Our Persian Heritage Needs To Be Translated
Z.G. Muhammad My Rambling Thoughts. I am amazed that translators receive less credit for their work than creative writers. However, had Arabs not institutionalised the translation of great works and philosophy between the eighth and tenth centuries, much of this literature might never have reached South Asian audiences. Looking at our heritage, we also have a strong translation tradition. The Sultans of Kashmir focused on translating Sanskrit literature into Persian and Persian literature into Sanskrit, creating a vast reservoir of literature that might otherwise have been lost. As late as the twentieth century, Maharaja Pratap Singh established a translation bureau under the aegis of the Jammu and Kashmir Libraries and Research Department. This bureau not only worked to preserve Sanskrit literature but also facilitated the translation of classic Sanskrit works produced in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured, Memeiors, NostalgiaKashmir, PUNCH LINE, Z. G. Muhammad
Echoes From The Past: As Fresh As Today- Review Of When The Dawned By Som Nath Zutshi – Reviewed by Z.G. Muhammad
Book Review Echoes From the Past- Fresh as Fresh as Of Today By Z.G. Muhammad Lull and literature cannot coexist. Literature is like water from a gushing natural spring, finding its way even by slicing through stones. It eventually bursts like a volcano when forced into a lull. Once literature breaks the shell of inertia, imposed or otherwise, it travels through decades to challenge and reform. As someone rightly said, wordsmiths “always could shift paradigms, define eras, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Review, Kashmir-Talk, Z. G. Muhammad
My Memoir: My Father Fond Memories of My Pets Jackie and Tommy
Part VII My Memoir: My Father Death of Tommy- My Pomeranian Dog Z G . Muhammad Z.G. Muhammad Numaish had become our dream world, and with father’s juniors holding the fort, we felt no less than princes during our visits. The grand illuminations, the music at the bandstand filling the exhibition ground with lilting tunes and the well of the death with a motorcyclist playing stunts inside wooden well had its thrill for my elder sibling and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk, NostalgiaKashmir, NostalgoaKashmir, Z. G. Muhammad
Of Supplications, Collective Prayers and Rains.
ZGM Zahid G Muhammad It sounded like folk tales, folklores of yore – whenever we heard stories about great famines that had often visited our birth burg in the past. Despite being a tale of the past fear of starvation, flood and epidemics continued to haunt our grandparents. It tormented them more ferociously than the looting sprees of desperadoes from distant lands that had ravaged our nation in the past. One would often hear vivid stories … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk, Memeiors, NostalgiaKashmir, Z. G. Muhammad
My Memoir: My Father Part VI. Story of Two Alis- Ordinary Kashmiris
Part VI Part Six ‘The father did not join political discussions in the Radio Room with the news loving neighbours. Perhaps the reason was fear of snoopers and gumboots reporting it to those in the saddle and fear of earning their wrath.’ Nevertheless, when I wrote it at the start of this memoir, it was not suggested that he was snobbish, uninformed, or ill-informed about political happenings. Even if he may be detesting politics and the contemporary … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, NostalgiaKashmir, Z. G. Muhammad
My Days in Bombay- Looking for spiritual solace in film nagari
Haji Malang My Days in Bombay – A spiritual Journey My Days in Bombay- Spiritual Journey of Downtown Boy Looking For Inner Solace in Film Nagari Off To Haji Malang ZGM Many spiritual experiences can’t be captured in words. Offering late-night prayers during sultry days on an islet with the soothing breeze blowing on all sides from the Arabian Sea had a unique spiritual elation. Perhaps, it was as good an experience as that of whirling … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Memeiors, Z. G. Muhammad
Kashmir Cultural Notes – The Rice-man Chefs of Kashmir The Rice-Man ZGM Other than politics, which has continuously been picking our minds like woodpeckers on tall pine trees, gossip about wazawan dominates our discourses during the marriage seasons. In olden times, even during our childhood, it comprised seven to nine dishes, and as we advanced in our age, it also started graduating from cuisine to cuisine. Today, on average, the number of the multi-cuisine lamb mutton dishes has gone up to thirty-five- in many cases, more particularly the feast for bridegrooms, the number ranges from fifty to seventy. In our childhood, chicken dishes were not part of the Wazawan. These perhaps were added to multi-cuisine dishes in the late sixties. Many an expert Ashpazs had then seen it as spoiling to the sanctity of the traditional wazawan. Though our elders before 1947 frequented … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured, Kashmir-Talk, Z. G. Muhammad