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| Self. 20th August. 2012. |
Talle mere phatte de’n, par ghar mere Dilli’n
I’m in rags, but I hail from Delhi
~ A Dogri saying. Came across it in ‘Tales from The Tawi: a collection of Dogri Folk Tales’ by Suman K.Sharma.
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a graffiti in Jammu
Came across a Banksy inspired graffiti at Zorawar Singh Chowk in Jammu, a place somewhere in a more affluent part of Jammu covering Gandhi Nagar and Trikuta Nagar. It was probably my first visit to the chowk and Trikuta Nagar, even though I lived in the city for quite sometime.
The quote ‘Losing all hope is Freedom’ is from the film/novel ‘Fight Club’. Like the motif of religions nuking love.
The artist signature ‘Smoking Chimp’ is probably inspired by Bansky too. In fact, I read last year a bunch of Banksy inspired work cropped up around this area.
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Kashmiri Bakery at Top Sherkhani, Jammu. The bread here is Gyav Shrumaal, made on special orders after Shivratri to distribute among relatives.
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Game: Po’si Gu’it
While the family was busy performing the last pooza of Herath, I heard some loud noises coming from the neighbours. The neighbours this year: a bunch of Shia students from Kargil [previous year]. I had to check it out.
The boys, it seemed, were in middle of some kind of game. And they were much enjoying it. I had some trouble understanding the game: a guy from a distance flipping coins into a small hole in the ground, a bunch of guys brimming with loud excitement.
My father later told me he has also played this game as a kid in Kashmir. There they called it ‘Posi Gu’it‘ (Coin-Hole). The rules are simple: A player has a number of coins with him which he has to flip from a distance into a small hole in the ground. After trying to flip all the coins in, some of the coins which make it into the hole, can be retained by him, but to claim the rest of the coins that didn’t make it into the hole, he has to accept a challenge from his opponent. The opponent will challenge the first player to hit a particular coin of his liking (based on his sense of difficulty) among these coins lying around the hole. If the player manages to hit the coin, he retains all, or else he loses these coins to the opponent. The game goes on till one of the player runs out of all his coins.
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Zov Tcharaan
Zov Tcharaan. Picking lice in warmth of winter sun.
December 2012. Jammu.
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Jammu Chocolate
From Prem sweets ‘Kud walle’. Since 1925.
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Previously: Do Kashmiris have a sweet tooth?
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Padhna Likhna Seekho
Gujjar House
12th Sept.2012. Jammu.
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steel bartanwalli
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| Woman Who Barters Stainless Steel Utensils For Old Worn Clothes |
a feast in Jammu for the Prince of Wales, 1905
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| Feeding the Poor at Jammu. 1905 |
“At the appointed time the beggars gathered from far and near, on a spot surrounded by a cordon of regular troops and police, and divided into five separate blocks allotted to three following interesting classes of people in order of spiritual precedence: Hindus, Mahomedans, other castes, cripples, and sweepers. For the inhabitants of this land would rather starve in proud isolation than eat together.
At three o’clock in the afternoon began the feeding proceedings, and so earnest were they that a force of 250 military sepoys and police-constables had to be told off to keep the peace among the banqueters; but even these ministers of order had to be drawn from both the great castes, for a Hindu policeman could not interfere with a recalcitrant Mahomedan beggar in his dinner, nor would a Hindu beggar tolerate the contact of a Mahomedan constable. Thus they ate voraciously, and then washed the viands down with copious draughts from the Jogi Gate Canal, carried in skins of water-carriers of both sects. No fewer than 187 maunds of sweetmeats were that afternoon consumed in honour of the Prince of Wales. “
From ‘Through India with the Prince’ (1906) by George Frederick Abbott.
Kashmiri Boatmen on Tawi
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| The ‘biblical’ imagining of Kashmiri Boatmen. |
If on a Jammu bound train you have run into people who ask you if it is going to be cooler once the train reaches Jammu, if they are going to see snow, the mountains, the lakes, the rivers, if your answer has always been a mad laugh, read this blunder of a passage from ‘India, pictorial and descriptive’ (1888) by William Henry Davenport (1828-1891):
“The capital of Kashmir is situated on the Towi, a tributary of the Chenab. It is a place of considerable trade, communication with the riverine district being maintained by water. The Kashmir boatmen are a strong and hardy race, and manage their clumsy craft with much dexterity.”
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