The Veiled Sweets: Agha Shahid Ali’s Surprising Use of Humor
By Ravi Shankar The headline of a recent newspaper article by Sadiq Ali reads, “Humourous Kashmiris now resort to dark humor.” The article goes on to describe how exceedingly the inhabitants of the war-marred land in the northwest corner of India, where Agha Shahid Ali hails from, use black humor … Read more →
And Now I Cross to the Other Side…
Waqar Hussain Mir Waqar Hussain Mir is a Kashmiri living in Mumbai, India. He obtained his masters in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and is currently engaged as a fellow studying the trajectory of resistance in Kashmir. “Rizwan, it’s you, Rizwan, it’s you,” I cry … Read more →
All Eyes on the Afghan Elections
Syed Zafar Mehdi The countdown has begun. The battle lines are drawn. All the political pundits are gearing up, with a certain degree of thrill and edginess, for the biggest political spectacle in this part of the world: Presidential elections of Afghanistan in April 2014. From Washington to Kabul, and … Read more →
An Enduring Legacy: Tribute to Hussaina Bano
Hussaina Bano, a mother activist of the Association of the Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) passed away on 4th October 2013. Hussaina’s son Syed Ayub left for work one morning in 2002 and never returned. Witnesses claimed he was picked up by Indian troops and whisked off to an … Read more →
Paintings
Rollie Mukherjee is an award-winning painter, and art historian who blogs at http://hiddenterrain.blogspot.ie
Ghazal: How Many So Many
Rumuz E Bekhudi (Please scroll down for the English translation) Sawaal Kaetya Jawab Kaetya Muhabbatas Manz Hisaab Kaetya Su Yaar Samkhyom Tath Annigatis Manz Ath Roi-e-Chandras Naqaab Kaetya Tijaratas Manz Kehn Baezgar Chiv Kinaan Umeed-o-Khwaab Kaetya Wadun Chi Zan Aab-e-Joi Chi Jaeri Asaan Zan Chel Rabaab Kaetya Yath Zeeth Safras … Read more →
Wail
Ambreen Naqash The bride left Habilimented In white velvet. Youthful Yet too tired. Close to Nature Not of dead cells But of silence around. Relinquished By the crowd. Alone Strengthening her voice To be heard Accompanied by someone nice. Riding into the forest Of no notes. Searching the owner Of … Read more →
Childhood
Amjal Sameed In happiness hearts throbbed Souls innocence relished Tender loving care received Ah! Days of glee perished In laughing streams bathed Skin mud-painted Excuses purity-braced Ah! Time sea-dipped In blissful rain showered Butterflies hovered Birds on branches watched Ah! Moments remembered Ajmal Sameed (sameed6275@gmaildotcom) is a lecturer in Saudi … Read more →
27 October 1947
Ather Zia You speak of “paradise”— waterfalls, with some ebb, still rush over weary shoulders of mountains that stand like knowing children in Maisuma during a “crackdown”— meaningless exercises in words, left empty by presence of soldiers who guard wilting lotuses and stone domes of other tyrannies against soft bodies … Read more →
Old Man And The Breeze
Huzaifa Pandit I could never taste The purple fire On roses without thorns Inert to the loud sneeze Of the Evening Call to Prayer Peeled off from the cold sun Itching from the damp blanket Of the pale clouds Emptied of all steel-colored rain I could never hear Fully the … Read more →
A Promise
Muhammad Tahir He asks me: “Where is the poem you promised to write long ago?” I am at a loss what to tell him: that I lost it somewhere along the way, or, that it never came to me the way I wanted it to come. Or, shall I say, … Read more →
My Kashmir
Mehr Fatima Hakim Kashmir To me so dear But I don’t see Where’s the beauty I see trash in piles Streets full of litter and junk Stretching for miles It saddens me to see this gunk A place the generation before mine Speaks so fondly about Recalling Dal Lake’s shine … Read more →
Making Sense Nonsense
Jwmwi Basumatary Mirror’s taunting Neither makes me smile nor cry Breaking of the day Breaks nothing either An emptiness of empty within With no more space to fill A pessimist’s optimism The silence between the musical notes A dying man’s last love Living man’s eternal bitterness Frozen in the maze … Read more →
The Absent Snow
Ashfaq Saraf Love for Sadiq Jaan didn’t allow us the comfort of a palatable surprise. We were made to bury him in the dead of night and with him physical sanctity of his sovereign face which had the potent substance of attracting Amjad out of his hole. Of what was … Read more →
It Is Getting Late
Ambreen Gul Shah Summer was a fading memory and spring was a long way off. A late winter afternoon. Dull, dreary, leafless trees manning the compound wall. The jagged mountains breaking and splintering into the horizon. That horizon beckoned, tempted one to try to cross it. What existed beyond those … Read more →
Psychosis
Shahnaz Bashir Each receding paranoid trooper diminishes, becomes tiny and fades past in the side mirror of the 407 bus, dragging behind itself a long ribbon of the thoroughfare road. The road bends at Dalgate and stretches through the downtown of Srinagar. Sakeena is one of the nearly thirty something … Read more →
Writing on the Wall
Majid Maqbool Riyaz Ahmad made his living by painting messages on walls. He was a sign painter. He survived on irregular work assignments from Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). In his late thirties, he stood out on the street for his imposing height. He had a thin frame but he was … Read more →
“Shabistan-e-Wajood” (The Ordeal of a Journalist)
Authored by Maqbool Sahil Reviewed by Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander Publisher: Meezan Publishers, Srinagar Kashmir Year of Publication: 2009 | Price: Rs 350 | Pages: 355 Jail Life is altogether a different world where only the supposed guilty are confined for punishment. The word Punishment seems harsh to the … Read more →
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