I had uploaded this video to Youtube on June 02, 2008. It has been a year since then and and here I am share the stats of this video.
Basic stat
Year of daily views looks like this
The actual views as of 2 June 2009 was 28XX something. The star rating (even that half star wan’t missing till a month ago) and the count for ‘Favorited’ tells me that the video is fairly well appreciated by the users.
A year ago, I hadn’t stated this blog, so most of the views come from my other blog [At The Edge]. At no. 2 spot is a post from Kashland (a sort of ‘Kashmiri’ Facebook with lot of features but not too fancy a name).
Comments Stat
No nasty comments were made, not a single comment had to be moderated (and I hope it remains like that!). Almost all the comments are by Kashmiri Muslim men. Interestingly, the first few readers of this blog, much to my surprise, were Kashmiri Musilms.
Where do these commenter come from?
A couple of comments are from West and these include a nice comment by the author of a ‘Jesus in Kashmir’ book [my take on the subject of the book ].
No comment by Kashmiri pundit (although the video did make it way to atleast one Kashmiri pandit blog directed at young but typically too heavy on religion and ‘culture is dying’).
Stat of
They stats are normal and ‘as expected’, stats that fit in with the general viewership of Youtube i.e. lot of males in the age group of 25-34.
Insterstingly, the video was posted on Kashland by a young Kashmiri Muslim girl.
Where do these viewers come from?
And here’s how they reach the video:
And that the reason why Kashmiris hate the Danish rock band ‘Kashmir’: we search for Kashmiri song and we get some rock song on top of the search result page and not the authentic Kashmiri music. And that’s why Kashmiris hate Led Zeppelin too…did they have to name it Kashmir if they even hadn’t been to Kashmir. And now we Kashmiris have to click some more just to get the real stuff on Kashmir. (Just kidding! I love Led Zeppelin and love even the Danish “Kashmir’ – Rocket Brothers is great [video] and they sound good )
Reaches for peak as the images move to pandit temples
Hits the highest peak on the iconic photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Stays at peak for the photograph of Jehlum.
Starts to decline again.
Continues to decline and crosses over into negative as photographs start to depict the common, the ugly and the harsh. And the credits.
A stir at the mention of music.
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If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.
Here’s an interesting image from LIFE magazine photo archive.
According to the caption:
Taken in Kashmir on December 1951 by photographer Howard Sochurek.
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Somewhere in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, on a pleasantly warm and sunny December morning, while standing on a single wooden peg dug deep into the dusty soft ground, in total control of his four limbs and a head and a tail too, listening to the soul-stirring music emanating from the distant bagpipes of mighty military men, the Goat was deep in thought, contemplating the happenings of the year that was about to end. The happenings delighted him to no end.
“1951 turned out to be interesting…quite interesting, not too bad! ,” he thought and then in no particular sequence – in a very stream of consciousness manner – recalled some of the interesting News concerning the State that had reached his pair of attentive ears that year.
Tribal of Waziristan pledged to defend Pakistan. Good for them. Afridis pledged not to take part in any Jehad…if even there is need for one in Kashmir. What is Jehad? Is it good for the goats? They make it sound like some old form of warfare? Do they play bagpipes while fighting? Do I get to listen to music all day? May be I will take part in it. Everyone is already taking sides. Sheikh Abdullah pledged support to Pakhtoons in their common struggle against Pakistan. Very smart Sheikh Sahib, very smart. I like Sheikh Sahib, I really do. Too bad for me, my misfortune that he is likely to jump his gun if he even as much overhears the word “Bakra‘. I am too ashamed of the fact that supporters of Sheikh Sahib call his enemies, those Jamaatis – Bakras. What can I say, these nasty people do go around carrying a beard like me. If you see one, and find yourself in doubt, try this sure short way to tell if he is a real bakra or not: Request him to bleat. And a real bakra will bleat better than a goat. And you will know that you are not supposed to eat him – Can’t Halaal or Jatka this bakra. But the lion is really keeping them busy these days, pardon my expression, but he is really milking those goats. I like Sheikh Sahib, he really is a lion, and I am not even supposed to like a lion, me being a goat and he being a lion, one can say it’s against nature. But in this State anything is possible, I have heard that an ancestor of the erstwhile Maharaja of the state, the one who was caught in a Paris hotel in bed with a gori mem ….BBBLLEEEAAAATTTTTT… once saw a goat and a lion drinking water from the same place together. What can I say? Jammu is a dry, dry place…can happen in majboori of summers. The current Yuvraj Prince is surprisingly a humble fellow! Almost too happy to loose the Crown. Siyapa Mukla for him ji. Yet somehow The Praja Parishad people there are always bleating (but no one dare call them bakras). I don’t think they are too glad about the end of Dogra rule. Now they don’t even want to be part of State election (no way can they win the entire State anyway. They don’t have my vote!). They also want India to come to Kashmir completely, full-time, nothing doing. Does that mean more Army and more music for me? I support that. And then there is this guy, a balding Bengali, who keeps telling Panditji to get back his one third of Kashmir from Pakistan. Panditji, a smart fellow (some say mistakenly think it’s in his genes…I suspect its the High company he keep), tells him basically something like this, “Hey Man! You have no idea how we are holding on to the rest of this land. What will you do with the rest?” I think this Bengali chap is not very happy with the situation, I think he is taking it all very personally. He needs to relax, slowdown and may be come down here and see the situation for himself. Enjoy some Kashmiri hospitality. If nothing else, this place will at least do his health some good. He may even find Swarag here. But it must be that the news from Jammu worried him. There were some tribal raids in some part of Jammu and some part of Kashmir. India lodged protest in Security Council. Hindu and Sikh refugees from Muzaffarabad are being settled in the State. Panditji is worried about Kazak influx into Kashmir. What the hell do Kazaks want with Kashmir? Panditji took certain steps to take care of it. Even opened a school for them. Good. Shiekh Sabib also helped. East Pakistanis pledged support to Kashmiris. Syrians and Malaysian also want resolution of Kashmir (read: better if it’s with Pakistan). Kashmiri Pandits – quite a tribe I tell you – pledged support to National Conference of Sheikh Sahib. Panditji, also one among that esteemed tribe, was very happy and congratulated them. Pakistan called Kashmir elections a fraud. They also believe India wants to stop the great rivers of the State. Reminds me…these military men always make me take dump near the river. I think it’s deliberate. I need to protest. It’s a clear provocation. Liaquat Ali, their PM, told Kashmiris, ‘Wait, we will free you!’ Sheikh Sahib told him that Kashmir was Baap ki jagir of forty Lakh Kashmiri Muslims. Poor Mr. Liaquat died the same year of an unknown assassin’s bullet. What a waste! Earlier this year he had also offered a five-point peace plan and asked Pandit Nehru to come down to Karachi for discussion. Fatima Jinnah told Kashmiris to fulfill her great brother’s last wish and join Pakistan. Achha ji, you get your ‘K’ and what do we get! “A moth-ridden Pakistan” – isn’t that what her Craven A smoking illustrious genius brother called Pakistan. I am a goat. I need grass. Moths can’t be good for me. Do they really have that much moth? Why don’t they do something about it? There was also a strange report that Pakistanis want to kidnap Sheikh Abdullah and take him to the other side of the LOC. Of course, they denied these reports later as mere fabrications. I think the Pakistanis too are taking it all too personally. India offered non-aggression pact to Pakistan. No sound. Kashmir is now not a place, but an issue. The white goralog of UK and the USA, quite decent looking folks, but I am told they don’t bath often, and are often cunning, are really working hard on the issue. They are sending people, Generals, high officials and the good journalists. They keep coming up with solutions, plans and, India keeps rejecting the plans, finding faults and Pakistan rejects the plans, finding faults. Kashmir Kisan Mazdoor Conference, Jammu Kisan Confrence, Socialist Party and Democratic Union, all Communist sounding parties (according to whom – all goats own all grass unfailingly, I gather. Good. Too good to be true. I sometimes suspect I too am a communist.), want foreign troops out of the State, they predict a bleak future otherwise. Don’t they remember that Gen. Cariappa (what a melodious name! CariappaCariappaCariappaCariappa) promised that Indian Army would move out of the State the day Kashmiris want them to. In other news, General secretary of Communist Party of UK thinks Kashmir should be with India. Someone named Jayaprakash doesn’t want Sheikh Abdullah to campaign for Congress in India. Sheikh and his man-friday Bakshi, nevertheless, campaigned for Congress in Punjab. Congress believes J&K is setting the best example of Secularism. The Papers. Wah the Papers! London Times wasn’t happy about the Kashmir Constituent Assembly elections. Observer’s New Delhi correspondent thought Kashmir dispute had reached a dangerous point. New Statesman and Nation are sure that a full-scale war will end up destroying Pakistan, they want Briton to take care more of the situation. Manchester Guardian believes The solution lies just around The corner. A case of molestation of Kashmiri women came to light. Shocking! Dawn claims Congress is conspiring to eat up Kashmir. Syrian Al Shaah supports Pakistan. London’s Truth thinks Kashmir is awaiting justice. Students in Lahore want solution to Kashmir problem, they demonstrate. Jammu Praja declared that the assembly does not represent them. Washington Post thinks Sheikh Abdullah will win the plebiscite hands down. Pakistan banned a book ‘Kashmir and Conspiracy Against Peace’ written by one Mr. Vijay Kumar. Looting in Azad Kashmir, people shot dead. Lot of changes in government there, I hear. People there also want land reforms.
What can I say! I eat akhbaar as a digestive after breakfast, lunch and dinner of plain grass. I am tired now! The vibes here do sometimes turn morose. Yes I can pick up ‘vibes’. I can do so all the time. I can feel things. Sometimes I feel it’s all touch and go. Big war and then the end. Jatka and then Halaal too. At moments like these Foreign journalist start hovering in the valley. But I don’t think much about these things. I can’t. It’s just too much. I am just a goat what am I supposed to do. I was told to stand on this peg and I did so dutifully. You ask me to climb Apharwat mountain just on my hind legs and I will go twice, twice up and twice down and not once complain. I am a simple goat ( okay a beautiful Kashmiri goat one no less, and you should see my eyes, so round, perfect marbles I say. So innocent.). I try to live in the present. And yes, I almost forgot, a Swedish firm agreed to set up a wood mill in our state. Mill should be good. Not for the trees though! Haha! Bleat! Bleat! But we have too much trees here in any case. Should last us a thousand years. Ah yes…where was I…Yes…I try to live in the moment – the present. Like this moment right now. Here I am at peace standing on this bloody peg…the band is now almost here. I can hear the wonderful pipes clearly now, here they come. I would love to give them a salute. Let me try. Steady. Okay see this funny looking gora with his camera. On his knees, he is. You want me to hold still. No movement. Okay. You don’t want me to look into the camera. You want me to look straight ahead. Why? Don’t like my eyes! Ok! Here you go. Is this fine? What you want is a Yogi pose! I will give you a Yogi. How’s this? Oi! my tail is standing out, rigid, upright, too instinctive, it’s trying to help me hold the posture. It must not be looking good. Have to bring it down. Damn tail. get down. I must be looking like a wild animal. Me a well trained cultured goat. Caaan’t brrring it down…think Yogi…Stand still…BBBLLEEEAAAATTTTTT…be a Yogi…this moment….right here…hold….
Click.
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“Kashmir has been wrongly looked upon a prize for India or Pakistan. People seem to forget that Kashmir is not a commodity for sale or to be bartered. It has an individual existence and its people must be the final arbiters of their future. It is here today that a struggle is being fought, not in the battlefield but in the minds of men.”
– Jawaharlal Nehru in New Delhi on June 11, 1951.
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The events, bizarre as they sound, are all true and are taken from a chronology presented at the end of the book ‘Bonfire of Kashmiriyat’ written by Sandeep Bamzai.
Photograph from
‘The tomb of Jesus’ by Mutiur Rahman Bengalee (1946).
Bengalee was instrumental in bringing
Ahmediya movement to North America in the 1930s.
According to the fantastical stories the rod of Moses was also originally kept at the grave of Yus Asaf of Khanyar but was later moved to the shrine of Sheikh Zain-ud-din at Aishmuqam, that there is another grave the real grave underneath the present one kept at the location. And so on. The stories are fantastic. Recently some one even wrote a thriller around the stories titled ‘Rozabal Line’ inspired by the’Rose Line’ in “Da Vinci Code”.
I first read about – ‘Rozbal, Jesus in Kashmir, grave of Yus Asaf (Kashmiri Jesus) at Rozbal Khanyaar…and so on’, many years ago as a teenager when one afternoon I discovered a tattered old thin book (don’t remember its name) in the Ranbir Singh library of Jammu about the Kashmiri Jesus. I was certainly intriguing, especially at that age. Now I am intrigued by interest of people in this tale. And since then, having read some original sources, I have learnt some new things about it the origins of this Jesus.
These fantastic stories about ‘Jesus in Kashmir stories’ first started doing rounds towards the end of 19th century and were spread and started by Ahmedias. It actually had more to do with power tussle among the Muslims.
Muslims believe Jesus Christ was not crucified but rather ascended straight to heaven. They also believe that his second advent would signal the end of world… that would be Qiyamat (the Day of Judgement). As opposed to this Ahmedians have their own concept of the last Messiah. Ahmedians believe Christ, wounded and in an unconscious state, was removed from the cross at the last moment and moved to a secret burial altar . Special ointment (marham-i-isa) was applied on his wounds and over days he eventually got better. But then he came out of the burial vault and traveled to the holy land of Kashmir where he taught the lost tribes of Israel, became known as Yus Asaf, lived until the age of 120 and was finally buried at Khanyaar.
Today’s the start of 20th century thee stories were picked by visiting foreigners who were already fascinated by the ‘Jewish’ looking Kashmiris and now by these interesting tales about Kashmiri Jesus.
Sir Francis Younghusband, Resident of Kashmir for three years starting 1906, about these Jesus in Kashmir stories, wrote in his book ‘Kashmir’ (1911):
“Other interesting types of Kashmir Mohamedans are found among the headmen of the picturesque little hamlets along the foot-hills. Here may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. Some, indeed, say, though I must admit without much authority, that these Kashmiris are of the lost tribes of Israel. Only this year there died in the Punjab the founder of a curious sect, who maintained that he was both the Messiah of the Jews and the Mahdi of the Mohamedans; that Christ had never really died upon the Cross, but had been let down and had disappeared, as He had foretold, to seek that which was lost, by which He meant the lost tribes of Israel ; and that He had come to Kashmir and was buried in Srinagar. It is a curious theory, and was worked out by this founder of the Quadiani sect in much detail. There resided in Kashmir some 1900 years ago a saint of the name of Yus Asaf, who preached in parables and used many of the same parables as Christ used,as, for instance, the parable of the sower. His tomb is in Srinagar, and the theory of this founder of the Quadiani sect is that Yus Asaf and Jesus are one and the same person. When the people are in appearance of such a decided Jewish cast it is curious that such a theory should exist ; and certainly, as I have said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir, and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.”
The founder of the sect (Ahmedian) was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian who died in 1908.
The really interesting thing is that at the root of these stories was a Russian Jew converted to Greek Orthodoxy, a man named Nicolas Notovitch ( believed to be the inspiration for the character of Great Game Spy in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim).
In 1887 Nicolas Notovitch, visited India and Tibet. Notovitch claimed that during his travels in the Himalayas, at the monastery of Hemis in Ladakh, he came to know about the ‘secret life of Jesus’ through a ‘Tibetan gospel’ (that he translated as) “Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men.” In 1894, Notovitch got this ‘unknown gospel’ published in French as La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ. And it later became famous ‘The Unknown Life of Chris’.
According to this text Jesus at the age of thirteen ( start of his lost years ) traveled to India and learned the local religions of Jains, Hindus and Buddhists and preached to them.
And so the stories goes on.
Now, here’s the interesting part.
In 1887, Nicolas Notovitch wasn’t the only one traveling in that region, another great gamer – Francis Younghusband was also on a journey that took him from ‘Peking to Kashmir via the Gobi Desert, Kashgaria, and the Mustang Pass’. The two men met on the edge of Zojila Pass somewhere between Srinagar and Leh. Nicolas Notovitch was on his way from Kashmir and Francis Younghusband was on his way to Srinagar.
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband was himself very much interested in the ‘new’ and strange ideas of ‘Easter Mysticism’, ‘Spiritualism’ – ‘the Occult’, Madame Blavatsky kind of ideas, the one in which world was run by secret cult of masters living in Tibet (again an idea first conceived in 1870s ). Younghusband certainly toyed with these ideas, especially in his later years – often to an absurd level, one can even call him the ‘Grand Daddy of Hippies’. At one time he did mingle with Theosophists of Blavatsky.
And yet in his book ‘The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, 1884-1894’ , published 1896, Francis Younghusband wrote:
“A march or two after passing Skardu, the chief place in Baltistan, I met the first European on the south side of the Himalayas. He was not an Englishman, but a Frenchman, M. Dauvergne; and in his tent I has the first good meal and talk in English I had had for many a month. A few marches further on I met another European. This one at any rate, i thought, must be an Englishman, and I walked up to him with all the eagerness a traveller has to meet a countryman of his own after not seeing one for nearly seven months. But this time it turned out that the stranger was a Russian! He announced himself as M. Nicolas Notovitch, an adventurer who had, I subsequently found, made a not very favorable reputation in India. I asked M. Notovitch where he had come from, and he replied that he had come from Kashmir. He then asked me where I had come from. I said from Peking. It much amused me, therefore, when leaving he said in a theatrical way, “We part here, the pioneers of the East!”
The same M. Notovitich has recently published what he calls a new “Life of Chirst,” which he professes to have found in a monastery in Ladakh, after he had parted with me. No one, however, who knows M. Notovitch’s reputation, or who has the slightest knowledge of the subject, will give any reliance whatever to this pretentious volume.
But the stories were already travelling and there were many takers, there always are.
In fact according to one view, Notovitch actually took inspiration from an idea that was already in the air. This idea came from a fictional work of Blavatsky titled Isis Unveiled (1877) in which a traveler with the broken leg is taken to Mount Athos in Greece where, in the monastery library, he discovers the text of Celsus‘ True Doctrine . The idea of Jesus’ flight to India was also inspired by a particular statement in IsisUnveiled that alludes to his travel to the Himalayas. She wrote:
Do what we may, we cannot deny Sakya-Muni Buddha a less remote antiquity than several centuries before the birth of Jesus. In seeking a model for his system of ethics why should Jesus have gone to the foot of the Himalayas rather than to the foot of Sinai, but that the doctrines of Manu and Gautarna harmonized exactly with his own philosophy, while those of Jehovah were to him abhorrent and terrifying? The Hindus taught to return good for evil, but the Jehovistic command was: “An eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth.”
proponents of “Jewish origin of Kashmiri people” can have a field day looking at the image.
It looks like some sort of Star of David and some sort of Tree of life.
After the bridal shower, the Devgon havan – a fire ritual, is performed.
To the left of the fire, drawn in sendir vermilion sindurah on a rectangular cardboard, can be found a Kapavriksha wishing tree, celestial tree of life, spurting out of two interjecting but oppositely inverted equilateral triangles, a figure having only four corners.
To the right of the fire are kept two bricks, up-right, side-by-side, in front of which burns an oil lamp.
The song was playing on the T.V and my nani breathed out the names.
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Image: Sharmila Tagore in Shakti Samanta’s Kashmir Ki Kali (1964). Religion unknown.
Tchand’re Taa’che – Moon Headgear. Kashmiri Pandit woman also used to wear it. Kan’waaj’e – Ear Rings
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The women are sometimes very handsome. The parda-nashins are, of course, very rarely seen. The men wear a long shirt called firan, which in the case of Hindus has long, narrow sleeves, and Muhammadans short, full ones. The Hindu woman or Punditani wears a girdle and has a white cap, whereas the Mussulman! wears a red head-dress. The black hair of young girls is braided in many thin strands, covering the back and forming a semi-circle, with a knot of hair hanging down the back, and stretching sometimes nearly to the feet.
– John Collett, A Guide for Visitors to Kashmir (1984)
It was a somewhat wistful face, with great, shy, light- brown eyes. Her hair, too, was light brown, braided in many small braids, all caught together at the ends,reaching below her waist, and finished off with a large tassel of black wool, according to the decree of fashion in these parts. All round her forehead, soft, light-brown curls, blown by the wind, escaped from under her little cap. Her skin was very fair, and showed a delicate colour in her cheeks. There was a rebellious air about the pretty mouth. Dzunia was going to keep watch in her father’s fields, to sit in a quaint little erection of straw and dried branches, like a huge nest, to scare away the birds and keep a look out for other pilferers. Her brother would not come to relieve her till late in the evening, and she had at least three hours of lonely vigil. She would break it by running home presently for a bowl of tea, but it was dull work.
P. Pirie, writing about a young Kashmiri village girl in Kashmir: The Land of Streams and Solitudes (1909)
Owing to hard work they soon lose their good looks. They are married at an early age, soon after ten. Little girls wear small skull-caps, and may have their hair beautifully done in a large number of plaits spread out over the back and gracefully braided together. After marriage, however, a thicker turban-like red cap, studded with pins, is worn, and over it a square of country cloth to act as a veil and cover the whole back. The rest of the usual dress of the village women is an ample pheran of dark blue cotton print, with a red pattein stamped on it; or the gown may be of grey striped cotton or wool, with wide sleeves turned back and showing a dirty lining. Round the neck a collar of silver or brass, enamelled in red or blue, or a coral and silver bead necklace, is usually worn; and large metal ear-rings are common. Glass bangles or massive silver bracelets and finger rings, with agate or cornelian, complete the list of ordinary jewellery worn by Kashmiri women. The feet are bare, or leather shoes, often green, are worn. The houses are without chimneys, so the inmates become smoke-begrimed. There are fewer Mohammedan women than men. The ratio is about nine to ten. Perhaps for this reason polygamy is comparatively uncommon.
More females are born than males, but baby girls do not receive so much care as the boys, and the mortality from smallpox and infantine diseases is higher. The girls are often mothers at the age of fourteen.
Kashmiri women vary very much. A very large number of the peasant women are dirty, degraded and debased. But there are not a few who are very different and who are capable and manage their houses and children and even their husbands.
– Ernest Frederic Neve, Beyond the Pir Panjal: Life and Missionary Enterprise in Kashmir (1915)
The little girls of 6 — 9 are very pretty but their beauty must soon go, for though the women are mostly pleasant-looking, very few indeed can be called pretty. The little children wear bright-coloured tight-fitting caps, heavily ornamented with showy ” jewels ” and with very heavy flat triangular ornaments hanging at either side of their head with short chains of beads or pearls attached to them : they also wear heavy necklaces and anklets. The women wear long ear-rings with a great number of objects dangling from them which rather resemble a well-filled key-ring.
The little girls have their hair done in rather a peculiar manner : numerous little plaits lengthened by the addition of some foreign black material are joined behind the neck to the two outside plaits which meet in a knot with a tassel or cord hanging from it.
– Ambrose Petrocokino, CASHMERE: Three Weeks in a Houseboat (1920)
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Image: A Kashmiri woman in Hijab and Pink slipper. June 2008.
Does Kashmir – the bone of contention between India and Pakistan for over 50 years – really belong to the US? This is the startling revelation made by Dan Brown, the internationally bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code , in a shortly to be released non-fictional work, The Secret of the K-word .
Using spectroscopic analysis (a technique described in detail in The Da Vinci Code’ the author claims to have discovered the original document over which the Instrument of Accession, signed by Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh and preserved in the National Archives, New Delhi, was later superimposed.
The secret document reveals that Hari Singh, equally apprehensive of joining either India or Pakistan, covertly ceded Kashmir to the US. According to Brown, when the map of Kashmir is reversed it becomes, uncannily, congruent with the hilly state of Kentucky in the southern US.
In a telephonic interview with The Times of India , the Houston-based author said…
he had employed the ancient Kabbalistic form of numerological interpretation to discover “amazing co-relatives between Kashmir and Kentucky which by no stretch of the imagination can be put down to pure coincidence”.
For instance, when the longitude of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, is divided by the latitude of Srinagar, the Kashmiri capital, the prime number so obtained has the same numeric valency as Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which accords a special status to Kashmir.
Describing it as “one of the best-hidden secrets of the modern world”, Brown acknowledged that his book would “create a global furore” and “open many cans of worms”.
Disclaiming that America’s Central Intelligence Agency had any role in these developments, the author said, “The truth can no longer be suppressed. We owe this much at least to the long-suffering people of Kashmir. May the truth set them free, at long last.”
Dec 31, 1980
I am awestruck that you’ve hit 160 pages-keeping your price Rs 4. My last copy tipped 300 gram. May you have more pages. It gets me more from the raddiwala.
Ramesh Bhan, Srinagar
India Today mentioned this letter in its 30th Anniversary Special Issue dated OCTOBER 2, 2006. These classic lines found place in 30 Best Readers’ Letters ever sent to the magazine.
The actual views as of 2 June 2009 was 28XX something. The star rating (even that half star wan’t missing till a month ago) and the count for ‘Favorited’ tells me that the video is fairly well appreciated by the users.
