A recent parent-teacher meet over suspended state of education once again shifted focus to screen-stricken students being schooled in the stressful situation since 2019 summer. One such student is Aisha, whose transition from Curfew to Online classes has only made her identity conscious. She wakes up early, takes online classes and ends her day with…
Politics, policy paralysis and pandemic have collectively derailed Kashmirโs wheelers now selling their buses as junk for survival. 3D effectโDoom, Distress, Demolitionโis quite blatant in the WBS (Western Bus Stand) in the heart of Srinagar.ย In this buzz-bereft bus yard, Abdul Rashidโs grease-smeared face gleams in the summer sun. The transporter has arrived for another…
Once clogged by tourists, now lost in poverty. The people of Dal Lake are left with nothing but empty pockets in another lockdown. A white bird โgullโ sits undisturbed in the Dal Lake on one of the vertical beams of wood. Silent, he pushes the beam and hits the air willfully. An old man sitting…
While recurring dreams may reflect an unresolved conflict in an individualโs life, a Kashmiri woman is grappling with conflict nightmaresโin the land of encounters, cordons and lockdownsโtaking a toll on her mental health. In the dead of the night, the traumatic scene unfolds like thisโฆ Silence shatters with a sudden scream, followed by sweat drips,…
When contagion plagued the previous spring, a young Kashmiri photojournalist became part of the โuntouchableโ crowd inside an isolated ward where he experienced a close death encounter and decided to document his dreadful dungeon. After covering blistering riots in Delhi, I was planning to come home when bogeyman grounded all the flights.ย As someone coming…
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…
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…
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…
When โstatusโ fell last summer, the romantics, like Shakeel and Zehra, of the Valley found themselves at the crossroads of the enforced crisis. Suddenly when messagesย stopped coming from mountains last summer, Shakeel struggled with his pining heart in his Delhi apartment. The first night was getting excruciatingly long and unbearable for the IT guy. Along…
To counter the lockdown-created destitution, one man has taken up the responsibility of 62 neighbourhoods in Kashmir. In a hot and humid summer day in Srinagar, a boy in his early 20sโwearing shabby clothes and holding a paper slipโwas looking for a man whose address he was carrying in his palm. He walked past the…