“Shureiw Mureiw Tehera”… These words in Kashmiri may seem to be trivial at first but these are the lovely magical words that used to magnetize a stampede of overwhelmingly uptight crowd, consisting of desperate kids, men, women or any riffraff stroller passing by. These words for rejoicing the modest treat of Kashmiri fried rice, commonly called as Teher, used to be a temptation call from decades. Alas from the last few years it declined to resonate in the streets of Kashmir with the...

"An unusual commingle of our social and education system."
P.S: This might sound like an outburst.

“Dafa gus”, cried my dad. Is this my heedlessness that my dad’s colleague’s “someone” got admitted at some private college in a far-off Indian state where land is sold at dirt-cheap rates. I sincerely believe that if government employees spend more time on their jobs rather than poking their noses in the lives of a ‘stranger’, they could bring about a revolution. Nowadays, the...

Not less than 358 infants have died in Kashmir’s only children’s hospital since January this year. In March alone 105 deaths have been reported, while April took 85 lives. The first fortnight of May has already recorded 34 deaths and it took so long for the government to even admit that its health system was in shambles. Ironically J&K Minister for Medical Education after touring the hospital on Wednesday (16th May) is reported to have termed these deaths as ‘normal’. What was...

The following interview was conducted right after the census, which declared that there are 91,000 dogs in Srinagar city. The interviewee was first reluctant to talk and agreed only on the condition that his identity and color remain hidden. The interviewee thus will be referred as ‘He’.

Bow wow ow… Aaa.. ooo

Sorry for that madness. It has crept in lately. You go on with your business.

ME: So you are 91,000 here.

HE: Aaah! We can be but they are lying.

ME: How?

HE: They told you...

Winston Churchill once said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”  What a beautiful quote and of-course a great message he put forward for his countrymen. Political figures of his land happened to understand the essence of his saying and that is why we all witness where his country is right now. Perhaps he had the vision and faith in his predecessors as well as the successors and the political elites who ruled his nation. And undoubtedly if...

The month of April was different. Within a span of few days there were campaigns over two issues in the Social Media about which the mainstream media was silent and quite surprisingly the Social Media had the final say both the times.

In a country where politicians rule the roost and the office of the president is above all questions, the netizens fought tooth and nail, and made a difference. At first they brought about the downfall of Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi and then...

Manu Joseph has announced his verdict - Kashmir is Happy. One of the prominent Indian journalist and Editor in Chief of Open Magazine. Joseph soon after concluding his Kashmir visit proclaimed “Kashmir is happy”. Joseph has come to the conclusion as during his brief sojourn, he has met a few Kashmiris working for 'Aircel', has discussed the Kashmir issue with some "eminent" Kashmiri scribes, has enjoyed a Gondola ride in Gulmarg and has also listened to the speech of District Magistrate...

As children when we would throw a stone at a dog, a wily curmudgeon in the locality with a theological bent of mind would quote an anecdote attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa, the founder of the Sunni school of jurisprudence with the largest following in the Islamic world. Once, the rev erred imam is said to have ordered people to inquire into the parentage of a certain thrower and, as he had predicted, found the latter an illegitimate child. According to one belief, illegitimate children are...