The vanishing Koshier toep
It is one of those unique unmistakably Kashmir symbols but as Majid Maqbool finds traditional Kashmiri cap is disappearing for want to takers.The once...
Preserving the Past
At an age when people retire, Atiqa Bano set up a museum to preserve and display rare artefacts and manuscripts of Kashmir. Majid Maqbool...
Green poet
Zarief Ahmad Zarief is known more for his poetry and flamboyant Kashmiri critique than his social activism like his passion for saving Chinars. Majid...
Reviving Kashmiri Language
by Abid Ahmad
Recently Kashmir observed the death anniversary of Akhtar Mohiuddin, the legendary writer of Kashmiri language and literature, who elevated Kashmiri to a...
Akhtar Mohi-ud-Din: Courage till last
by Majid Maqbool
In a seminal essay written as early as 1950, Akhtar Mohi-ud-Din urged writers to side with majority of people, not power, if...
Ghulam Ali Majboor (1952 – 2009)
by Zubair A Dar
On Friday, May 15, when Ghulam Ali Majboor breathed his last, it was not the death of an artist alone, it...
A fading trot
Hamidullah Dar
Once a popular mode of transport connecting cities and towns in the valley, the Tonga or horse-cart has lost its sheen over the years – mainly due to proliferation of automobiles and in part due to apathy of authorities
While in Srinagar the Tonga has bitten the dust, in suburbs and towns, the vintage mode is still available. A horse driving a cart with the whipping driver standing in front and at least five passengers on the seats is partly visible on the streets in suburbs.
Although government tried to remove the Tongas from roads in towns owing to their obstructive speed and unusual stoppage, instead deciding to compensate the Tonga drivers by providing them vehicle permits and monetary benefits, the drivers are hardly impressed.
Once a popular mode of transport connecting cities and towns in the valley, the Tonga or horse-cart has lost its sheen over the years – mainly due to proliferation of automobiles and in part due to apathy of authorities
While in Srinagar the Tonga has bitten the dust, in suburbs and towns, the vintage mode is still available. A horse driving a cart with the whipping driver standing in front and at least five passengers on the seats is partly visible on the streets in suburbs.
Although government tried to remove the Tongas from roads in towns owing to their obstructive speed and unusual stoppage, instead deciding to compensate the Tonga drivers by providing them vehicle permits and monetary benefits, the drivers are hardly impressed.
