Inder Salim I said to them, spontaneously Take away your Kashmir, Just take away, It is all yours. They laughed, then looked At each others faces with disbelief, But grabbed quickly: The Azadi Freedom in their hands was water As pure as one drinks At the beginning of a river. … Read more →
Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
*The post first appeared here Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais Wilson 52 rue des Pâquis CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland. Re: Urgent action needed to end state violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir We are writing to … Read more →
From Exile with Love
Poems by Amjad Majid In memory of going to an “Indian passport office” to get a passport: 1. Pehchaan Patr (“Permanent Residential Address:”) They drafted it out From ink and paper Printed and laminated Stamped, notarized, authorized From bureau to bureau From a filing cabinet To stained yellow decrepit bureaucratic … Read more →
The Summer of Our Discontent
Poems inspired by 2016 Summer Uprising in Kashmir Defiance This summer too They came Trampling my dreams Under their heavy boots This summer too They came Tearing my body With their sharp pellets This summer too They came Drowning my voice Under their shrill rhetoric This summer too They … Read more →
Three poems on Kashmir by an Indian tourist
Shrenik Mutha India’s Occupations (tr. from भारतीय कब्ज़ा) maps lie by drawing boundaries maps lie by messing up names maps lie by closing places so that the color would not leak out so that the people will be shut in and stifled like in a prison to finally enter the … Read more →
Poems for those lost in Kashmir Uprising 2016
Inshah Malik I’m Antsy These beautiful roads, In the golden sunrise While trees in rows, Stand guard, To our desires These army jeeps Meander in the roads of our woes, While, a young motorist Feels breeze in his hair riding in the line of fire A peep-hole carved on his … Read more →
Thinking of the Indian panhandler and Indian guns in Kashmir
To read this piece you might want to place yourself in the last few days of Ramazan because that is when it was written and slated for publication. Since internet is always slow in Kashmir, it reached Raiot desk as people were gearing to say goodbye to fasting and getting … Read more →
A ‘Pakistani’ Pandit?
Mona Bhan on her grandfather, Pandit Rughonath Vaishnavi, a fierce advocate of Kashmiri Independence Pandit Rughonath Vaishnavi graduated from Lahore with a dual degree in Psychology and Political Science, and from Allahabad with a degree in law, before he returned to Kashmir in 1938. This was a time of grave … Read more →
A Shriek about Kashmir—A Ghazal
To Abir Bazaz, Javaid Iqbal Bhat, Hamzah, and all my Kashmiri brothers How do I see, think, dream, or speak about Kashmir? One more ghazal shall I tweak about Kashmir? Another bloody summer looms over the Dal, Wani’s died and been deified this week, about Kashmir. Vani … Read more →
Three Poems for Kashmir
By Amit Kumar 1.1 For a Murderer Its Friday, All faithful are running for the Namaz-e-Juma Somewhere a Brahmin is reciting the sacred mantras Every devotee is hand-folded, sitting in reverie I could never understand the ‘Arabic verse’ la illah ila allah mohammed rasoul allah Grandmother’s fairy-tales appealed more than … Read more →
When people picked soil from Burhan’s grave as ‘tabarruk’
A Aalim Ahmad The Martyrs’ Graveyard at Tral, where Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was buried, is the most visited place these days. The graveyard was carved out of a portion of the expansive Eidgah 27 years ago when the body of a Pulwama militant arrived from the Line of … Read more →
A reminder to Shah Faesal- the ‘poster boy’ of Indian bureaucracy
Media in the besieged Valley of Kashmir is going gaga over a ‘Facebook post’ shared by the poster boy of Indian bureaucracy in Kashmir Shah Faesal. The way Kashmir press is giving it hype is both surprising as well as saddening. The Facebook post in itself isn’t something that deserves … Read more →
Kashmir: Dispatches from Behind a Siege
Yasir Altaf Zargar People were returning from their regular chores, when the news that the famous Kashmiri local rebel who had turned to militancy at the age of 15, had been killed in an encounter near Kokernag, 15 kms away from district Anantnag. People in long chains came out from … Read more →
Mehbooba Mufti invites journalists to dinner, but…
Parvaiz Bukhari On Wednesday, two days after the Jammu and Kashmir government moved to the state’s summer capital of Srinagar, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti invited select members of the press for dinner at a guest house in the sylvan Zabarwan foothills. Since she took charge in early April she has … Read more →
to stories rumoured in branches
These paintings by Rollie Mukherjee are based on the Kashmir region; its pathos, militarization, resistance and struggles. Titled “to stories rumored in branches” these paintings were included in a solo show at the Conflictorium: a museum of conflict in Ahmedabad (April-May 2016) Rollie Mukherjee is an artist and art critic based … Read more →
That Language Of The Gun
Tariq Mehmood I came to Srinagar, Kashmir, for the wedding of my friend’s daughter. After the wedding, along with a couple who had come from Malaysia, we decided to visit Pahalgam. We started our journey from the Dal lake. It was a bright warm summer’s day. The reflection of the snow … Read more →
A tribute to Atta Mohammad
Angana Chatterji Atta Mohammad (1940-2016) was a gravedigger and caretaker of the unknown, unmarked and some mass graves at Chehal Bimyar located in the Northern Kashmir district of Baramulla. For those seeking to locate persons missing and disappeared and to access local knowledge and the events of history, Atta Mohammad’s … Read more →
Love and Cheer in Tight Embrace
By Saba Mahjoor mid-day the spicy potatoes the black blanket on the floor dozing in and out of careless folly the milky sleep the mild heat blazing blue sky candy floss clouds the gentle breeze trees swaying a last secret green eyes blue veined hands a kiss on the lips a … Read more →
My silky silhouette
I What if one day I say, Love I’m tired of this pretend-perfection What if that day I unwrap My silky silhouette Unhook my gold earrings Scatter my pearl necklace Unknot my braids of reason Only to show you My scarred forehead Muddied hands Bruised knees My bright doll-house What … Read more →
An Open (Love) Letter to Kashmir from a Koshur Gobur
Dear Kashmir, It seems to be the season of open letters, so I too will hop on and instead of wasting my breath on writing open letters to people who do not deserve my attention and much less my words, I am writing you this long due (love) letter. I … Read more →