FJ Kashmir

inam ul rehman    Kashmir Valley ’s largest circulating English newspaper the Greater Kashmir ’s 4-month journalism course has raked a storm among the professionals and educational institutions. Taking a dig at 2 years regular degree courses, GK writes: “The new 4-month multimedia journalism course is not about abstract theory or outdated textbooks. It’s about real skills — shooting videos, editing content, writing compelling news stories, doing interviews, copyediting , anchoring , scripting, and learning how to work across digital platforms .”   It is the first of its kind initiative by any publishing house in Jammu and Kashmir , and one has to say it is a good and much needed one .    The journalism courses taught in colleges and universities of J&K are archaic, and mostly taught by people who have no or little experience of the field. I can count faculty members who have first-hand experience of the fieldwork. Starting from MERC, University of Kashmir ,...

 inam ul rehman  Like all great artists, and concerned citizen of his community, Akhtar Rasool was a lonely person. He had several friends, was a star of his community, but he held many views which were contrarian. He groomed artists, gave them suggestions, and didn’t shy in saying that Kashmiri artists do not have that perseverance, grit, and imagination to grab the attention of clients.     Akhtar Boss, as I fondly used to call him, belonged to a minority community which is also marginalised in Kashmir. I used to see his artistic work in the Greater Kashmir pullout magazine . It was Urdu weekly Kashmir Uzma , where he changed the view of newspaper editors and layout designers. He designed Kashmir Uzma in his own novel way. His frontpage illustrations combined with Riyaz Masroor ’s editing skills made this weekly a household name.   In 2007, I joined the daily Etalaat , an English newspaper. Here I came to know Akhtar boss’s work. He was the overall...

inam ul rehman Incompetence of any person during his service years can be gauged on number of hurdles he creates for his co-workers. A competent person erases roadblocks because he considers it his professional duty.  I work in the University of Kashmir , an apex educational institution so far. Here we have a number of incompetent persons, who unfortunately are also placed in responsible positions. Many of these persons are in such positions because their fathers, uncles, who were previously working in the University, vied for them. Their incompetence mars not only individuals working with them but hampers the growth of the institution.   In January 2020, the government said that broadband connections would be restored to educational institutions but our man at the information technology and system support refused to act on it. Instead “His Highness” at the ITSS put a form on the intranet of the University, which states that anyone who wants to use the internet ...