video link
1:19 min. Made over two years.
Act 1
Manasbal
[…crowds of worshippers used to fall down and rise at prayers, imitating the high waves…]
~ Dvitīyā Rājataraṅginī, Jonaraja describing Muslims at prayer.
Act 2
Nagin Lake
the man said there are now so many mosques in his area, new Ahle Hadees, competing Barelvi, then the older ones and many more. But, inside empty. Only loudspeakers. It gives him headaches. He then left for his Namaaz.
Act 3
Silent prayer.
Act 4
Village Tullamulla
She said there’s a hawan going on somewhere nearby. Some one is praying. Indrakshi Stotram. Let’s go. A CRPF guy standing next to a pile of stones corrects her, “Namaaz”. It is Friday. He is waiting for stone pelters.
“When he (Jayapida) was appropriating (the land of) Tulamulya, he heard, while on the bank of the Candrabhaga, that a hundred Brahmans less one had sought death in the water of that (stream).”
And with their magic prayers they broke 9th century King Jayapida’s head and caused his death. So say’s Kalhana.
Act 5
Pampore
February 20, 2016
Two terrorists take over a JKEDI building shoddily built atop the 11th Century AD King Jayasimha’s Simhapora, burying history under concrete. [link]
While the gun battle starts, in nearby village, the priest in the mosque asks people to answer the call of Muslim blood.
Army diverts the cars to take an alternate route to reach Srinagar.
We are stuck in a car near village Kunmoh, the birth place of 11th-century Kashmiri poet Bilhana.
I ask her if she is afraid.
She answers, “No.”
I ask her, “why?”
“I don’t know, “she replies.
Even now, knowing death is quickly closing in,
my thought leaves the gods and is drawn to her in awe.
What can I do? My thought is obsessed: “She is my love!”
~ Bilhana.
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