Author: Kashmir Newsline

It’s a collection of poems that celebrate relationships and linger on. By Brindha Vinodh Dr. Santosh Bakaya’s ‘Runcible Spoons and Peagreen Boats’ is a collection of beautifully written poems that recall her halcyon days of nostalgia with enthusiasm, pride and pain – the pain of missing her ancestral home in Kashmir and those rejuvenating memories attached around her attic, and the pain of wistfulness that surrounds her as she recalls her parents and granny dotingly. Before one moves on to her poems, one’s eye is caught by the wonderful introduction written by Dr. Ampat Koshy, a poet and academician…

After rallying against Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel variously, hasn’t Turkey reconciled with all the three? Saurabh Kumar Shahi Early last month as the ‘moderate opposition’ fighters in Northern Syria were going about their daily routine of acting like Al Qaeda lite, oblivious to the fact that the rug was being pulled from below their feet, Turkey’s President Erdogan—long seen as the benevolent Sunni neo-caliph—was not-so-quietly negotiating a u-turn that would prove fatal to the Ikhwani dreams of taking over Damascus. Those who have known Erdogan know that he is a champion of two traits: making embarrassing u-turns and surviving…

Drug addiction is a monster living within us and it is feeding on our complacency and ignorance. It was previously referred to as a menace. However, it is more than just a menace now as its severity is snuffing life out of our younger generations. The scourge is so deep-seated and severe that children as young as ten years are getting addicted to some of the worst drugs available. The doctors involved in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts in Kashmir are painting a really grim picture. The introduction of heroin remains the most horrifying aspect as doctors…

With the new framework in place, fraudsters will be kept at bay. By Sajjad Bazaz The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ready to bring its card-on-file tokenization norms into effect from October 1. Earlier, its implementation was deferred on a couple of occasions. The RBI had planned to get a digital token system for debit as well as credit card transactions in place from January 1, 2022. The merchants and other stakeholders were asked to reset their technology solutions in line with the new norms – tokenization. Earlier, a regulatory measure was announced by the Reserve Bank of…

Don’t take insults and abuses hands down.  By Zia Darakhshan The office was full of conversation and caffeine as I kept taking sips from my cup of coffee while planning weekly feature stories with my editor.  A knock on the door and a woman, probably in her thirties, walked in. Romana (name changed) was accompanied by a fellow journalist who introduced her to us. Her pale face was etched with deep purplish wrinkles that indicated something was wrong. Married eight months back, Romana’s life has become a nightmare. Initially, Romana decided to endure insults and physical abuse hoping that, with love,…

Naveed Bukhtiyar Nazir Ahmad Khan, the chairman of District Development Council (DDC) Budgam, has been twice voted out through a no-confidence motion. He, however, continues to stay put. In October 2020, the union government amended the J&K Panchayat Act 1989 and introduced the DDC. The DDCs were to be the third-tier governance body under the Panchayat Act after the Halqa Panchayat and the Block Development Council to monitor the overall development of a district. In December 2022, Prime Minister Modi, speaking at the launch of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) for J&K, also mentioned about the DDC election…

This essay is a follow-up to the last week’s cover story. Jaspreet Kaur While it is necessary to understand the traditional architecture of Kashmir, especially the construction techniques, for its structural innovations, suitable for the seismic zone V, it is equally necessary to understand the physical and urban geography (urban form), especially in view of Srinagar being developed under Smart City project. Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, and the oldest city of the Valley, has retained its prominence through various eras. The nature and character of the place, the response to climate, overlapping religious practices helped…

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He read the shahadah and was rechristened Umar. Ahmad Qadri A young Japanese spy, who spoke flawless Russian, was at the port of Bombay on his way to Makkah and Medinah when a commotion unfolded. The other travelers accompanying him came to know that he was not a Muslim. It was the winter of 1909, four years since Japan’s defeat of the Russians had ignited the imagination of Muslim revolutionaries of defeating mighty European empires. In the midst of the commotion, the spy read the verses of shahadah and converted to Islam. He was given a new name, Umar Mitsutaro…