As a medieval martial method, beheadings are used to scare soldiers and collect war trophies and wage psyops. When the same tactic consumed the 2003 LoC ceasefire before its revival in 2021, it almost pushed the two nuke-armoured neighbours on the warpath. A month before Delhi would secretly execute Indian Parliament convict Afzal Guru inside…
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,…
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…
As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries play a fundamental role in society. But barring a few token book houses devoid of reading culture, Kashmir has nothing substantial to offer to readers. When Salik Pervaiz, a Ph.D scholar from Central University, visited the SPS Library last year, he found himself in a cold and confused…
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…
Before it would become wannabe driversโ training territory, Eidgah had become Kashmirโs signpost of conflict casualties. The sprawling ground for special congregational prayers would shrink once strife made it a war-turf of sorts. Hafeeza strolls every day around Srinagarโs Eidgah area for morning and evening walks from Ael Masjid to the martyrsโ graveyard, Mazaar-e-Shuhada, with…
Selling an early morning delicacy in the city centre, a sweet stall has been serving tastes since the sixties. With times, even as the kiosk has found a new owner, it has retained the old charm in Srinagar. With an icy December dawn, the misty sunrise heralds yet another first-half daily routine for Shahid Pakhtoon…
After burnishing his brush brilliance in the sweltering campus in Delhi from the last three decades, a prominent painter is back home in Srinagar to help his young tribe grow in the creative world. To help us strengthen the tradition of quality reading and writing, we need allies like YOU. Subscribe to us.