Bridges Across the Jehlum A narrow passage Down the hall And I find you seated On a boat That has never been moored. Your fingers move Carelessly across your face Tracing alphabets of a race That swore by the chinars in Kashmir And died by guns of the occupying army. … Read more →
I am a Soul by Dr Muhammad Qasim
My origin, presence in body. My departure is mystery I know no bearers, accept no restrictions, I am free I take a journey whenever and wherever I wish to I am beyond time, space and your imagination I am the Soul I am not made for Power, wealth and fame, … Read more →
Resistance is our inheritance by Zahida War
Resistance is our inheritance “In the dark of the night – The snare was laid out Prisoned in our own homes, At gunpoint, lips sealed Our hearts silently crying And yet there is no empathy From those who call us their own, Rather, as a Kashmiri woman I am objectified … Read more →
Two poems by Huzaifa Pandit
I am no Yusuf, Father I am no Yusuf, Father My brothers aren’t content to push me down the well. They tear me – tender limb to tender limb with their sleeved hands sharp as the crescent and fling my torn body down the well. I have lain in this … Read more →
Two poems by Mudasir Firdosi
Half Widow My eyes, vacant, gaze into the deep space wondering how did you become a brute? I ask about my beloved, caged in far off places or buried in no man’s land. Does my pain make you conquerer of the realms? Or numb like my heart? The blots on … Read more →
Two poems by Naveed Ul Hassan Bhat [Urdu]
اس دورِ بے آر میں اس دورِ بے آر میں پھولوں کی آبرو پہ سوال ہے – کانٹوں کے قہقہے میں گلشن کے رندوں کی جوانی ہے- نظامِ حسرت میں چند گلابوں کا کھلنا ہے- یہ رات کے جاموں میں زنداں کی روانی ہے- شاعروں کی نظموں … Read more →
Two poems by Shabir Ahmed Mir
GHAZAL Eyes of porcelain. Dreams of stone. Pieces of porcelain. Screams of stone. These impotent idols, this adamant priest, This tyranny of faith, these regimes of stone. A mouthful of dust; a handful of bones: What castles of ambition! What schemes of stone! The thirsty artificer sculpting … Read more →
Two poems by Aakriti Kuntal
An event in the neighbourhood I adopt a movement like air Wading along the mind’s eye through the obvious, the oblivious, the steam of all perspiring things The moon stares at nothing— cold eye of the sky, the quality of a stone in its eternal passiveness Someone died in the … Read more →
Two prose poems by Sambuddha Ghosh
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 →
Kasheer by Mrinalini Harchandrai
You are that mansion allowed to evanesce still the innocence of light seeps through your chandeliered heart nature’s cashmere façade creeps on your silken carpets the Himalayas landscape your upper storeys, they sweep and staircase around you grandly like bannisters your roses sit embroidered with ballroom grandeur ghostly sweetness against … Read more →
‘The City’s Lament for a Messenger’ by Asad Alvi
We cry out, in the darkness, for asylum: no one responds – the wind does not carry his name. The holy city’s arms are lacerated – she does not open them, welcome us We are waiting for the messenger. I am tired, wrestling with the wind’s torrents it does … Read more →
Kashmir in Comparative Perspective
Book Name: Kashmir in Comparative Perspective: Democracy and Violent Separatism in India Author: Sten Widmalm, Publisher: Routledge Curzon, Date of Publication: 2002, Pages: 226 Reviewer: Touseef Mir The outbreak of armed insurgency against the Indian State from 1989 in Kashmir and its implications for the security of the South … 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 →
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 – Of Occupation and Casbah-ization
Umar Lateef Misgar Kashmir has been subject to a state of untold persecution for the last 500 years. Lately, India, Pakistan and China have all annexed and occupied some part of the historic Kashmiri nation. The country, as we live in it now, feels no better than Occupied Palestine or … Read more →