Tryst with rejections
Bilal Handoo
Out from the bustling bazaar of old town Baramulla, he walks as if in seclusion. He often walks that way—apparently, he mimics zombies! Perhaps that’s why: they call him, a misfit. But he...
Small is beautiful, dogs!
Junaid Ashraf
All the dogs of the high-walled city of Capitaloslovakia came rushing—all at once, seemingly depressed. They walked through the oily streams, beneath the smoke filled sky, past the tall buildings and the billboards—that...
This Hope is hopeless
Bilal Handoo
He celebrated like a Brazilian soccer fan over ‘their victory over them’. But more than one party’s win, he cherished the loss of other—the one, that incarcerated him for reacting to orchestrated state...
Yearning for Mother
Bilal Handoo
Last year on Mother’s Day, Tabasum’s face was beaming with smile. Her younger sibling, Murassa was too cheerful. 365 days after, the day has returned—but, none of two siblings is smiling. Their joy—their mother,...
The fatal feud!
Aarif Muzafar Rather
The word Azadi struck his ears at the age of 7. It was the period when Kashmir was passing through an uprising against Indian rule. That period of chaos and confusion consumed...
Mother, I don’t need their scholarship!
Muntaha Amin
A treacherous journey had ended. I was finally home along with mates. They had shown us door—as we cheered for greens! We were told: cheering for greens is sedition. They left us in...
The confined tale
Bilal Handoo
It is raining heavily tonight. A haunting darkness has wrapped hundreds of households in downtown Srinagar. The clock has struck 10 pm. In Khanyar locality, somebody is knocking hard at the door of...
An endless search of a mother
Insha Bint Bashir
A free movement curbed half a century ago got partially resumed in the spring of 2005. On April 7 that year, the two nuclear giants of sub-continent exchanged buses to bridge the...
Dooriyan (Distances)
Omair Bhat
Early Spring.
Heemal.
Frontier District. Kashmir.
Smoke is billowing from the chimneys, rising and swirling in twisting spirals and disappearing in the void less sky stretched to miles along. The water in the spring outside mosque...
Way too late
Muntaha Amin
He sensed the opportunity—that, he could run away. And without considering anything else, he held his breath and made his way out of the torture camp—which lay besides a picket. He ran like...
Times and trials of Sultan Mama
Bilal Handoo
Mama was the only Jehadist among scores of his time. But the sorry state of affairs is that: while India honoured Muma Kana with Padma Shree for something very sordid, our own state...
A Dark Humour
Bilal Handoo
The feeling was still sinking in Majeed Bhat, a government clerk when he attended his office. Melodrama of last night at his home and that marathon verbal pounding by his wife had gripped...
A Letter from Tihar
Bilal Handoo
Already two years have passed since Shaheena’s husband has gone with a group of seven men to other part of Kashmir for arms training. Five out of them have returned, and are now...
A Forsaken Mother
Bilal Handoo
It was early seventies when Yemberzal got married amid huge fanfare in downtown Srinagar. A simple girl, she was ruling hearts because of her sensibility. Such was Yemberzal; just like her name meaning...
The Letter: A Short Story
Nayeem Rather
As Sikandar Shah woke from his sleep in the early hours of that morning, he hastily went to courtyard of shrine for ablution. The moon was still high in the sky, surrounded by...
