FJ Kashmir

 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...

inam ul rehman  On Saturday, July 19, I went to the Tourist Reception Centre ground to watch a soccer match played in the floodlights.  Both the entry and parking are free. As I entered the ground, the stadium was packed with people of all ages, but only a few women and girls were present. People were cheering for their favourite teams, I could sense by their diction that the crowd consisted of people from rural areas as well.  It was a different experience to see a huge number of people watching a local soccer match. Children as young as five to 10 years old were moving up and down the aisle, cheering and jubilant in their parents’ company.   As my eyes scanned to spot a place to watch the match my mind went to the 2008 event, when thousands thronged to the same place, which at that time had not yet been bifurcated into two playgrounds. Then also it was called TRC ground . In 2008, as a rookie journalist I went to cover an event, where thousands of people cong...

inam ul rehman  After watching the trailer of Sitaare Zameen Par , I instantly thought Aamir Khan is going to rock it with this movie.  However, what piqued my curiosity was to see the comment section where a few pointed out that the actor-producer has again made a remake ¬¬¬- this time of the 2018 Spanish film “ Champions ”! While his last two films were duds at the box office, particularly Laal Singh Chaddha , an official remake of the beautiful Hollywood movie, Forrest Gump , which meandered due to his histrionics.    So, the next thing was to find the Spanish film online. Obviously, YouTube is the first stop. There I found out this Spanish film has been remade in many languages, but sadly, couldn’t locate the movie. I sought help from my sophisticated colleague who directed me toward a website with rich content in high quality. There I saw the original version.  And man, Aamir Khan has chosen a gem of a movie.  The original movie is not didactic abou...

  inam ul rehman   On April 22, I was with my colleagues in the interiors of Kupwara shooting a documentary. From 9am to 4:30pm we shot nonstop, not even taking a tea, lunch, or loo break. We got exhausted and decided to pack up, as is our wont we switched to social media to see what was happening around.    One of my colleagues informed me that a grenade attack had taken place in the tourist resort of Pahalgam , resulting in many injuries. We were hungry and didn’t pay much heed to it. As we were busy locating a place where we could have lunch-cum-supper, we had to travel a further half an hour to finally zero in on a roadside dhaba.    After satiating our hunger, we logged into our social media and were shell shocked to find out 26 tourists had been murdered by militants! For a moment, we all looked at each other in askance. Not knowing what to say. We quietly boarded our vehicle.  It was the driver of our hired vehicle who broached the topic. ...

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     On February 12, traders from various markets in the city centre organised a press conference. They expressed concern over the slow pace of smart city works , encroachment of roads , and lack of parking facilities for the business community. Genuine concerns.    The Srinagar Smart city project started in 2018, but accumulated pace in 2022. Its first deadline was set in December 2023, but as we know deadlines are just a number which are always tossed around here.    Had Kashmir ’s largest circulated English daily, Greater Kashmir , not advocated for Srinagar smart city project this project would have lumbered on like the fate of most projects in Jammu and Kashmir . Most projects under the smart city in and around Lal Chowk and old city would have not been completed if the GK had not highlighted it daily. Every day it would publish a story about the smart city project. If not a story, a picture of an incomplete project would b...

Book: Loal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land Author: Mehak Jamal Publisher: HarperCollins  Pages: 343 inam ul rehman  As I received the pre-ordered book I was impressed with its cover design and illustration of Veer Misra and Basita Shah. As a reader I always skip blurbs, quotes by others regarding books because I don’t want my opinion coloured by these, second, it usually is done to please the publishing house or the author. Hence holds no value for serious readers.  The book, as the author states, fructified during the traumatic events of reading down of Article 370 and 35A in 2019 Jammu and Kashmir .  Mehak Jamal’s book on love and longing starts with exuberance. In the early 90s when cordon and search operations were norm in Kashmir¬¬—where people used to be paraded before masked men sitting in armed gypsies—17-year-old  Javid tries to dodge one such operation, notoriously known as a crackdown , but finds himself late to escape.  As he moves to...