areas in Kashmir

Abandoned Pandit houses in a village on route to Pahalgam

There are areas in Kashmir where Shias live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Sunnis live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Sikhs live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Armies live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Terrorists live.
Areas marked and divided like compost bin.
Some houses there are even for
Tibetan, Uzbek, Afghan and Iranian refugees.
They all have houses in Kashmir from which we often hear talk of war and peace.
Now, if you ask, “But, where do Pandits live in Kashmir?”
“I have heard three live about a mile from here, two a mile after that, seen them with my own eyes and the remaining – they all live in our heart.”
So lease me your big heart for a minute or two, I need to use the loo.
-0-

Untitled Post

The world with snow was silvered for a season,
But emerald came instead of the heaps of silver.
The rich pagoda of Cashmere at springtide
Surrendered to the garden all its pictures.
See how the lake’s whole surface by the March wind
Is raised, like sturgeon’s back, in scaly ridges!

~Abú Mansúr ‘Umára of Merv, flourished under the last king of the House of Sámán and the first of the House of Ghazna.

Untitled Post

जी मे आता है अभी
ज़ेब-ए-रकम कलम उठाऊ
क़िस्सा तमाम करु 
कश्मीर पर एटम बम
नागासाकी मे बहार
का ऐलान करू
पर क्या करू
ज़ेब पर एतबार नहीं
और आज एतवार भी तो नहीं

Achchabal Eyes



The Spring of tears has made my eyes an Achchabal,
a Mar, a Jhelum, [flowering] into the Dal.

~ Mathnavi-yi Kashmir, Dayaram Kachru ‘Khushdil’ (1743-1811) writing in Kabul.

-0-

Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2015


Returned back after a gap of two years. Most of the works still the same old. But managed to find two…

Sarada and Takari Alphabets: Origin and Development 
by Bhushan Kumar Kaul Deambi, foreword by Walter Slaje
Year: 2008
Publisher: D.K. Printworld
Price: Rs. 900




Rasul Mir
by G.R. Malik
Sahitya Akademi
First Edition, 1990
 Rs. 15

Previously:

  1. Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2010
  2. Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2011
  3. Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2012
  4. Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2012 (Part 2)
  5. Picked Kashmir at Delhi Book Fair, 2013

shop in Ooty


The reach of Kashmiri traders never ceases to amaze me.

Kashmir House
Ooty
Handicraft shop

Tibetan Shop. In Ooty. The Himalayan neighbours of Kashmir. Another prolific moving/trading community.
 
-0-

YouTube
YouTube
Instagram
RSS