Mummy, I am sorry!
On Friday evening my son, Arif told me that he, by chance, met Muzamil Jaleel at SMHS Hospital Srinagar and came to know that his (Muzamil’s) mother was admitted there. Arif, Bunty to Mummy, as we used to call Muzamil’s mother, visited her, she recognized him, complained that I hadn’t shown up for ages and […]
Why do mothers die?
On the night of July 1st, I couldn’t sleep. Lying on my bed, my thoughts suddenly took me to my mother. Why has she left this world? These torturing thoughts troubled me so much because I wasn’t there with my mother when she breathed her lost. I was busy with my goddamn newspaper, and I […]
Police and the people have to answer
When it comes to killings in Kashmir in recent months, the statistics can give anyone, who believes in sanctity of human life and not just mathematics, goose bumps. How many migrant labourers, irrespective of their religious affiliations? How many of Kashmiri Pandits? How many of unarmed and off duty policemen, Kashmiri Muslims? How many of […]
Ah! Shahid Bukhari
Death is inevitable. It can knock you down anytime. I am trying to write this piece, what is the guarantee that I can complete the second sentence. This is how life is but we don’t take it, and sometimes, I think, we should not take it like this. If we take it like this, we […]
The Disheartened Shehzada
In Mughal-e-Azam, he stood against Akbar the Great and in real life, against divisive powers. Unfortunately in both cases, he lost. In Mughal-e-Azam, he lost his love, Anarkali; in real life, a dream of secular and inclusive polity!
He made us cry, he made us dance, he made us angry, he made us laugh and he taught us to fall in love. Looking at his face, he was, as if a boy next door; and watching him act, he was a prince from some fairyland. When I started watching cinema, it was the […]
Dialogue, the only way
Humans are, by nature, programmed not to look squarely into the face of a tragedy. Gloom is unpopular and, as such, people sometimes take to ‘out of sight, out of mind’ escapism. In case of Kashmir, this intrinsic human behaviour has somehow been made into a permanent trait of politics. But there comes a time […]
With Congress support, PAGD can head 12 DDCs leaving 5 districts for BJP
PC registers highest success rate of 72.72%, winning 8 of 11 contested seats; Apni Party wins 12 out of 134 with lowest strike rate of 8.95%
In Srinagar and Poonch, independents would be key players; In Reasi, BJP may need to woo one independent or Apni Party which has 2 seats Srinagar: As expected the results of the maiden District Development Council (DDC) elections held in Jammu and Kashmir have thrown up many surprises, laying bare some false notions and clearing […]
Look who is talking!
Yes, I am shooting the messenger because the message is factually incorrect, and loaded with multiple agendas
The received wisdom in Kashmir is that luxuries of life distort your perspective to the point of being disconnected from the reality. The apocalyptic story in Kashmir being that when the King was informed of a famine, he ordained that people must restrict themselves to a five course meal instead of a seven course one! […]
Aga Sahib, as I know him
I and a few of my friends were having tea with Aga Ashraf Ali (popularly known as Aga Sahib) at his Rajbagh residence way back in 1997. He offered us Qatlam (a Kashmiri bread) saying these have come as a gift from Zadibal area (Shia dominated) of Srinagar. One of my colleagues had no appetite […]
Geelani quits but questions remain
Instead of writing to the constituents of his All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Geelani owes an explanation to the people of Kashmir.
In a surprising development, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has resigned from All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which he had carved out from a similarly named ‘parent’ grouping in 2003; he later went on to become its life-long chairman. Geelani’s audio clip and a two page letter, written to the constituents of the conglomerate, announcing his resignation […]
