Ghazal: How Many So Many

Rumuz E Bekhudi (Please scroll down for the English translation) Sawaal Kaetya Jawab Kaetya Muhabbatas Manz Hisaab Kaetya Su Yaar Samkhyom Tath Annigatis Manz Ath Roi-e-Chandras Naqaab Kaetya Tijaratas Manz Kehn Baezgar Chiv Kinaan Umeed-o-Khwaab Kaetya Wadun Chi Zan Aab-e-Joi Chi Jaeri Asaan Zan Chel Rabaab Kaetya Yath Zeeth Safras … Read more →

Wail

Ambreen Naqash The bride left Habilimented In white velvet. Youthful Yet too tired. Close to Nature Not of dead cells But of silence around. Relinquished By the crowd. Alone Strengthening her voice To be heard Accompanied by someone nice. Riding into the forest Of no notes. Searching the owner Of … Read more →

Childhood

Amjal Sameed In happiness hearts throbbed Souls innocence relished Tender loving care received Ah! Days of glee perished In laughing streams bathed Skin mud-painted Excuses purity-braced Ah! Time sea-dipped In blissful rain showered Butterflies hovered Birds on branches watched Ah! Moments remembered Ajmal Sameed (sameed6275@gmaildotcom) is a lecturer in Saudi … Read more →

27 October 1947

Ather Zia You speak of “paradise”— waterfalls, with some ebb, still rush over weary shoulders of mountains that stand like knowing children in Maisuma during a “crackdown”— meaningless exercises in words, left empty by presence of soldiers who guard wilting lotuses and stone domes of other tyrannies against soft bodies … Read more →

My Kashmir

Mehr Fatima Hakim Kashmir To me so dear But I don’t see Where’s the beauty I see trash in piles Streets full of litter and junk Stretching for miles It saddens me to see this gunk A place the generation before mine Speaks so fondly about Recalling Dal Lake’s shine … Read more →

Psychosis

Shahnaz Bashir Each receding paranoid trooper diminishes, becomes tiny and fades past in the side mirror of the 407 bus, dragging behind itself a long ribbon of the thoroughfare road. The road bends at Dalgate and stretches through the downtown of Srinagar. Sakeena is one of the nearly thirty something … Read more →

Repudiating The Fathers: Resistance and Writing Back in Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator

by Rakhshan Rizwan I write on that void: Kashmir, Kaschmir, Cashmere, Qashmir, Cashmir, Cashmire, Kashmere, Cachemire, Cushmeer, Cashmiere, Casmir, or Cauchemar in a sea of stories? Or: Kacmir, Kaschemir, Kasmere, Kachmire, Kasmir. Kerseymere? (Ali 3) Agha Shahid Ali, the critically acclaimed Kashmiri-American poet, speaks of his personal and literary conundrum … Read more →

Kashmir As a Palimpsest of Violence: Reading The Wonder House (2005) and The Homecoming (2008)

Mohammad Atif Mysterious mountains, intriguing rivers and picturesque valleys, caught between political controversy, insurgency, militancy and infiltration: Kashmir has been a topic of interest for many writers. Throughout history, Kashmir has been known for its scenic beauty and closeness towards nature while being there. But in the past half century, … Read more →