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 →
Elegy of a Pellet Victim
Abdul Azeem Now I cannot see the color of my clothes I clad everyday…. Now I cannot see how my brother looks as a groom!!! I find myself in a colorless world, as my eyes have stopped their main work!!! It is because I tilted my tongue for my Basic … Read more →
Kashmir under Curfew
Nusrat Bazaz It is summerMy garden is a riot of coloursSilver dewdrops sparkle on the green carpetAnd tall gladioli stand erectResplendent in red and yellowDemure balsams blush pinkHeads lowered like shy bridesYellow marigolds huddle in a cornerGlittering like the sunFragile spider lilies raise their crimson headsFlanked by tender tendrilsCheery periwinkles … Read more →
To beloved Kashmir
Manisha Manhas My love is betrothed to cloudshe sings of blooming shroudsI see withering vapours in his eyeshe sings of sorrows in snow lit dazzling ice his eyes speak up achings of disfigured blueswatching the nights and their darkest hueshe witnesses burning tulips in the flames of fireand takes me … Read more →
THREE POEMS ON PELLET VICTIMS OF KASHMIR
Muhammad Nadeem VULTURES AND DOVES ALL OVER AGAIN it’s apple seasonDoves are under curfew, againa filthy scenario all aroundfrom all quarters—(leftists, rightists,secularists, nationalists, cynics, critics andcrazed, nihilistic zealots)catch and killin the most highly militarized zone in the worldVultures and Doves all over againbullets, bombs, and bands of cowards hunt in … Read more →
What you need to know about the current crisis in Kashmir
The Daily Vox The situation in Indian-administered Kashmir has worsened in recent weeks. Eighty-two people have people killed in clashes with Indian security forces, while thousands of civilians have been injured. Why the unrest though?Kashmir’s summer of discontent was stirred by the killing of a popular militant, Burhan Wani on 8 July. … Read more →
Poems: Metal of the night and Green lights of the Dawn
Ashfaq Saraf Metal of the night Metal of the night grows heavy with rust when evenings bathe in cold salt of stupor and wishes — those never tried, though, for their hazard. Wearing garments soaked in last decade’s rainfall (some delayed by months and more some early by days flooding … Read more →
Findings
Omair Bhat The findings of the last night’s dream suggest that i should have woken up,(to the news of an innocent killing )as gregor samsaas angeras disappointmentbut when i wake up ( you know how this is ?waking up for me is dyingit’s tabula rasathe absence of the thought of … Read more →
‘Hum Kya Chahte? AZADI’ – The Slogan which always reverberates in Kashmir.
Abdul Azeem* “Freedom is an idea that no tyrant will ever crush.” ~ Laurence Overmire Sloganeering means to raise slogans. It is a way of protest or appreciation in some ways. It is raising slogans to form a protest in order to get attention or to bring change in any … Read more →
Three Generations of Kashmir’s Azaadi: A Short History of Discontent
Farrukh Faheem How the Right to Self-determination Got Euphemised into Merely Ending Human Rights Violations When did the question of Kashmir’s right to self-determination get euphemised into Kashmiris’ “grievances” against the Indian state, centred merely on ending human rights violations and better economic support? When did the people of Kashmir, who … Read more →
Counterpoint: Is it really so difficult to hear what Kashmiris are saying?
Mohammad Junaid Among a series of articles that have been written on the Kashmir uprising of 2016, Chitralekha Zutshi’s piece, “The new wave of anger in Kashmir is not just about poor governance but about preserving an identity“, published recently in Scroll.in, took me by surprise. The author makes two broad … Read more →
Azadi Resurrected: A Referendum In Blood
Ather Zia As I write this, it is the 51st day of protests in Kashmir. The number of those killed by the Indian forces is 69+; the injured are more than 8500; more than 570 have had their eyes ruptured by pellet shotguns. Not all of those killed and maimed were active protesters. The internet and pre-paid … Read more →
Ballad for Kashmir
Jhilmil Breckenridge I hear stories of an ancient land so pure. I see photographs of bluer than blue skies over a lake of molten gold. I drink kahwa flavoured with almond and saffron and smear honey, sweetened by bees from the valley, my hips swaying in a crewel work on … Read more →
Paradox Poems
Sumaya Teli 1 Inspired by untold stories of the old city and by people who wear their lives with the ease of a shawl thrown over a shoulder, Srinagar is a fragrance, with an ebbing heartbeat of hope: Close your eyes can you smell the seasons? Vivacious top notes of … 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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