Peace Watch » Archive
Waiting For Good News- Inside Graves?
That April did not come? An eventful month in which everything would happen Nostalgia by ZGM Let April Come, yes, let April come’ this sentence I often heard in my childhood. I often heard two shopkeepers, one a tailor and another a darner in our Mohalla whose shops were across the road talking about the coming April. They exchanged their ideas aloud that would attract the attention of any passer-by, many a time they would get interested in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk
Hushyar is the Mantra- A word with fellow Kashmiris
Punchline Caution Is Needed Z. G. Muhammad Sixty-seven years after, New Delhi stands in Kashmir where it started. True, much water has since then flown down the Jhelum, but it’s ‘strategy’ in Kashmir has not changed a mite. The blowing out of proportion a small purely administrative issue at the NIT, Srinagar by the corporate media, the ruling elite and politicians in New Delhi when seen in a historical perspective is a part of the same “game plan” which began in 1947. Some thirty-two years back a leading Urdu fiction writer and top filmmaker Khawaja Ahmed Abbas in an interview told me that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947 had cast a role for a group of left-leaning intellectuals and Communist to engineer a change in an inherent … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Saaz, Stereos, Shodas and Taqyie ZGM’s Nostalgia
Nostalgia Saaz to Stereos ZGM For years, Taqyie of Kamal Sahib just near our home bustled with the activities of hashish smokers and songsters. On Thursdays before dusk troupes of musicians and topmost singers from different areas started arriving at the Taqyie, (hashish-parlour) associated with a saint from Ganderbal. (Sometime back in this column, I have given etymology of the word Taqyie meaning ‘devoted to God’). After the fall of night, it came to life with the mystic poetry of great Sufi Poets like Shah Gafoor, Souch Kral, Mahmood Gami, Shamas Faqir, Rahman Dar, Wahhab Khar and Ahmad Batavar. In the late sixties or early seventies, a deathly silence fell on this abode of the mystics and within days with a wild growth of cannabis it looked like a haunted place. The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Lack of Commitment to Nation Is our Tragedy – comment
PUNCHLINE Hate Culture and Our Students Z. G. Muhammad It seems ominous dark clouds are gathering over the heads of our children. It is a worrisome situation. That should set all of us thinking. It is something that neither an ordinary Kashmiri nor the filthy rich amongst us suffering from “Maie Panus Khair Ae’sin”, (I should be Okay) syndrome can afford to ignore. It is something that is not going to hurt only the common Kashmiri, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Can Lahore Deceleration Be Starting Point for Dialogue on Kashmir?
Punchline Web of Uncertainties By Z. G. Muhammad For past couple of days, a video clip has gone viral on social media the Facebook. Many Kashmiris across the dividing line have been liking and sharing it. The video is outside the routine posts and videos posted and shared by Kashmiris living across the world. It is not about the martyrdom of some Kashmiri youth or human rights violations. It is not about the release of a work of art … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Has Us Betrayed Kashmiris?
Punchline Pakistan, US and Kashmir Z. G. Muhammad The general mood in Pakistan after its cricket team got a worst drubbing in Bangladesh is sombre. Nonetheless, the mood in Islamabad after the sixth ministerial-level Pakistan-U.S. Strategic Dialogue meeting in Washington between Pakistan Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and the US Secretary of State John Kerry is upbeat. In a decade and a half love-hate relations between the two countries to the comfort of Pakistan for the first time … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Our Daughters Can Be Simone De Beauvoir Of Kashmir
Punchline Simone de Beauvoir and Our Daughters By Z. G. Muhammad It was a book release function with a difference. On Wednesday, 24 February 2016, ‘Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?’ a book authored by five young women Essar Batool, Ifrah Butt, Samreena Mushtaq, Munza Rashid, and Natasha Rather was released. In a jam-packed hall of young men and women with only a few elderly columnists, journalists, academics, and civil society activists around, I strongly realized that our post-1947 struggle has been passed on to our third generation- a more ebullient and intelligent generation. Out of five authors of the Book, ‘four along with publisher of the book Urvashi Butalia, an author, and leading Indian feminists were on the dais. The young authors mostly in their early twenties shared their experiences about how and why they … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take