As peace continues to drive diplomatic discourses and backchannel talks, the discord-dented commoners of Kashmir still wonder about the elusive calm in their homeland. I pictured Manzoor Ahmad as a frown figure inside his rundown shop in Downtown Srinagar. The 65-year-old tailor was working on someoneโs pheran. He enjoys working when the bright sunlight illuminates…
Thirty one winters later, Ghulam Mohammad Dar still carries the first carnage of militancy-era in his head like a nightmarish strife. Besides changing Kashmir, the bridge butchery altered this erstwhile newsagent forever. Itโs been a sad transformation, he says looking at a dead pigeon floating on frosty waters under the bridge. That day, he recounts,…
Over the years, Kashmiri firemen have emerged as reckoning crisis and disaster managers fighting the valleyโs fired up situations amid ire and irony. As the tribe of arsonists grew and gutted landmarks in some cindering instances of violence in the valley since 1990, Mohammad Akbar Dar realized that his routine firefighting job has become a…
As the pandemic-affected world observes Universal Children Day on November 20 with a resolve to improve childrenโs welfare, kids in Kashmir continue to await hassle-free campus life and respite from the stressful strife. Asif is stuck in weary-walls of his home since last summer when schools became shut shops in Kashmir following a traumatic thaw…
Even as autumn is gradually paving the way to winter in Kashmir, Wular Lake in Bandipora is witnessing persistent woman efforts for maintaining the seasonal chestnut supplies in Kashmir markets. The sun was shining and the azure blue sky had only wisps of clouds in it, as Fancy rowed her boat in the Wular Lake…
In the upper reaches of central Kashmir, two seasonal schools for the children of nomadic people are awaiting right touches and treatment. Itโs a daily slog for seasonal teacher Ajaz Ahmed through boroughs, brooks and bridges of Budgam. After dusting miles on foot, he reaches upper pastures and stands sullen in serene surroundings. The grassroot…
Breaking free from hackneyed foreign accounts, Kashmir over the years witnessed the rise of native narratives with fresh and deep insights. A young visual storyteller in this photo story is only trying to capture one such description of Srinagar cityโs not-so-overt shades of life. Life in Sun City is an elegy of its rundown glory…
To summon up the supreme sacrifice of the Imam, mourners thronged streets in Kashmir recently only to face the vexed mood. Swarms of sorrowers left behind a streak of sadness as they passed through manned streets with the shimmering name on their lips, tears in their eyes, and thumps on their heaving chests. As the…
Beyond landscape, thereโs always mindscape and that is what a shutterbug is trying to capture in this deeply personal account. Itโs not a glitzy undertaking to be a lensman in Srinagar โ the city where empires perished, where romantics are oral legends, and where every soul has a staggering saga to share. As a citadel…
Amid pervasive gloom, thereโre some stark signs of resilience for life in the Valley. And children are only acting as a guiding light in this regard. Aqeel is far from his sombre shadow that used to envelop his sorrowing self amid lockdown till recent past. Otherwise a sulking kid of 10, heโs now smiling what…