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…
โKashmir is a good market for therapy,โ she remarked. โPeople here need mental help due to their situation and experiences.โ Anita Das, 33, carried an impressive resume and spoke effortless English when she arrived in the valley to get her gig as a therapist this past summer. She was assured of her shot given her…
As guns smoked with impunity over the years, the arrival of avian guests considerably decreased in the strife zone making the means-seeking natives as scapegoats for authorities overlooking the policy paralysis, including a free run of drainage, for wasting the valleyโs wetlands.
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…
A recent Uri military-op conducted amid suspended cellular network once again highlighted the life shadowed by the skirmishes and strife on the garrisoned side-line.ย On the intervening night of September 18 and 19, a battery of the Indian army got activated to counter an infiltration attempt in Uriโs Gohalan area. The breach occurred days after…
She may be known for her museum of love, but Atiqa Bano of Sopore was more than a curator of the past. She was an unassuming philanthropist and the community crisis manager who silently fought destitution till her death. A decorated gallery of awards and recognitions makes it a wall of fame. But beyond this…
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…
Ever since he shut his door on the Indian parliamentary delegation, the defiant old man was fighting a lonely battle with forgetfulness in his home captivity. In the wake of Syed Ali Geelaniโs quiet farewell, a senior scribe who reported the 2016 summer upheaval recalls his field trip to then seething south. The killing of…
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…