โPeople in Kashmir are living in distress, they are fearful, have restricted certain activities and have stopped talking about particular things due to the fear of getting booked under draconian laws.โ SRINAGAR โ On November 22, a prominent human rights activist, Khurram Parvez, was arrested after National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided and searched his home…
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,…
As people often wake up to the news of a new teenโs โdebut novelโ release in town, the valleyโs literary scene only becomes poorer with the addition of the hastily-written, poorly-edited and badly-treated manuscripts. Self-publishing words in the name of aspiring authorship is only creating a rat race among young boys and girls in the…
The year branded for the so-called โMission 2020โ ended up unleashing another crippling phase in Kashmir. Amid paralysis, the valley stood resilient despite strife bleeding it through a thousand cuts. After surviving sixteen-month-long lockdownโthe phase she mostly fended for herself indoors amid flaring up moods and depressive phasesโZainab Nisar is finally breathing easy in her…
โฆbut if the war is really over why then do we await more loss, more death to mourn, more severe trials, more tears to mourn… The tradition of Urdu poetry has been one of the most longstanding and popular poetic traditions of the subcontinent. It emerged from the court of Mughals as a necessary negotiation…
Kashmir: Homeland and dispute. Even though people talk of it as paradise, it is everything else than a paradise for a resident. Kashmir. This one word inspires so many thoughts, brings forth so many things, images, that Iโm not sure where to start. For an Indian, itโs the crown and an integral part of the…
Although they never fought on the frontlines, the forgotten women militia remains a standalone event in Kashmir history in which women took to streets and equipped themselves with arms, and trained themselves thereof. Seventy-three years ago, the tribesmen of North-Western Frontier of Pakistan marched into Kashmir, steadily journeying eastwards in the interest of โfreeing Kashmirโ…
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…
From the faded Indian Coffee House to the popular Lala Sheikh, tea has always fuelled discussions in Srinagar cafeterias. But in times of shut shops, a street stall on the Bund is filling the void. Telegrams have long ceased to come, but tea is still brewing some warm response at the guarded gates of the…
Kashmirโs uncertain landscape is endlessly making women its soft target. As she heard the sound of her squeaky doorknob, she rushed to find out who it was. On seeing her husband back from work, a wide smile spread across her face. But that twilight, some years ago, Neelofar (not her real name), 28, had no…