Shi’ism in Kashmir

Hakim Sameer Hamdani author of Shi’ism in Kashmir in conversation with Faizaan Bhat A few years back, a friend introduced me to Hakim Sameer Hamdani. Since then, a casual meeting has evolved into a friendship; discussing ideas, and books on philosophy, history, theology, etc. We probably disagree more than agree … Read more →

The Enforced Disappearance of Kashmiri Writing

Kashmiri writing and Kashmiris writing are under attack from India. Many write-ups on Kashmir are reported to be mysteriously disappearing. Kashmiri journalists wake up to their entire oeuvre being deleted from the internet. These reports mostly pertain to the real ground situation in Kashmir. This “vanishing of Kashmir’s newspaper archive” … Read more →

The worse for wear

Bangalore, Jan 2022  Ashfaq Saraf today takes only so much from yesterdayas may serve to make life bearablenothing ever is as it was before, things change –age, morph, decay so thatone sees in the mirror, sees their own faceand exclaims with relief at the awareness: I did love is it … Read more →

The Near Death of an Unborn Marriage

Dr. O Bilal failed. Again. It was the twenty-eighth time in ninety-two days. I He loved football. Growing up, Bilal idolised the great footballers of the time and styled his play on a tall Portuguese goal-scoring machine. He became the most sought-after footballer in his village by the time he … Read more →

Review, Siren Song: Understanding Pakistan through Its Women Singers

Author Fawzia Afzal-Khan, 2020, 252 pages, Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford UP Reviewer Dr. Shazia Malik Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan’s book Siren Songs: Understanding Pakistan through its Women Singers is a wonderful feminist intervention into a conventionally masculinist discourse, depicting Pakistani women music performers’ dilemmas, resistances, and identities intricately connected to the political, … Read more →

Review: The Chill in the Bones

Written by Wani NazirPoetry, 2022, Book Street Publications, ISBN:978-93-91317-50-8, Pages 126, price INR. 200Reviewer Ayaz Rasool Nazki Kashmiri poets and writers never shied away from languages that were essentially foreign; the languages other than the native language – Kashmiri. At least two streams of intellectual expression have always existed, one … Read more →

The Voice

O Kashmiri   I tried telling The Voice, To let me go my way, But it spoke too loud, And the words were too strong, I couldn’t resist following, It, the way it led me, To an edge of a Cliff,’ I thought I heard the waves, Call my name from … Read more →

The tragedy of changes in J&K’s land laws

Muzamil Jaleel  A point by point response to the claims made by the government regarding the changes/amendments in J&K’s land laws: The claim that 90 percent of the land cannot be sold to outsiders is completely wrong. The Big Landed Estates Abolition law of 1950 and the Agrarian Reform act … Read more →

Graveyard of empires

Syed Jesarat   The postman hasn’t Left the post office since Two decades, My Dream’ letters – to the Broken mirror of Himalayas Will never reach you But the scattered carcasses.   The pocket letters of Our times’ are hollow shadows of memories snatched away And kept in a dungeon … Read more →

No Lockdown can overcome us

Abdul Azeem* Nothing is new neither this plague nor its lockdown it came with. All along, we’ve been witness to so many plagues and lockdowns. Not only social distancing, the plague of occupation exposed us to communication lockdowns as well. Since the past seven decades, the continuous tribulations, are meddling … Read more →

The Coalman

Gulam Mohammad Khan Barely weeks before the arrival of long winters ­- when the reaping and binding and threshing is done, when the barns are full, when flocks of swallows migrate to warmer places, when the green foliage slowly wears on a yellowish hue, when the rivers flow low and … Read more →