Category: Literature
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Voices And Bridges
Story of a Cross-Continental Collaboration during the Pandemic The spread of the coronavirus had a devastating impact on people around the world. While the damage done to various different sectors was enormous, the performing arts sector was especially hit with a strong blow. Countless cultural, academic and artistic events were cancelled globally. In the United…
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One Love and The Many Lives of Osip B
Book Review by Sadaf MunshiAuthor: C.P. SurendranPublisher: Niyogi BooksGenre: FictionYear: 2021 The book revolves around the story of Osip Balakrishnan, a young boy from Kerala’s Thrissur city, and many interconnected stories of people in Osip’s life. Narrated by the protagonist (in first person) and by the author (in third person), the book offers stories happening…
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Āzə̄dī ‘Freedom’
Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1885-1952) was a revolutionary, progressive poet of modern Kashmir who used his native language, Kashmiri, as the primary mode of expression. Following the Partition in 1947, Mehjoor played a key role in opposing the Tribal invasions through his poetic compositions inspiring people to rise against the perpetrators in defending their land. Some…
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The mystery of Okus Bokus
Okus bokus teli van cokus*Šāl kič-kič vāngnoOnum batuk lodum dēgiVal ba naličas savāreyBramazāraz poyn čhokumṬekis ṭeka banyov kyah We would sit in a circle with our hands placed on the floor, palms down. The lead player would move their right hand clockwise pointing towards the focus with the index finger touching a hand against…
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That Fable of Kashmiri Cultural Ethos
It is 18th of May 2013. A beautiful morning in Texas! I wake up to a message in my mailbox: “Hi! I must tell you this! Just a while back I was hosting you and your little girl in my Kashmir home. It was so real…. You are in a reddish sari looking really pretty and I bump…
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Why did I Leave Kashmir?
Remembering the Times of Darkness Back in 1991 when militancy and the sentiment for freedom were at their highest peak in Kashmir, I took my Higher Secondary Part I (Class 11th) exams like many others of my generation amidst extreme tension and turbulence. My school, the Government Girls Higher Secondary School at Soura (situated a…
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The Secrets of Ishbar
Since I do not consider myself a connoisseur of art, this is my struggling attempt to provide a very brief account of my experience with a book of poetry written by Subhash Kak which a professor friend of mine at the University of Texas at Austin, knowing my interest in Kashmir and Kashmiris, lent me…
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