Visit to Alma Mater: Reliving The Happiest Moments of Childhood
Nostalgia An Afternoon In Alma Mater By ZGM Something happened inside me, I involuntarily pushed my foot on the brake pedal, stopped in front of the main gate of my alma mater with a screeching sound disturbing the passers-by. I don’t know if it was the crumbling building, once buzzing science block of my school with its shattered windows that got on my nerves- stopped my car. Or the crescent-shaped signboard, reading in bright letters Islamia Higher Secondary … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Hiba Jan- 19 Month Pellet Victim Has Questions For You?
PUNCHLINE Message To Hiba Jan My Father Is Your Culprit Z.G. Muhammad There has been no laughter in our life. That is true about for three generations born after the famous ‘stroke of the mid-night.’ Still, we have been treading on, braving blizzard after blizzard of the batons and bullets; treacheries and tortures and intimidation and terror- talking and writing about our plight but there are awe-striking moments that freeze up our faculties. One, such a terrible moment … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Masjid Hamams Grand Storytelling Platforms
Nostalgia Of The Hamam Stories ZGM Sitting long hours, after Zohar namaz, during winter vacations on cozy hamam of the masjid in our Mohalla was one of best recess from studies for my mates and me. I don’t know if the idea of hamam was introduced in Kashmir by the Turks in the eleventh century or the Moghuls popularized it in the sixteenth century. But, during our childhood, except the Jamia Masjid and some Khanaqahs, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Badge of Borrowed Identity – and “Mainstream politicians”
PUNCHLINE Kashmir Leaders: A ‘Borrowed Identity’ By Z.G. Muhammad On Wednesday, a music track, “who they are” from a famous album of 2010 started to ring in my ears. It became louder and louder, as one after another news tickers on the television screen started crawling about the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir. The political parties, part of power game in the State for past seventy years in different avatars, the National Conference, the Indian National … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives, Point of view
Of the Great Rabi-Al-Awal Days and Hollowed Ghat
Of Hollowed Ghat and Boat Rides ZGM Those were the days of ‘innocent faith.’ Much before the goatherds, with their flock of ewes and goats passed through our lane and their tinkling bells made me toss aside warm quilt, it would be sound of wooden clogs (Khraw) and chants of elderly Kashmiri Hindu men and women on the way to the Parbat that woke me up. Many an elderly Brahmans on the way to a temple at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Kashmir: Is Not Story Of A Cricket Game
PUNCHLINE Kashmir: Not A Game of Cricket by Zahid .G. Muhammad I am not a cricket buff, equally not a great fan of the game; the last popular legacy of the British imperialism in all its colonies. Perhaps, in the crowd of millions of Kashmiris, I am an odd man out whose adrenaline never goes up while watching India-Pakistan cricket test matches, one day and T-20. My heart never collapsed for Indian cricket teams like Professor Akbar Ali … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives
Of Cart Pullers: They too their songs of oppression
Nostalgia Of Tumbrels and Barges ZGM The stories at night by our grandmother had a magical charm. The creamy clay daubed walls, with the greenish tincture, and a small electric pendant lamp hanging from a twisted silken wire looking like braids of damsels gave a mystical ambiance to the kitchen of our house. The story of Rostam and Sohrab, during power shutdowns under the dim light of an earthen lamp on Tchaengtaar, small shelf in the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk