Kashmir Lit Web Desk How does the day of Indian elections unfold in Kashmir? Here is a sampling of voices from social and print media.
Ammi
Rehmat Malik I wrote this poem about a year ago when I was visiting “Azad” Jammu-Kashmir, my mother’s homeland. I wanted to explore generational differences in understanding the Kashmiri struggle for Azadi (liberation) and solidarity across the Line of Control. I wanted to write about my mother, a Kashmiri who … Read more →
Saffron
“These infidels cannot insult us like this. If you have the courage, come and face us out in the open. You cannot tie down a speechless animal and think you have beaten us…” By Mirza Waheed She did not make much noise. But I knew, even in my sleep, something … Read more →
Kashmir from Orient to a State of Exception
[This essay has been published in The Funambulist Issue 8, Nov-Dec 2016] Ather Zia Kashmir, the Orient Historically the global imagination has often reflected on Kashmir, the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom through scenes of colonial idyll, wilderness, and romance. This imagery was fine tuned through works like “Lalla Rookh: An … Read more →
Glass Houses
Sumayya Syed “Nikita is again on a date tonight,” he types into WhatsApp From his lonely South Delhi bachelor pad On what is a thinly-veiled moonlit spring night in Kashmir Where loneliness is an A Almost an invitation To Resistance, Because what is Resistance If not the thyme and the … Read more →
Dust
Shruti Sonal I had died three hundred and thirty-three times Till my body finally gave in Ten times on the last day itself First when I woke up in the morning And did not find my son sleeping beside me Second when I found him wrestling with a barbed wire … Read more →
Jesus Without A Head!
Naveed Showkat The story is from my childhood. When the only thing that worried me was my hair; it didn’t stay at its place to my liking!..Too silky, my friends used to say. When heaven was the little playground of my village, where we played cricket all the time, it … Read more →
Hear me O Scribe!
Yogesh Mishra Following is a poem titled: ‘Hear me O scribe!’ that emerges out of my interactions with some young Kashmiris. It was a collective feeling amongst them that there was too much focus on the conflict, and as residents of the contested terrain, they became mere subjects for researchers. … Read more →
The Farewell Journey
Muzamil Rather “Dapan mujahid che fassith ” (the militants are trapped), somebody shouted, as soon as I stepped out of the main gate of my house to offer the maghrib salah, the news came as a bolt from blue. When I was informed that the three rebels are trapped in … Read more →
Untitled
Vrinda Jotwani “You have started stitching your words into Kashmir, pulling threads from the kashida cushions of this bed, your mother buried herself in making you leave this graveyard. She tries to convince you to fold your hands into nationalism, how could you, you say we have been living … Read more →
Magic of Words
Muhammad Nadeem His breath was heavy. He was climbing the Mount Solomon from past one hour. He just had to climb for five more minutes to reach his favourite spot. It was very cold. He was rubbing his hands and blowing puffs of hot breaths into them. He sat on … Read more →
Azadpur’s Children
Saima Rashid Kashmir, 2030… “We will get it, today or tomorrow. Azadi is our birthright and we shall have it.” These lines are engraved on a wall of Sariya’s school. She remembers her mother talking about the graffiti on the walls of her school, which would read: “Enter to learn, … Read more →
Under this Chinar
Nadeem Under this Chinar, where I lay dying—is dead my whole nation. My family and friends and all my dear ones. There, under this Chinar is the unmarked grave of my Shaheed Moul. Under this Chinar, deep there—is sleeping my half widow Mouj. There, buried are the tortured limbs of … Read more →
Post-Traumatic Hurriyet Disorder
More heads usually means better decisions. When the Hurriyat leaders put theirs together after decades of separation, one thought this basic rule would apply. But as always the Hurriyat leaders proved themselves what they are: a massive disappointment. And these are no ordinary times we are talking about. At one … Read more →
Resistance Poetry in Kashmir
Chinki Sinha My gaze has been silenced, what frenzy is this? – Zarif Ahmed “Zarif”, Kashmiri poet When she was a young girl, she wrote a poem called Laments at Bullet, where she imagined a bullet – as a piece of metal – protesting that it did not want to be … Read more →
End of Journalism
Sheeba Lone Note: This article is the extract of one of the research papers on ‘End of Journalism’recently presented by the author at her University. Journalism entered the twenty – first century caught into a paradox of its own making. We have more news and influential journalism, across an unprecedented range … Read more →
Kashmir Reader and the Journalism of Courage
Rouf Dar, Umar Lateef Misgar & Harun Lone Modern age is defined by media. Every epoch has a certain peculiarity, a marked distinction. The present epoch is characterized by a dominating incision of media and it’s round the clock surveillance of our political and social community. As a matter of … Read more →
Kashmir Reader and the Journalism of Courage
Rouf Dar, Umar Lateef Misgar & Harun Lone Modern age is defined by media. Every epoch has a certain peculiarity, a marked distinction. The present epoch is characterized by a dominating incision of media and it’s round the clock surveillance of our political and social community. As a matter of fact, … Read more →
Is Independent Kashmir Possible?
Bilal Hussain Over the decades, the people of Kashmir have expressed their desire to have an identity, a homeland, and a separate nation, in many forms at multiple times. However, the Indian state has so far successfully been able to convince the global community about the non-viability of an Independent … Read more →
At the Park
Tapan Mozumdar At the parkEarly morning,doing my health recovery walkin the neighbourhood park,I chanced upon this child.Safe in his mother’s lapon a newly painted bench,making noisesthat only mothers can understand. After a couple of lapsof my speed walking,I stopped and looked at the child.He, advised by his mother,Waived at me … Read more →
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