Ninety years is a long time. Long enough for memory to be shredded into pieces. What then remains is the memory of memories. Fragments that you stick together to recreate the past. But the memory of one particular day remains etched on this 90-year-old’s mind — fresh as yesterday. October 1947. It was another day […]
Within a week he was hit twice. Both times a close shave. Debilitating injury, blinding, or worse, death — anything could have happened. Soon he was back on the streets, protesting again and throwing stones. Three days from the first injury, 15 pellet shrapnels pierced his back. But he won’t give up. First, he took […]
A shopfront is usually a pretty gossipy spot. Here the risqué and polite and the political and personal repartees are woven into each other with surprising effortlessness. But the mood outside this Budgam town shop, where I was standing, suddenly changed on this sunny late afternoon of 8 July 2016. The news was too big. Too […]
Shot to fame with his maiden novel The Half Mother, Shahnaz Bashir, Kashmiri writer and academician, has authored yet another book: Scattered Souls. The book is a collection of short stories and is published by Fourth Estate HarperCollins Publishers. In an email interview, Kashmir Narrator correspondent Nayeem Rather asks the author about his new book in particular and writing in general. Nayeem […]
‘Nature of the government is authoritative, with a strong security apparatus backing it that feeds on corruption. Officials and politicians enjoy de facto impunity here’ Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, a doctor by profession, has been working as an RTI activist since 2005. He is a founding member and the current head of the JKRTI Movement, […]
For most of her life she was pitied, taunted and told she can’t even manage to care for herself. But Nargis Khatoon, now 24, didn’t let any of that get in her way. As we sit for a chat at her office near the main bus stand at Budgam, she recalls those tough days. […]
Choon, Budgam: A blood donation camp, in collaboration with Blood Bank Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Valley’s lone tertiary care hospital, was held here at village Choon, 3km from main town Budgam on Wednesday. The camp was organised by Itehad-e-Milat committee, a volunteer group working under joint resistance leadership. Around 50 people, mostly youth of […]
The army took me away and put me in a dungeon, amid darkness. Soon Captain Bhim Singh entered and asked me to remove my clothes. Then they tied me and hung me upside down from the ceiling and asked me whether I was a militant or not. I had nothing to tell Just before the […]
The ‘shrine’ at Choon was constructed by the army under the Operation Sadhbhavna launched in 1998,— as a part of its WHAM (winning hearts and minds) doctrine across Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Defence Ministry has given the army around Rs 300 crore under this Operation for various ‘developmental’ activities across Kashmir. Nayeem […]