GULMARG
Almost three decades of hiatus, marriage vows were taken in Gulmarg’s historic St Mary’s Church. Fond of snow, the Australian couple Tim Robertson and Kate Hamilton got married when the winter wonderland was under thick white blanket. The couple was wearing Indian wedding attire while dozens of foreign skiers wearing traditional Kashmiri Pherans were the guests. The ceremony was carried out by local priests and was followed by Kashmiri Wazwaan and folk music. As soon as the news went out, the couple was poured with congratulatory messages on twitter from many people including the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
JAWAHAR TUNNEL
On Thursday, when there was an abundant snowfall, the police post outside the Jawahar Tunnel was asked to vacate the building they share with Fire Services. There were 20 people of whom 10 decided to stay put. Two hours later, an avalanche hit the building. “There was no possibility of approaching the spot from this side, so we sent a rescue team from Banihal side of the tunnel,” SSP Kulgam Harmeet Singh said. More than 15 hours later, they rescued three and recovered seven dead bodies. Already, the snow had killed a civilian in Kokernag belt of Islamabad.
SOURA
On January 11, the doctors at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) conducted first pediatric heart valve replacement surgery on a 9-year old Srinagar girl diagnosed to have rheumatic heart disease with mitral regurgitation. Prof G.N Lone led the surgeons along with Dr. Farooq Ahmad Ganie. The patient was removed from ventilator after four hours of surgery and shifted from ICU within six days. Director SKIMS Prof Umar Javed Shah congratulated the Department CVTS for performing such a landmark surgery successfully.
DAL LAKE
During his recent visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trolled on social networking sites as soon as his small video clip about his Dal lake tour was uploaded. It showed Modi waving his hand, a routine practice of leaders when they wave towards crowds. The first reaction to the video came from Omar Abdullah: “This camera person has done the Hon PM a huge disservice by not showing all the people furiously waving back because there is no way the PM would be waving at an empty lake.” Earlier Mehbooba Mufti had written, “For those who are asking, the (wave sign) is for BJP’s countless imaginary ‘friends’ in Kashmir.” This was enough for the virtual world citizens to take the debate to a next level.
KUPWARA
After quitting his services, the 2009 IAS topper Shah Faesal held his first public meeting in his home district Kupwara on February 4. Interestingly thousands of people attended it. People who were saying that the IAS man was mistaking his social media following were surprised with the support he turned out to have in the real world too. In the meeting, Faesal vowed to fight for the dignity of Kashmiris. He said he has entered politics to improve the system and seeks continuous public support to achieve that goal. Off late, he has hired a few rooms in Rajbagh wherefrom he operates his politics at Kehwa. Though his immediate focus is in north, Faesal plans to visit various places across the state including south Kashmir. He has started getting invitations from the anti-BJP camp in mainland India too.
