LEH
It is motherhood that is at the apex of human emotions. It can never be quantified. A British newspaper broke the story of a Zanskar family that accompanied their expecting mother to opt for a dangerous trek on Chadder, the frozen river connecting the remote town with Kargil. The family along with the lady trekked 45 kms distance to reach Lingshed where the hospital is. It took them nine days. Carrying provisions and staying in caves in between it took them another nine days to reach home on the frozen river path in minus 35 degrees.
KATRA
It offers an idea of impurity that exists in the jewellery market. Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has detected 43 kgs of gold and 57815 kgs of silver as impure in last three years. In response to an RTI application, the Board said that in last five years the shrine received 193.5 kgs of gold and 81635 kgs silver offerings from the devotees. Since the Board is minting special coins for sale to the devotees, it was found that 43 kgs of gold and 57815 kgs of silver were fake. It essentially indicates the impurity in the precious metals that exists in the market. It works out as 22.24% in gold and 70.82% in silver. Given the mess, it indicates the crisis that thrives in absence of hallmarking.
KASHMIR UNIVERSITY
The Escaped Moments debut novel by a KU Literature student, Jaasindah Rafiq Mir (24) was released at varsity’s Ghandi Bhawan on last Thursday. The novel is about a fifteen-year-old small town girl, Aatirah who has underwent a lot of tragedies right from her birth. Her character has antipathy, not only to her life but her dad, step mother and her cruel step brother. “I am victorious today after a lot of rejections!” Jaasindah told the audience answering those who had cast doubt on her ability.
UDHAMPUR
For the last few months, the formal inauguration of the Rs 1050 crore 25-kms Udhampur-Katra railway track was on agenda of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Sigh during his February visit. As Dr Singh is visiting Jammu on Sunday, the line is not being thrown open by him. It essentially means that while stretches of the track were re-laid in last few years, it may still require some more time. This time the reason being given officially is that Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) was not satisfied with one of the several bridges on the track having seven tunnels, 29 minor and 9 major bridges.
MATTAN
Upcoming film on Kashmir Haider being currently shot in valley by Vishal Bhardwaj has led lead actor Shahid Kapoor to go bald. But that has not reduced the problems of the crew. As the crew is shooting at locations where nobody from Bollywood has been so far, they are facing crowd management issues. In Zainkadal, for instance, as the crowd thickened and everybody was keen to have his glimpse of actors, police said a youth fell down with his Kangri. In Mattan when the crew was shooting in Sun Temple, it was a huge crowd and everybody was keen to be around. They fought with police, ensured their entry and watched the shooting. But the crew sometimes feels uncomfortable. The film still needs some time to complete the shooting.
MUZAFFARABAD
As January 26 was being observed across J&K, a Pakistani newspaper carried the story of one Altaf Ahmad singing on the banks of Jhelum and playing his Saranghi. The report said, “he shares his agony with the river”. Settled in Gharipan around Muzaffarabad, Altaf argued that since his mother living in Islamabad fetches water from the same river, his singing is a sort of catharsis to him. “I know my mother regularly fetches water from river Jehlum and her pitcher would have definitely touched the same water that flows near me here which gives me immense pleasure and carries me back to my childhood,” he was quoted saying. Ahmad had crossed over in 1990s and is settled there.
KOKERNAG
As the Congress minister and local MLA Peerzada Sayeed went home to lay the foundation stone of tulip garden in Kokernag, there was a protest. It was so intense that the police and the CRPF had to use force to quell protestors in which many people were injured. They had blocked the road to prevent Peerzada to reach the spot. Reason: the locals said if the common grazing land becomes a tulip garden where will they take their herd?
2013 witnessed 1325 arrests that included 300 students and 95 minors. Srinagar topped with 322 arrests.
J&K State Forest Corporation extracted 26 lakh cft of timber from forests, sold 18.74 lakh cft timber worth Rs 114.12 crore during the current fiscal, so far.
