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Why Songs of Paradise is different from other Kashmir films

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  inam ul rehman   I think the last film I reviewed for any newspaper or portal was Vishal Bhradwaj’s Haider. And it was in 2014. One of my colleagues at that time, and one of the brilliant journalists of Kashmir, Mir Hilal , on reading it said that it is a rant rather than a review. I disagreed and published it. Now I agree with what Mir Hilal said.   Eleven years later here I am reviewing “ Songs of Paradise ” of Danish Renzu . A Kashmiri filmmaker’s inspirational take on the melody queen of music, Raja Begum. Remember, it is not a historical take, but an inspirational one. It is historically as correct as Salim-Anarkali stories of Bollywood , or Padmawat , the Kashmir files, Chhaava movies .  Getting sponsors for a female protagonist film is tough. In Indian cinema only a few commercial films have succeeded with a female lead. These have mostly been driven by the star power of an actress. And some even needed male star power to get wide release. Alia...
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Book Review: The rage and confusion of Gowhar Geelani

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  Book: Kashmir : Rage and Reason Author: Gowhar Geelani Publisher: Rupa Publication Pages: 288   inam ul rehman The “Rage and Reason”, Gowhar Geelani, believes is because of the Indian state policies toward Kashmir ! Paradoxically he cites an example of a mechanical engineer, Maseehullah , working in Jalandar Punjab , joining militant ranks. It was Maseehullah’s study of Islam that prompted him to join the call of, what he believed, jihad.    The author here, like a skilled politician, spins the narrative, and writes that the protest of 2008 against the grant of land to the Amarnath shrine board made many to think that it was an attempt to change the demography, and it was this event which forced Maseehullah! Although the latter’s father clearly states that it was Islam which made him to pick the gun against the state. Even his father supports that the land belongs to Allah, and His laws should govern people here.    In fact, throughout the book author ne...
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Call out all bad teachers and thank a few good ones

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inam ul rehman     On teachers’ day (it is not a universal teacher’s day, different countries celebrate it on different dates) it is normal to see write-ups about teachers, without naming them, or if someone names them s/he makes sure that the teacher has retired. What is the fun of writing such banal stuff. By not naming our teachers (who are still teaching) who inspired us, or taught us in a diligent way we are giving free rein to bad teachers or those who slam down students making them fearful to question or argue anything.     Our writing should remind those bad teachers that you would not get away with your awful teaching. You will be called out.   Our writing should also help good teachers to improve upon and pat them even if their contemporaries try to put them down.        But, how do you say a particular teacher impressed, or inspired you? Myriad reasons, but no particular answers.  In our educational career, only a f...
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Our neighbours whom we don’t know

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    i nam ul rehman                                      Book: Those who stayed: the Sikhs of Kashmir   Author: Bupinder Singh Bali Publisher: Manjul India   Pages: 285   While reading Siddharth Gigoo’s latest book “ A long season of Ashes ” it came to my mind: why haven’t Kashmiri Sikhs written a book on their survival? Kashmiri Muslims have written on the conflict, so have Pandits. But Kashmiri Sikhs? No way.    As I finished Siddharth’s engaging book, I surfed the net to explore my curiosity, and fortunately “Those who stayed: the Sikhs of Kashmir” came up. Written by a 35-year-old Sikh youth, who returned to Kashmir as a PM package employee in 2011, this candid book is a part memoir, and part historical. It is almost written in the same vein as Siddharth Gigoo’s.   Bupinder Singh Bali starts the book from a phone call he receives on October 7,...
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Parties move, Kashmir remains

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inam ul rehman    If Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires Kashmir is the graveyard of reputations. The latest example of this is the Jamaat-i-Islami . From violently taking on the Indian state from 1990 to 2019 to its final meltdown, or the National Conference challenging the rule of the Indian state on Kashmir to finally acceding to it, Kashmir has seen many others crumbling under their own inflated weight.    As the present “panel head” of the banned Jamaat-i-Islami finally said publicly his party is ready to contest elections, adding it never issued boycott calls. One wonders why this politico-religious party lies so much? Officially the party endorsed election boycott calls throughout the 90s well upto 2014 ( https://kashmirlife.net/ jamaat-e-islami-supports- geelanis-poll-boycott-call- 48486/ ). (If the Jamaat hadn’t pulled out its website one could have easily show them their past statements. But there is still a vast digital repository where one can find...
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A book fair of noise and heat

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 inam ul rehman  On August 3, I visited a book fair titled Chinar Book Festival organised by the National Book Trust of India at the expansive SKICC lawns. The moment I stepped into the shamiyana erected at the back lawns, I was hit by suffocating heat, stale air, posters of politicians, and hundreds of government schoolchildren darting about — not for books, but for keychains and snacks. I kept wondering: why do politicians need to inaugurate a book fair? Why must everything be politicised? Inside, the heat was unbearable and the chaos created by school children worse — stall after stall lined with pirated books. I don’t know why school children were dragged into this? Is it for footfalls to show that the book fair attracted everyone? To put this book fair into perspective, the weekly book market at Mahila Haat, Daryagunj in New Delhi outmatches this in size and genuine offerings.  Apart from a handful of genuine stalls mostly run by the locals, the rest were f...
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Review: Mostly engrossing, partly disappointment

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 inam ul rehman Book: Rumours of spring: A girlhood in Kashmir Author: Farah Bashir Publisher: HarperCollins     “On the deserted streets of my neighbourhood, in the presence of so many military bunkers and the gaze of the unknown men inside them,” writes Farah Bashir, in her refreshing memoir, ‘ Rumours of Spring ’ “I suddenly became aware of my body and its contours. (I) felt naked. I tried to fold into the school bag clutched in front of me.” It resulted a perennial hunch in her back, the author says.    “Rumours of spring” is an intriguing title, already a novel of the same name has been published in the late 80s. It is a title that does justice because there is no spring ahead only the rumour of it.    Bobeh epitomises Kashmir of yore   Farah crafts her memoir around Bobeh, her grandmother epitomises the Kashmir that stood for syncretism until 1994, that is where she ends her book. The year 1994 marked the secular, independence seeking the J...
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Dog bite is a class divide in India

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inam ul rehman It is a mid-summer afternoon. People are mostly scattered to their workplaces and for labourer class it is lunchtime. Hardworking labourer parents are taking their lunch when their four-year-old child wanders on the street alone. He has taken to this street multiple times along with his parents. The kid believes the street belongs to him. It is safe to move around. Suddenly a stray dog comes in front of him, the innocent child smiles and keeps walking. The dog barks at him again, which startles the child. The kid does not know what to do as the stray dog is joined by a few more dogs. Then one dog pushes this child on the ground. A dog gnaws its teeth in his yet to be developed flesh, the other dog catches his limb and tears away his soft flesh. A few puppies also enter into the frame. The child is screaming but urban noise dwarfs his. The dogs drag him beneath the bonnet of the car. Then we see his body in a hospital bed. Mauled .   The child was just another num...
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Humans fight humans for justice, but winners demonise losers

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A response to SSP Anantnag, Sandeep Chaudhary, who does not like to humanise militants.   Inam ul rehman After Riyaz Naikoo, pro-Pakistan Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant commander, was killed in an unequal encounter with Indian forces, a number of Indian intellectuals, and members of the Indian police service took umbrage at the reports that mentioned he was a teacher before taking up the gun  ( https://theprint.in/opinion/time-drew-red-x-for-osama-but-western-press-humanised-riyaz-naikoo-with-pre-gun-stories/416743/ )   (  https://www.dailyo.in/politics/riyaz-naikoo-kashmir-terrorism-jihad-hizbul-mujahideen/story/1/32879.html ) . For them Naikoo was a “cold blooded murderer” who killed civilians, and as such does not deserve to be humanised at all!   Does a human cease to be a human because he responds to existential threats in a way that is not compatible to the state? There also comes the important question: why do people pick up the gun...
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Revisiting Kashmir’s complex web in Karan Mujoo’s novel

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Book: This our paradise Author: Karan Mujoo Publisher: Penguin Random House Pages: 240  Reviewer: inam ul rehman It is never, never easy for any deracinated writer to have a sympathetic look at the place where there community was forced to live a life of exile. Then to expect them to rationally find answers why things happened is not possible from mere mortals.   Karan Mujoo’s novel, set in the Kashmir Valley , sweeps away stereotypes with his characters. A fictional book where the author juxtaposes two communities of Kashmir to explore what went wrong. We have Shahid , living in a distant land where life has remained fossilised, refuse to take up a government job, believing he is destined for extraordinary things that will shape history. Our protagonist is 8-years-old when the novel commences. He is deeply attached to his uncle, Vicky , a Marxist in the making. The premonition of things to come starts right when our protagonist moves to his new home in Bagh-i-Mehtab in...
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