Author: Kashmir Newsline

The world stood with India in strongly condemning the attack.  Shome Basu It was a warm, sunny December day. New Delhi was going about its usual business. The posh Connaught Place area was gearing up for a carnival as Christmas was just around the corner. I was at the Bangla Sahib gurudwara for a photo story. At the gurudwara, I was planning to have my lunch at the langar which was about to start.  Suddenly, at around 11:30, a loud explosion was heard along with some gunshots. I stepped out of the gurudwara to check. Outside, on the road, people…

Lt. Gen. (retd) Tariq Khan The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. ~Milton Friedman We are an accommodative nation abounding in conspiracy theories, rumours and labels. No one understands that we, as a nation and society, are held hostage to ignorance and stupidity. Our economy is in shambles and a semiliterate accountant rolls his pearls of wisdom while the fan club sits in wonder trying to pick up nuggets of wisdom from the utter nonsense he rattles off. No nation has suffered from a lack of intellectual capacity and functional collapse the way we…

Unprecedented steps are needed to create a basic framework for conservation and restoration of the lake. Akshay Kaul The 1990s saw a sharp reduction in the quality of lakes, rivers and other water bodies – particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For us, the 1990s in Kashmir also reflect a watershed moment of a different sort that had a significant impact on the environmental legacy of the valley. The causes of lake degradation are quite similar when you look at them, especially in developing countries. Lakes are complex living systems because their health and water quality depend on both…

A tribute to the thespian on his birth centenary. In 1934, Indian cinema’s first diva, Devika Rani, and her husband, Himanshu Rai, set up Bombay Talkies, which produced several hit movies with Ashok Kumar and her in the lead in most of them. Brought up and educated in England, Rani, along with Rai, had studied filmmaking in Germany. While she contributed immensely to the development of the early cinema when the talkies had just begun, Rani’s single most important contribution to the Indian film industry would come a decade later when she introduced Yusuf Khan aka Dilip Kumar, who was…

Dilip Kumar embodied the zeitgeist of an era gone by and they don’t make them like that anymore. Shabir Hussain Dilip Kumar’s entry into the world of cinema was as phantasmagorical as his rise to superstardom after some initial hiccups. When the glamorous actor-producer Devika Rani offered him a job in her production house as an actor, he was reluctant but agreed only after Rani quoted a monthly salary of Rs1250, which was a fortune back in the day. He had inhibitions also because his strict father was dismissive of cinema and would never have wanted him to become an…

How a Dilip Kumar fan almost met his icon and yet ended up not getting to meet him ever. Lalit Magazine “Hello, sahab hain kya?” I asked, holding on to the telephone receiver as if my very life depended on the answer from the other end. “Aap kaun bol rahen hain, sir?” The voice on the other end was that of an employee of Dilip Kumar and he wouldn’t hand over the phone to the great man himself unless he knew who I was. This was June 1987. I had taken up a job in Mumbai just a few days back.  When…

A foggy start to winter should already have set the alarm bells ringing in Kashmir. Most part of the day these days is clouded by fog and the night temperatures are sliding below freezing levels. Yet, there is no sense of alarm found in Kashmir’s healthcare system. The winter is the harshest period to live in Kashmir. It impacts physical as well as mental health of the people. The shorter, gloomy days are known to worsen the already fragile mental health of many, while the freezing days and nights harm the respiratory health. While it is still the beginning of…

Review of Lily Swarn Saba’s collection of ghazals. Prof. Zaman Azurda Recently, I happened to read and listen to some poems and ghazals of Lily Swarn Saba. Blessed be the circumstances which bring us the joy of the words and poetry of people living far away while sitting at home. Once upon a time there was a ritual called arsi mushaf at Muslim weddings. The arsi mushaf is the occasion when the groom first sees the face of the bride in a mirror held between them. Now television, different websites and various channels have put a mirror in front of everything.…