Places

Born out of adversity Shimla became second home for Kashmiris fleeing Maharaja’s Begaar system, the very notorious forced labour. Even though Hari Singh fled Kashmir and marked the collapse of autocracy, the tradition of...

Shah Navid Ahmad After two years of hard work with no proper direction or guidance, I finally landed in Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), Delhi. Thus the pursuit of chasing my dream subject began. After I...

Mir liyaqat Nazir Uthkar to aagaye hain teri bazam se magar Kuch dil hi jaanta hai kis dil se aayen hai (Faiz Ahamad Faiz)  (I left while the gathering Was still young The lamp was lit Yet the moth was denied The...

ABDUL WAJID It was late February in wintry Kashmir. The mercury was dipping down to subzero and the cold was harsh enough to arrest me in my warm cosy place. Everything around was catching the...

 Imbisat Makhdoomi I am one of those students who left his motherland Kashmir for a better future. Kashmir, a poets heaven or paradise needs no introduction as everything here is filled with mystic romance. Its...

As Kashmiri Pandits migrated to safer places in early nineties when militancy erupted in Kashmir valley, a Pandit woman from Lolab valley decided to stay put. All these years, her Muslim neighbours secured her...

Lack of regular electricity, proper roads, educational institutes and health centres is not a criterion for recognition as a backward area by the state government. No one has learnt this harsh lesson better than...

The historic old town in Baramulla which played a central role in trade before the 1947 partition of Asian subcontinent is about to see a complete overhaul with widened roads in coming days. Is...

Situated on the banks of Jehlum river, the villagers of a small hamlet in south Kashmir have grown up making odd discoveries of ancient objects which haven’t attracted anyone’s curiosity. Shams Irfan visits the...

Come November and a group of villagers in Bandipora row their boats into Wular Lake to extract water chestnuts which are then supplied to markets in and outside the state, Bilal Handoo reports. Located barely...

A village bearing the imprints of Kashmir’s rich cultural heritage was reduced to ashes in a devastating fire last week which left hundreds of its inhabitants homeless. SHAMS IRFAN visits the village to find...

DR GEER MOHAMMAD ISHAQ As they say, journeys help you discover your true inner self. My third visit abroad to Mexico to attend 12th annual conference of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance at Cancun was...

An eerie calm is slowly settling down in Zanskar where communal riots had broken out over the conversion of six Buddhist families to Islam. Although conversion is not a new phenomenon in the Buddhist...

Shalabugh village in central Kashmir has pioneered the craft of weaving the famous willow baskets. Due to a lack of proper marketing and distribution, the village craftsmen approach intermediaries to sell their products, BILAL...

Once a largely rural country, Kazakhstan has undergone a humongous demographic change in the last decade which has changed the cultural landscape of the country. But, as SAMEER YASIR finds out, a growing dissent...