A couple of weeks back I got an email from Sheikh Aijaz, Chairman Gulshan Books, a publisher based in Srinagar, Kashmir. He wanted to send me their catalogue. I thought he wanted me to promote it. I told him I would be more than happy to share it around with my readers. In the next mail he asks me for my address and praising my Kashmir blog promises to send me two books as a token of appreciation. I was more than happy.
This week, in office, I received a package addressed to ‘Chairman Search Kashmir’. People in office had a good laugh about it. ‘What’s the Deal Bhai! Bum hai Kya!Kaha ka chief hai bhai!’ Later at my place as I go through their catalogue, I am pleasantly surprised to see the pages embellished with photographs of Kashmir (at least one of them, my own click) that I have been posting to my blog.
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| from my review of First Kashmiri Film Mainz Raat (1964). The actress is Krishna Wali. My father went to school with her son. |
The catalogue now offers me names of some more rare and interesting books on Kashmir to hunt for. Gulshan Books has re-published some really old and out of print book on Kashmir. Those in Kashmir can check out their store at Residency Road or their stall at Srinagar Airport. Rest can check out their website and order online [gulshanbooks.net, I had a tough time finding their website when I first heard from them. Hopefully, Google will be kind to them now!].
The two books that they sent me – ‘Kashmiriyat through the ages’ Edited by Prof. Fida Mohammad Hassanain and ‘Srinagar: My City My Dream’ by Zahid G. Muhammad – are turning out to be engrossing reads that are going to provide more ideas for this blog. ‘Kashmiriyat through the ages’ is a collection of essays on…um…Kashmiriyat while ‘Srinagar: My City My Dream’ offers a nostalgic trip around Srinagar city. The books having a combined hefty price of $50 that had me wondering how would a common man afford them. And these are certainly books that ought to be more easily available (a few of them are already available for free online) but I guess publishing books from Kashmir is not an easy business affair.
I wrote back to thank them and to tell them that I am no chairman of anything. I told them that I am just a log keeper and that I was eight years old when my family had to move out of Kashmir.
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You can buy it from here:
