November Light (I) The magpies of my forgetting are such that perched on the chiselled granite steps of my own mausoleum, they tell themselves stories of rivers and streets of unfrivolous peace. The wine was silent they knew, made out of a dank, perhaps inconsequential cellar of grapes left fermenting … Read more →
Two poems by Ra Sh
1. The Valley of the Blind- A crow chronicle. a pellet is a precious pearl. soft as a grain of rice. kisses the eye like a lover. caresses the pupil like your mom. crows are vile birds, traitors, who predict the arrival of armed guests in riot gear and armoured … Read more →
Two Poems by Insha Muzaffar
(1) In the mirror the hangman looks so like my silence that I wish I was born as a million tongued word meaning freedom there are no flowers like that of moon (eclipsing over old mountains) no resurrection other than its absurd cycles but then the way some people longingly … Read more →
Kashmir, A Ghazal by Shabir Ahmed
Where to, shall we now row in Kashmir? No more does the Vyeth flow in Kashmir. See how we are smiling in sepia tones Ah! It is just an old photo in Kashmir. Lest it bring the memories of peace They no longer allow snow in Kashmir. Saffron does not … Read more →
Eid ul Fitr in Kashmir by Aaliya Mushtaq
The sacrificial Eid is yet months away Yet Ishmael is dangled on the cross The angels keep their censored silences and pour them into our hearts. It isn’t even Muharram But sisters wrap mourning over their torn cloaks, and wipe off sweat from the cold bullets settled in the brows … Read more →
A Bloody Night in Pampore by Muhammad Tahir
Don’t tell me Papa Kishtwari looked ferocious, And his eyes had all the fire of terror; That his hairs were dyed dark ginger And he walked with intimidating airs. Tell me about that January night in 1996, Which was the Night of Salvation, When his armed pack of savage men, … Read more →
Pashmina, Tombstones have names & Witness by Sayen Aich
There have been evenings When my grandmother would weave stories, from the pashmina threads of memory. That still kept her going. With such delicate threads one had to be careful. A little lie here, a little too much effort And a castle of stories would crumble down. She would … Read more →
The Calendar of Death by Zeeshan Ali
1 With the onset of Spring, Death comes seeking: in twos and threes in gold-plated pyramids in ogives, traced by thirsty hands (wounded by salt) by instinct. It slithers away with the smell of impunity. 2 In the midst of Summer, death comes seeking, again: in hundreds and thousands of … Read more →
To a half disappearance & If wishes were horses by Zabirah Fazili
Back home we laughed merry laughs, tears streaming down our eyes, a defiant smile on the face offsets familiar aches felt by us. we lost him in our strength and frailty yet we hugged and held each other back home to shelve our shrieks we smiled at our helplessness. we … Read more →
Occupation by Tasim Zahid
Misery filled our lungs long before you, But then you came guns blazing and tear gas popping Shooting us, shouting, we come in peace, we come in love Fuck you and fuck your guns, I will be ready to die before you can even count to ten But how will … Read more →
‘When Kashmir wept, I wrote a poem’ by Premjish
To the Kashmir I’ve never visited, not even in my dreams. I know you will understand, my fear for the uniforms, the masculine parades, the gun holding men who look like Indian gods with elongated genitals, who look like my father with their moustaches, you know I despise my father, … Read more →
‘Inventory’ by Bilal Yousuf
Please attach the following to your record: When the rubble was removed at the blasted site: colonel found his trophy. journalist naked viral content. politician rote rhetoric. activist her terse tweet. writer his brazen inkpot. people a mighty funeral. Idea its millionth martyr. friend a late friend. graveyard a stoic … Read more →
A view of the Women’s War in Kashmir
By Shazia Yousuf The soldiers had just left and my grandmother’s house looked battered and bruised. Cupboards and chests lay open like fresh wounds, bleeding secrets of the family that were neatly kept between books and folded clothes. It was a crackdown, a routine search operation that Indian soldiers carried out … Read more →
This Is How Kashmiri Women Are Risking Their Lives
April 6, 2017, 4:30 PM ET Republished transcript of an Interview with Arooja (name changed) a Kashmiri woman on NPR’s All Things Considered JULIE MCCARTHY Some residents of the Indian-administered Kashmir Valley are using more aggressive tactics to thwart Indian security forces: Women are placing themselves, literally, between militants and soldiers. KELLY … Read more →
Stories of Kashmir’s Women
Kashmiri writer-journalist Majid Maqbool spoke to Freny Manecksha about her new book that focuses on the women of the valley and their struggles with life in a place that is constantly at war Freny Manecksha first visited Kashmir in October 2010 and kept returning to the valley every year since. … Read more →
When the army men hanged my panties, bras on the wall hooks, littered my sanitary pads…
Sara Ahmad In the year 2006, I would always wake up early in the morning to prepare for my competitive exams. I would leave the bed every day at 6 am. Before opening the books, I would lazily stand near the window of my room to see the happenings outside. … Read more →
Enforced Disappearance of a young Kashmiri woman
Raqib Hameed Naik Doda (Jammu and Kashmir): Inside the dilapidated single story mud house with wood and polyethene sheets covering the roof, Ghulam Mohammad Butt, 88 opens his steel trunk and brings out an old, torn newspaper. Flipping all the pages, he stops at the last and keeps gazing at the … Read more →
Behold, I Shine: Narratives of Kashmir’s Women and Children
Freny Manecksha Book Excerpt: Chapter “I Can Save Myself: Dissent and Feminism in a New Millenium” The challenging male diktats on morality is extended to conversations around religion. In a lengthy conversation, Essar remarked how men simply assume they are the thekedars of what is right or wrong and she was … Read more →
How riots changed J&K politics
The article first appeared on Kashmir Life Journalist Ved Bhasin has completed six decades in active journalism, but the editor of Kashmir Times has had an equal proximity to politics. Politics, in fact, was his first love, that eventually gave way to journalism. He has been close to players that mattered … Read more →
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