โNow that the autumn is approaching, you might pack up your colour and brushes to paint the landscape of this wailing vale in all possible shades.โ He was losing count of days now. It was a month-old lockdown and the September sun had just begun to smile readily at the mountain peaks.ย โWhat day is…
In 2019, the administratorโs 2008 activism came to haunt him. But the pen-pusher did what the pen-pusher does. He put up a face and sealed the fate. Fresh dossier had come. Some ten boys had been mentioned and marked as โthreat to peaceโ. As District Magistrate, it was his first posting. He was excited โ…
Ramnath Jiโs house? Who could have expected this? What threat? What danger, could an abandoned house pose? Next to Ramnath Jiโs house is a departmental store- Royal Bazaar. Once in a while, a car may pull up near the glass door and a family with sophisticated strides will enter and return with the same sophistication…
He was lost but still hopeful of something, something that could only be felt and not detailed. A young boy of teens, no mustaches at all, a jacket of fashion, seemingly a hipster, opens up fire, so much so that, all the available men lay dead-down.ย Oozing blood and screams were so parallel that none…
Couped up in the cell, Amaan looked through the air-hole and watched the two stars staring at him. Throwing streaks of twilight to his wounds and scars. But suddenly, darkness shrouded the stars, and they were stolen again! Ever since a little boy, Amaan loved those little stars tucked up in an army uniform, more…
Walking back home, I recalled the last nightโs dream. He was consoling me, saying, โDoud tchu tchaalun!โ (We must endure the pain). When my friendโs fiancรฉ became one of those summer slain, I couldnโt help thinking: What if, mine too? Outside on the streets, they were raining nails. I saw bodies getting bored around me.…
โThe game weโre playing is all about focus. Donโt heed to propaganda unleashed by spectators.โ Silence reigns supreme as they mull over their next move. Some obvious shots are stark. But they wonโt take it. Making the game obvious for their opponents is not in their rulebook. Like veterans, they love to keep their rivals…
It was quite a nice morning; the sun was shining bright outside my window in that clear, spotless blue sky, and I was still in my bed. Abba already came three times into my room, scolded me and tried to wake me up. โBut why should I get up? Why should I let this morning-sleep…
The mountains that overhung her called for one word; Home. The water raging against the stones called for the presence of beauty so sublime. The bleating of the goats and the calves felt never this near to her, yet there was anxiety all over the air. She might have been the daughter of mountains for…
Soaring through the warm, misty skies of Delhi and Punjab, we rumbled through the brooding clouds over Pir Panjal before we touched down at Srinagar airport, where the wild summer rain followed me home.ย Iโd been away from home for three long years. When I returned, I learned what three years can do to a…