadi. Azadi I donโt dream aboutan isolated, lonely…
Have you ever read somethingthat worked as a stitchon an open wound? The words that feel likethe ointment on the painful limbor the plaster on a broken bone?Words you read and feel stress-free or give relief to a grieving heart?Words that tranquilize youlike a childโs first smile?Words that soothe the roiling soul?Words working like a…