My Nostalgia Story of A Generation
I am a witness- witness to an era. So is the whole crop of my generation and the generation after. Born and brought up in a city, should I say of defiance or desolation; I have been the witness- in the words of a poet ‘ to the threshing of the grain’. Something eerie was there in the zephyr- yes the morning breeze that blew across our city; it sang different cradlesongs for us. Songs, which for over three centuries have mixed with chilly wintry winds and soothing summer breezes. That taught ‘us no love for the authority but for the defiant’ and abiding love for the ‘commoners’- the devout. I do not remember in my childhood having ever seen a minister walking through our streets or visiting our school- top … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Nostalgia
I am a witness- witness to an era. So is the whole crop of my generation and the generation after. Born and brought up in a city, should I say of defiance or desolation; I have been the witness- in the words of a poet ‘ to the threshing of the grain’. Something eerie was there in the zephyr- yes the morning breeze that blew across our city; it sang different cradlesongs for us. Songs, which for over three centuries have mixed with chilly wintry winds and soothing summer breezes. That taught ‘us no love for the authority but for the defiant’ and abiding love for the ‘commoners’- the devout. I do not remember in my childhood having ever seen a minister walking through our streets or visiting our school- top … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Kashmir Youth Heading Where?
I was shocked! Have, I a reason to get shocked on discovering that our new generation is detached from its past. It knows not what it ought to know. Have I a right to expect young people to think as I do; to believe in what I believe in or to love what I love. If I am not becoming too didactic and want to foist my ideas on the techno savvy generation. These questions … Read entire article »
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Who am I?
Talking Identity It set me thinking! In connection with the observance of the World Heritage Day, I received an invitation card from a government organization, the motto on top of the card read: `Preserve the Heritage – Preserve the identity.’ The motto by all stretch of imagination is innocuous but for me it subtly made a huge political statement and stirred many a question that called for answers. Who am I? Where are my roots? What is my identity? Do I have an identity of my own or I am just a part of the sub-continental identity? Does this identity provide basis to my grand narrative? How and why has my ‘identity’ become part of the “dominant discourse”? To tell me who I am, some years back a beeline of “scholars’, “researchers”, “think … Read entire article »
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Islam Inaugurated Intellectual liberity in Kashmir
Introduction Man is born poet. To express himself has been an innate and intrinsic urge with him. Initially he might have responded to the ‘sounds of natural forces; birds and animals; fear and joy through shrieks, cries and guffaws.’ The pitch and quality of these initial expressions might have ‘by degrees invented words and language.’ When did first word tumble in the world is a question that would continue to engage the attention of scientists in … Read entire article »
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Is Accepting Political Defeat A Way Out?
Gimmickry and diplomacy are not and cannot be synonymous. Past week Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was in New Delhi. He had a luncheon meeting with Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Ostensibly, it was a “private visit” but after Dr. Manmohan Singh invited him for a one to one meeting and sumptuous luncheon in Mogul, tradition it turned into what was described as an ‘accidental summit’. There was a lot of euphoria in a section … Read entire article »
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Distorted Kashmir History And Historians.
History too is elitist. It does not tell the whole story. It tells stories about Czars, Pharaohs, and Moguls but very rarely narrates the stories about the real Spartacus’s- the real heroes. Kashmir is not an exception besides elitism the history of this land more particularly about past seven hundred years has also suffered distortions and largely written with a particular mindset. It is not only, none of the past historians has written what is termed as the ‘people’s history’ but they have been on mainly to use Albert Camus ‘phrase by ‘the side of executioners’. Here, I am not to talk about the narratives of the past that avowedly have been twisted to suit particular discourses but of the contemporary history that I believe after the end of the feudal rule … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take