Author: Kashmir Newsline

Remembering Mir Taqi Mir on his 300th birth anniversary. Salim Arif Mir Ke Sher Ka Ahvaal Kahoon Kya Ghalib Jis Ka Deevan Kam Az Gulshan-e-Kashmir Nahi (What do I tell you about Mir, Ghalib Whose poetry is no less than the beauty of Kashmir) ~Mirza Assadullah Khan Ghalib  With a vast corpus of poetry consisting of more than thirteen thousand couplets noted for their breadth and sweep, Mir Taqi Mir can be credited with setting the template of Urdu ghazal and masnavi. Known more for his ghazals, his mastery over other genres like masnavi (a long poem in rhyming couplets),…

BJP was in power in Karnataka and was desperately trying to overthrow the Congress-led UPA, which was pursuing the links of the bomb blasts leading to the Hindutva outfits. by Sanjay Kapoor On February 20, 2010, the Karnataka Lok Ayukta police raided a tiny non-descript port in Belekiri and seized documents and computers. Later, the police also took control of a large quantity of illegal iron ore at this poorly guarded port. A few months later, the ore was stolen. On the basis of their findings that emerged out of the seized computer and documents, the Karnataka Lok Ayukta Police…

A tribute to Urdu’s most popular poet, who remains an eternal contemporary, on his 154th  death anniversary.  by Salim Arif  Poochhte Hain Wo Ke Ghalib Kaun Hai Koi Batlao Ke Hum Batlayen Kya! (Who is Ghalib, they ask Can someone tell me what to say!) ~ Mirza Ghalib Endowed with wit and candour, Ghalib—a nobleman poet of the Mughal Delhi in its twilight years—remains the most popular of the Urdu poets. Brought up by his maternal grandfather’s family, Ghalib had a happy childhood, flying kites and loitering around in the lanes of Agra with his younger brother Yusuf and sister…

Opposition parties see this as smothering of democracy.  by Sanjay Kapoor Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s long reply to the Presidential address in the parliament on February 7, 2023, largely veered around how businessman Gautam Adani’s fortunes have risen due to his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This allegation that Gandhi has been leveling for a good long while got a new lease of life after the release of Hindenburg Research’s 403-page report which has made specific allegations against the Adani Enterprises and wondered about the identity of the shell companies and the source of the billions of dollars that…

Gurmeet Singh Ranghar The world is questioned with climate change and, thus, environmentalists, botanists and even the economist have turned their eye with a microscopic view to trees and their threatened foliage. How does the tribe of poetry lovers join in to present this concern? Lily Swarn’s anthology of poems, A Passionate Affair with Trees, is the answer. It would need a gifted poet, full of passion for life, and a keen eye to awaken this sensitivity in us. I read the foreword by Satbir Chadha. It immediately set the binocular to see the wonders of trees in all their manifestations -…

On the final day, there was no one who was not improvising. Lalit Magazine Recently, I had the fortune of enacting a small role in an online rehearsed reading of King Lear by India Poetry Circle’s IPC Players, flawlessly directed by Jairam Seshadri. It was an exhilarating and enriching experience that transported me back in time. Many years back, to the utter disappointment of my family members, I quit a lucrative job in Mumbai to be with my wife, Santosh, who was a lecturer in a postgraduate college in Bharatpur. For a couple of months, I was doing nothing but…

Interests of the country’s poor have been forsaken in the name of national security and to fit the country to the perception of the US-led West.    by Sanjay Kapoor The strategic balance at the Indo-China border dramatically changed after June, 15, 2020 when the Chinese troops had a savage brawl with the Indian jawans in the Galwan river valley. The incident left 20 Indian soldiers and officers dead and many injured. Chinese casualties were never acknowledged.  After the incident, the Indian government moved 2 lac troops to the frozen heights of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to discourage Chinese territorial…

Web Desk Russian Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, had a legion of trolls going after him after his comments on Pakistan went viral. Addressing a conference ‘Next Steps in India-Russia Strategic Partnership; Old Friends New Horizons’ organised by the India Writes Network and the Centre for Global India Insights on Monday, Alipov said that Moscow wanted to expand its economic engagement with Islamabad as a weak Pakistan wasn’t good for the entire region including India. All hell broke loose after Alipov’s comments were shared by a New Delhi-based TV journalist on Twitter. It didn’t help either when the ambassador referred…

Karakuli fur has a soft, curly texture, velvety feel and sheen – qualities that make the cap a prized possession. Jaspreet Kaur Men have been sporting headgear – hats, caps, turbans – since ages as a status symbol. In many cultures around the world, leaving your home without wearing a headgear was considered improper. The karakul holds a very special place among caps and hats as far as its history and significance as a symbol of power, position or affluence is concerned. History The karakul cap is typically worn by men in Central and South Asia. It was worn by…

The spymaster is widely seen as an authority on Kashmir and someone not in favour of a muscular policy while dealing with Kashmiris. Shome Basu On a chilly January evening, over cups of Kashmiri kehwa, Amarjeet Singh Dulat, the former IB and R&AW chief, is engrossingly speaking about Kashmir – a dystopian but stunningly beautiful Himalayan valley which has shaped his life.We’re sitting in a neatly arranged study in the basement of his New Delhi home. A collection of spy fiction by John le Carre and Ian Fleming and other hardcovers on geopolitics, history and cricket are stacked on the…