Peace Watch » Archive
Autumn: When Golden And Crimson Leave Had Songs For Us
Autumn Scenes Nostalgia When Autumn Cometh ZGM My siblings, my mates and I happily said goodbye to ‘stunning summer afternoons.’ That ‘soon we will plunge ourselves into cold shadows,’ did not bother us, and we never lamented as some poets have done. And ‘in the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,’ we no more looked for songs of spring’ but eagerly waited for listening grandmother’s stories in cozy corners of the kitchen. The blonde and brownish leaves … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Write Your Story- Khalid Bashir Has Written One
PUNCHLINE Write Your Story Z. G. Muhammad Like many other bibliophiles, the iconic bookstore, ‘The Kashmir Bookshop’ on the Residency Road had also become my haunt. Similar to some morning visitors to the India Coffee House, I also had become an avid dust jacket reader inside the bookshop and had developed the habit of flaunting my knowledge about books over a cup of hot coffee. The bookshop by all stretch of the imagination was the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Braving Old Man In A Tree- My Nostalgia Your Story
Nostalgia ‘Old Man In A Tree, ZGM Then our songs had not been wholly snatched from us. There were taboos, but still one could dream big and ‘say we have always been green, white and crimson’- all colors in one making it a gorgeous rainbow. During those fabulous days, at noontime, the small street outside our school suddenly filled with melodious songs. The narrow road that had lived through oppression and witnessed ill-fated people offering relentless … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Kashmir: Tryst With Ballot
Kashmir’s Tryst with Ballot Z.G. Muhammad Some days, back on social media network Facebook, someone posted a black and white photograph of a handsome turbaned man draped in an up-button black coat. The picture looked straight into the eyes of the surfers telling terrifying tales of suppression of the yesteryears. It had hundreds of likes and dozens of shares. It generated scores of euphoric and eulogistic comments from a broad spectrum of our society as wide-ranging … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk, Point of view
Songbirds, Mystics and Our Beliefs
Songbirds and Mystics Long queues gathered outside the door of a top Faqir in our neighbourhood That pretty little bird Kettijj (swallows) excited me the most. I loved chasing the bird in wee morning hours as it flew like a fighter plane on the deserted streets – gliding and soaring – then perching on the eaves for a song. I loved watching the bird dipping dextrously a straw or a twig in a muddy puddle and like … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Gandhi In Kashmir Narrative- My Take on Ramachandra Guha Biography Of Gandhi
PUNCHLINE ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ In Kashmir Narrative By Z.G. Muhammad Couple of weeks back another voluminous biography was added to grand list of biographies on Mahatma Gandhi. Seventy years after the British sailed across the Indian Ocean the stories of the two protagonists of the India’s independence movement Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid Azam Jinnah continue to engage scholars and biographers. Notwithstanding, the two charismatic leaders of the subcontinent largely forgotten by their respective nations and reduced to emblematic … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Point of view
Brides and Bridegrooms Then And Now
Bridegrooms And Barber’s Bowl ZGM In our sprawling city, with beauty salons galore, and brides queuing outsides these for having long sittings with the beauticians, the stories of the past, not that past by their mothers and grandmothers when these parlors were not there, and brides still looked prettier than spring flowers sound to them as good as fairy tales. In their pursuit of looking prettier than the Helen of Troy that ‘had launched a thousand ships’ many … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk