Ubaid Bukhari I O Ithaca, O Kashmir “In Shalimar I sit and fill goblets of wine And scan the Earth, waiting for him” – Habba Khatoon From the shores of the Delhi Sultanate Come sailing against Poseidon’s curse, For the Himalaya – a basalt sea in stasis rolls wave after … Read more →
The Colors Of Hope
Hope, I have often suspected, is a rather poor student of art. It refuses to settle upon a single colour. Ask ten people what shade hope wears, and you will receive ten different answers—gold like the first rays of dawn, emerald like monsoon leaves, blue like an untroubled sky, or … Read more →
Night Dies
Farkhanda Night dies. I wish to write something for this beautiful night Scary and serene… Night… Wrapping the untold stories of people, while dying inside for the warmth of sunshine… How ironic! Never can anyone ever wish for their own death, but night dies when the sun rises. From this … Read more →
Poems & Puchkas
These verses move between solitude and society, memory and becoming; tracing the emotional landscapes of contemporary life by reflecting art, war, identity, language, and longing. These poems invite readers into a journey of self-discovery and vulnerability, and show what it means to search for life amidst uncertainty and change. And … Read more →
Jhelum
A Short Story by Ghulam Mohammad Khan The squeezed heart, the weary body. The weight of unvoiced tales, millennia of silence. All of it flows into the invincible Jhelum. It is a silent witness. A keeper of our pain. Its currents try to comfort. In its rage, it claws at … Read more →
Interview with Leena A. Khan
Stories have expanded my capacity for empathy, deepened my understanding of history, and softened my sense of humanity. Reading changes people, and by extension, it changes the world. I wrote Flames of the Cherry Tree because I wanted to wield this power for Kashmir.
A Short Note of Chillai Kalaan
S Ahmed An indignant little child confronted Chillai Kalaan, the fierce forty-day winter of Kashmir: “Why don’t you snow now the way you did in the past? Where are those long, thick icicles that used to hang from the thatched roofs of houses and cowsheds? My father says that in … Read more →
Autumn Thought 2025
Showkat Khaliq Bhat Why does spring dance with joy, while autumn whispers sorrow, despite both wearing vibrant hues?
Autumn Poems 2025
THE AUTUMN SONG Whirling wind plays the flutes, the autumn song gracefully unmutes. Rustling leaves sing melodious songs, garden birds join merrily along. Mesmerizing sunsets turn crimson, the maple trees tune in their violin. Dancing moonlight in the streams that flow, guitars strumming soft and slow. Shrivelling valley’s desperate hum, … Read more →
Autumn Poems 2025
Dear Autumn Dear autumn At last! You come. You approach like an intense passion— who can overcome death by the seasonal charm and melody? The leaves are falling down, making the trees empty and bare, to make their souls visible. How beautiful it looks! Autumn— you are the eye of … Read more →
Autumn Poems
Generate autumn leaves and publish these poems THE AUTUMN SONG Whirling wind plays the flutes The autumn song gracefully unmutes Rustling leaves sing melodious songs Garden birds join merrily along Mesmerizing sunsets turn crimson The maple trees tune in their violin Dancing moonlight in the streams that flow Guitars strumming … Read more →
The Banality of Desolation
Ghulam Mohammad Khan I am Desolation. I am the unauthored text, a narrative in search of a scribe to inscribe my meaning upon the world. I am a chameleonic resonance, assuming myriad shapes and hues. I am the breath on the windowpane of a lonely room, the hollow echo in … Read more →
Fragmented Geographies / Fragmented Selves
Madiha Tariq Srinagar runs in every memory that burns and cools and burns again. My home is an outline traced in memory, a door that swings open in dreams but refuses to appear in waking life. It is where, betrayed by the cruelty of all which is not home, something … Read more →
Maybe
Nikhil Azad Maybe one day we’ll meet in Srinagar— where the Jhelum forgets its habit of ferrying craniums of sleeping children, and Kashmir is no longer a bruise pressed into my father’s throat. where curfewed women don’t cradle the stench of bones mourning their lovers, and children no longer wait … Read more →
Child of Wonder
Ashen Kaid He remembered the boy who used to hum to the stars. That child never asked for applause. He didn’t need a reason to dream or permission to wonder. He simply believed the world could be soft again. Now grown, he carried the weight of unspoken goodbyes and crowded … Read more →
The Girl Who Didn’t Exist
Ghulam Mohammad Khan The streets are tombs. Rubble stretches like the bones of a gutted beast. The wind carries the scent of crushed concrete and something older—buried breaths, unfinished screams. At the airport, the conveyor belt swallowed his words. His anger was a live wire. Stubble shadowed his jaw, rough … Read more →
The Harvest of Hair
Ghulam Mohammad Khan Arifa’s fingers trembled as she tucked a loose strand of hair beneath her scarf, the motion sharp with a quiet desperation. The kitchen floor gleamed under her furious scrubbing, the water swirling in murky spirals—dirt, fear, something unspeakable dissolving into the grout. This house no longer feels … Read more →
Why all men should be feminists?
Faizaan Bhat & Saalim Bhat After the 2014 devastating floods ended in Kashmir, women, as the old wives’ tale goes, were almost squarely blamed for it. Bizarre enough to believe, reasons given by society for the unfolding of the doom were women’s choice of clothes suggesting the growing inculcation of … Read more →
Dedicated to to my beloved Baba
Syed Tanees Zubair The backbone Someone was born On that day To face the fears Resist the fray He makes me happy He resists my fear, And when I cry He wipes my tears. He does so good So why is the world foe; Why only he Why this woe? … Read more →
Shi’ism in Kashmir
Hakim Sameer Hamdani author of Shi’ism in Kashmir in conversation with Faizaan Bhat A few years back, a friend introduced me to Hakim Sameer Hamdani. Since then, a casual meeting has evolved into a friendship; discussing ideas, and books on philosophy, history, theology, etc. We probably disagree more than agree … Read more →