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 →
Tchu Misri – Quatrains on the 2016 Uprising in Kashmir
Original Nazm by Zareef Ahmad Zareef, translated by Ather Zia. Tchu Misri Quatrains Dilawar syean temney kith shather chem pyemeth watnass mye yem tosas ae’ther chem Che yem azeh myeni chamneik posh putchnan Temen muleh kadneh dramit yemh pothar chem Karneh wadoah wai petran gam te doakh Loleh watnass khuneh sagwaan … 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 →
The Missing Men, Found!
Muhammad Zahid They never came back once they left, with promises to come back at night, bringing smiles for kids, love for wives and hopes for their parents too. They never came back and those at home kept the doors open all night, their eyes kept looking far across the … Read more →
Poems: Cherry Tree, Chestnuts, and Invisibilities
Insha Muzaffar I through the branches of old of cherry tree I see you (the way I always see you) lonely amid the throng of contented faces writing angry letters to God while the coolness of gloaming seeps into the tepid skin of our sweaters and moon slips through the hedges … 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 →
Secrets of the Kashmir Valley
Secrets of the Kashmir Valley: My journey through the conflict between India and Pakistan Author: Farhana Qazi Publisher: Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd. New Delhi, India Year of Publication: 2016 Pages: 308 Price: Rs 300 ISBN: 9788172210762 Reviewed by Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander Kashmir Issue and its … Read more →
Untitled
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 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 →
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