Author: Kashmir Newsline

The biography is an immensely absorbing read. by Santosh Bakaya Published, and meticulously edited, by Readomania, Sunita Singh’s book ‘The Making of a Chief Justice of India: Life and Times of Justice Kamal Narain Singh’ is very well written and, through its pages, we witness Justice Kamal Narain Singh’s journey from the corridors of the District Court of Allahabad to the highest seat of justice in the Supreme Court of India and also catch glimpses of a country in transition. “Baba, what was your secret to success? He took a long pause and replied, ‘I worked very hard, but I was…

Naveed Bukhtiyar With utter disregard for High Court judgment passed in the month of April, J&K Cooperative Housing Corporation Ltd. (JKCHC) continues to claim that it doesn’t fall within the purview of the RTI act. In response to an RTI application, JKCHC refused to disclose the information, tossing the application around as part of its dodging tactics to keep the information sought by the applicant to itself. The RTI Application  Nazir Ahmad Lone of the J&K RTI Movement had filed an RTI application with the office of the Managing Director JKCHC, Jammu, seeking information related to the details of colonies…

 A tribute to the fearless poet and litterateur on her 103rd birth anniversary. by Lily Swarn When a man denies the power of women, he is denying his own subconscious. ~ Amrita Pritam Born Amrit Kaur in Gujranwala , Punjab in British India (now Pakistan) in 1919, Amrita Pritam went on to become the first  and only woman to get the Sahitya Academy Award in 1956 for a work in Punjabi – Sunehede. She was also the first to get the Punjab Rattan Award. Amrita was a novelist, essayist and poet all rolled into one who wrote extensively in Punjabi and…

The last Soviet leader will be remembered for changing the course of the 20th Century.  by Shome Basu As the news of Mikhail Gorbachev’s passing flashed on the TV screen, I couldn’t help reminiscing about the piece of the Berlin Wall beside the River Mosel in Luxemburg, bordering France and Germany in Shenghen, where Gorbachev’s graffiti has ’The Hero Of Peace’ splashed across it. Gorbachev who led a long, eventful life redefined the course of the 20th Century. Born on March 2, 1931 in USSR, he was a thoughtful political leader. He helped in tearing the Iron Curtain, pulled back…

 The Islamic emirate has started warming up to several countries in the region, including India.  Saurabh Kumar Shahi A few days ago, Taliban celebrated its first anniversary of the takeover of Kabul and the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. A video showed Taliban fighters firing projectiles in the sky in the backdrop of a primarily derelict and badly illuminated Kabul. In many ways, that image is representative of what is happening in Afghanistan. The last 12 months have been very difficult for the Taliban. While its victory over the Western forces and their Northern Alliance collaborators was spectacular,…

As India and Pakistan celebrated 75 years of independence in August, Saadat Hassan Manto’s bold and painfully prophetic writings on the partition trauma remain ever-relevant.  Bilal Ahmad Standing at Zero Line, Haji Abdul Rasheed raises his right hand to wave at his cousins from the other side of the border as the refreshing breeze blows his snow white beard. They make some barely audible greeting noises from across the stream—a de facto border for the divided Kashmiris—enquiring about his wellbeing. After exchanging pleasantries with his relatives, Rasheed retreats to the vantage point where Indian and Pakistani troopers can be seen…

What is it about our culture today that makes us unable to admit that we are who we are? Soni Razdan I was ushered into the plush offices of someone or the other in the ITV building as if I was already almost a star. Finally, after a short wait of a few minutes, I was taken in to meet the great man himself, Franco Zeffirelli. Those of you who are my peers will have seen Romeo and Juliet directed by him. It was a rage and a super hit all over the world. That I was actually meeting this…

Series of excerpts from Not Just Cricket by Pradeep Magazine. As I was seeking answers to what had actually transpired during that period and whether Jagmohan, as his detractors said, had facilitated Pandit migration instead of stopping them, I asked Bakaya for his version of the events during that harrowing period. ‘I had hundreds of Pandits who trusted me coming over seeking guarantees for their security and threatening to otherwise move out of the Valley,’ recalls Bakaya, saying that some of the Pandits described a sense of fear caused by chants from mosques asking Pandits to leave. There were anonymous…

At 36, Raza is in the form of his life and a role model for budding cricketers by Bilal Ahsan Dar In a world dominated by the Virat Kohlis, the Babar Azams and the Joe Roots of the game, there will always be some exceptionally talented players around who get overshadowed. More so if they represent sides that aren’t so strong. Zimbabwean all-rounder Sikander Raza is a case in point. Raza scored three centuries in his last six ODI innings, two of them unbeaten.The 95-ball 115 against India in the last ODI was the best of the lot despite coming…