Peace Watch » Archive
Childhood: When Freedom Came In Big Way To Us
Nostalgia Autumn And Cricket Bat ZGM Every leaf turned into a flower had its beauty- beauty that waxed even prosaic amongst us poetic. The leaves of all shades and colors, crimson, cherry, chocolate brown and golden yellow cascading at slight wind turned us into singers- even one with croakiest voice believed that he was a melody king. The season of fruits and honey had an added beauty for us, the luxury of time. Having done our six … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Governor “Sage or Saboteur”- debate in Kashmir Context
PUNCHLINE Chidambaram Has A Point Have Governors A Role In Kashmir Dispute By Z.G. Muhammad On Saturday, Oct 27, 2018, there was a graveyard silence outside, with people remaining indoors in protest against landing of troops from New Delhi at Srinagar airport in 1947. Everything was in mourning, mesmerizing autumn with its variegated colors had been converted into a season of killings – fifty youth killed in a month. In this somber scenario the moment I sat on … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Childhood Memories: Driftwood And Cowries
Autumn Scenes Nostalgia Cowries and Driftwood ZGM The Sun that like grand artist excited us when we would be still in our bed now stopped to be a painter for us. In wee hours, rising from behind the Zabarwan hillock, it now did not enter our bedroom through the latticed windows, to create those mesmerizing magical floral and geometrical images on the walls daubed with white clay – the images that changed their posture like a dancing damsel. The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Kashmir Women belie patriarchal medieval and Elizabethan ideas
Punchline Women on Forefront By Z. G. Muhammad In South Asia men, out of share bravado often use the phrase, ‘we are not wearing bangles.’ Interestingly, even top generals often use this phrase for sending a terse message to the enemy country that we are not as weak and breakable as women. This South Asian phrase is comparable to the famous soliloquy of protagonist in Shakespeare’s masterpiece Hamlet, ‘Frailty, thy name is a woman!’ that depicts women in a negative context as frail beings week in a character who fail to rise to the occasion and fight adverse situations with fortitude and courage. Women of Kashmir have long before belied these patriarchal medieval and Elizabethan ideas by not only standing by the side of men but also being in the vanguard of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk, Point of view
Srinagar is Not ‘Ghetto People’: Story of Collective Punishment of Downtown
Punchline They Are Not ‘Ghetto People’ Z.G.Muhammad Honestly, they ‘have been more sinned against than sinning.’ Distraught at the plight of a million people with bright minds and deft hands this Shakespearean quote knocked my mind while walking through the streets, lanes, and bylanes of the heart of Srinagar city. None but the people they catapulted to power after big struggle and sacrifices have betrayed them and made them powerless. Their collective story is akin to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives
Mothers, Chef de cuisine: Mouth Watering Dishes of Winters
Autumn Scenes Nostalgia Our Mothers Chef de cuisine ZGM That time of year, when yellow leaves, hanged on colonnades of poplar trees waiting for a cold wind to shake them, grandmothers and mothers had their pastimes, and we had ours. Like red, brown and black ants carrying every grain and straw to their underground nests, our grandmother and mothers filled the stores with everything; they got hold of to gear up for harsh winters. In early … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Life Writings and Kashmir Narrative: Nighat Hafiz Tells A Big Story
Punchline Life Writings and Our Narrative By Z. G. Muhammad In late summer or early autumn of 1989, on a Sunday, along with my friend late Qaiser Mirza, I traveled to Ganderbal to meet Molvi Mohammad Syed Masoodi. One, of the reason for our visit, was to know how he, then one of the senior most politicians around looked at the emerging political scenario in the state- a paradigm shift from electoral politics-cum- peaceful resistance to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take