Fiction
POETÈ MAUDIT — A Short Story by Muzaffar Karim
In this short story that commences at “the holy steps” of the Makhdoom Sahib shrine in Srinagar, a disgruntled character surprises the author of what he considers to be an unfinished tale. The...
When the Light Dawned by Somnath Zutshi — A Book Excerpt from The Greatest Kashmiri Short Stories Ever Told (trans. Neerja Mattoo, Aleph, 2022)
When the Light Dawned Somnath Zutshihowers of snow had been falling for two days now, with no break at all. If one looked up to the sky one could see nothing but insect-like small flakes descending, dancing, and twirling to the ground. But if one...
Day and Night — A Short Story by Malini Bhattacharya
ay and night are separate countries in her mind, and the days are that much easier to get through. It is possible to cram things into the daytime, fill the hours with frenzied though solitary activity that keeps her busy, preoccupied enough to not...
A Shepherd Boy — A Short Story by Ghulam Mohammad Khan
ou can simply call me a shepherd. About a dozen deep and wide verdant folds of a mountain in the North, I grazed my flock peacefully until recently when I was blindfolded, gagged and handcuffed by an armed gang of men in uniform. Hurriedly, they...
End of the Day — A Short Story by Shabir Ahmad Mir
he soldier-king stubbed the cigarette on the grey nipple of the Body. The only response of the Body was a momentarily, but extra-ordinary, widening of its eyes. This Opening of Eyes, as the soldier-king was fond of calling it, made the soldier-king...
Non-Fiction
Rodolfo Walsh’s 1977 Open Letter to the Military Junta in Argentina — Introduced and Translated by Arturo Desimone
Rodolfo Walsh. Writer and Argentine journalist. Wikimedia Commons / Marco Rodriguez Garrido. Some rights reserved.Translator's Note by Arturo Desimoneodolfo Walsh’s Open Letter...
Wandering Through the Alleys and Making Sense of Central and West Asian Remnants in Srinagar — by Subhajit Pal
he former US president Barack Obama, who has been criticized for various issues when in office, notes in his book that, “The worst thing that colonialism did was to cloud our view of our past.” Although in today’s world empires are obsolete, the...
Home Archaeology — by Rela Mazali
Home Archaeology by Rela Mazali Shivtei Yisrael 12-20, Triangular plot beside the parking bay, 1990-2004 […] 5. Judaization didn't ask. But even so, well before I could start to think to ask, I was answered. I was about twenty-seven...
Jaun Elia: The Garbage Dump of History — Translated and Introduced by Muzaffar Karim
Translator's IntroductionJaun Elia has attained a cult status among young readers and netizens. He will always remain a poet whose life overshadows his poetry. But as soon as this voguish hangover is over, Jaun Elia emerges as a poet who expresses deep, sombre,...
Reporting News and Psychology — by Amir Sultan
ecently, in the Kasanj district of Uttar Pradesh, a handicapped man shot a 62-year-old lady to death in public while a man filmed the entire event from a rooftop. In the video filmed on a mobile, the handicapped man named Monu pulls out a...
POETRY
ENGLISH MEDIUM — A Poem by Rumuz E Bekhudi
Rumuz E Bekhudi presents a poem that speaks to a worldwide audience of English learners or non-native speakers of English who carry with them a desire, a need and a compulsion. Rumuz’s poem betrays the brevity of its verses by thematically expanding on the significance of “English Medium” education throughout the world, inviting critique and reflection on questions of class mobility, rank, status, inclusion, exclusion, colonialism, imperial history, globalization—all tucked under the exhausted white collar of middle-class aspirations.
Gaash — A Call to Remembrance
Gaash — A Call to Remembrance Tonight, there is no nightthere will be no tomorrow,and only haunting yesterdays will remain.Tonight, the stars keep vigil in the sky,tonight darkness taints the light of all the daysthat will follow. A Kashmiri mother’s nickname...
MUSIC FEATURE: A Song by Kristina Jacobsen Inspired by Ather Zia’s Poem “i. will. cross.” + Exclusive Interview with the Two Professors
Editor's Introductionn a rare and unprecedented instance, two professors from two different cultures meet at the crossroads of verse and song to produce a creative collaboration around the themes of Indigeneity, marginality, war, colonization, and...
We cross the Red Sea every day — Two Poems by Miran Gulzar
The UnburiedThe whirling snowin Kashmir,descends at grief’s speed[1]like a shroud. It coversthe fall ofan autumnal massacre. It washes the bruisesof the withered ones,the rosy huesof the unseen ones. It numbs ourmourning memory,And relieves usof our only duty. We...
Children of the Silent God — A Poem by Khurram Muraad Siddiquie
Children of the Silent God Khurram Muraad SiddiquieHe chained the words, locked the tonguesAfter he spoke to the last prophetHe spoke everything that he had toAll the words that were to be utteredwere uttered; to him, the last man.We are not men, we are cosmic...
FILM
Factory or Corporation: What “Severance” Gets Wrong — An Analysis by Muzaffar Karim
nce upon a time in a dark and dense forest there lived a voracious Lion. I am recalling and paraphrasing here a story from Masnavi by Mevlana Rumi. The growing appetite of the...
Sufism in Cinema: The Case of Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul — by Ridade Öztürk
acer Khemir, the director of Bab'Aziz, was born in Tunisia and is a writer, a visual artist, a storyteller, an interpreter of contemporary culture extending the tradition of The...
Gaekhir Republik: A Band Singing the Blues in Kashmir — A Short Documentary by NewsClick
Strings of Sentiment A Short Documentary by NewsClickProducers: Anees Zargar, Kamran YousufCamera: Kamran YousufEditor: Pratik Purkayastha, NooruddinVoice Over: Swastika Mehta Khuaftan Baange song...
Music
Love, Impermanence, Urban Existence and Social Critique in Suman Sridhar’s The Black Mamba I, II, and III EPs — by Amjad Majid
ue primarily to her versatile style and approach to music-making, Suman Sridhar is an artist who, for the longest time, has been difficult to situate in one space, place, genre,...
From Ghulam Nabi Doolwal to Janbaaz Kishtwari: The Journey of an Artist into the Heart of His People — An Essay by Garima Sudhan
n the middle of Shaheedi Mohalla, Kishtwar, renowned Kashmiri singer Ghulam Nabi Doolwal is buried in the courtyard garden within his family home. His tombstone reads “Ghulam Nabi Doolwal was not only an accomplished singer but his contribution to...
MUSIC FEATURE: A Song by Kristina Jacobsen Inspired by Ather Zia’s Poem “i. will. cross.” + Exclusive Interview with the Two Professors
Editor's Introductionn a rare and unprecedented instance, two professors from two different cultures meet at the crossroads of verse and song to produce a creative collaboration around the themes of Indigeneity, marginality, war, colonization, and...
Books and Songs That Carried Us Through 2021 — by Inverse Contributors
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatuthree aspects about the book that I...
Martha Argerich: Third piano concerto & “Suites” Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev — ARTE Concert
Martha Argerich: Third piano concerto & "Suites" Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev - ARTE Concert
Art
Exhibition Review: “I am looking for you like a drone, my love” by Aziz Hazara + Unknown Carpet Makers
lending the craft of Afghan carpet makers with Aziz Hazara's photographic and video works, I am looking for you like a drone, my love reflects the unlikely convergence of two...
Dialogue in Comics: Medium-Specific Features and Basic Narrative Functions — by Kai Mikkonen
onversation is a basic element in the medium of comics, where much of the narrative appeal is derived from the interplay between dialogue and action. The speech balloon, a...
4 SHADOWS: A Solo Exhibition by Azim Hassan — A Kashmiri Artist Looks Back from Hangzhou, China
t must be quite the reminder of home for a Kashmiri artist to walk on the streets and travel through the roads of Hangzhou, and to look beyond human structures onto a lake and to...
Tricking a Text Into Speaking Your Language — Sixteen Blackout Poems by Asma Firdous
Blackout Poetry in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: An Editor’s Introduction — by Amjad Majidashmiri blackout poet and artist Asma Firdous presents sixteen blackout poems and...
Photography
The Season of Transience and Fugitive Emotions: A Tribute to the Kashmiri Autumn — by Mir Yasir Mukhtar
Koh tae baal che chaange pathe pairaan,kar nyarei hard'ue bae pae sheen,Wostouer wann wath manz toofanas, mae jahanas annigot gov (The hills and mountains are awaitingsince twilight for the autumn...
Photo Essay: A 1950s Vintage Landmark Struggling to Stay Afloat in Srinagar’s Dalgate — by Mir Yasir Mukhtar
n Srinagar’s Dalgate, a heritage market known as the Tange-adda, or Tonga Station reminds passers-by of an iconic image of the place that is reminiscent of Kashmir’s 1990’s era....
In Memoriam: One Day in the Life of Syed Ali Shah Geelani — A Photo Series by Sagar Kaul
here are a multitude of photographs and videos in the media that capture and portray the political and public figure of Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Each one valuable now more than...
Books
Jahnamukh Panun Panun Naar: Mohiuddin’s Radical Indictment of Secular Democracy, Tyranny, Corruption, and Complicity — A Book Review by Haroon Lone
Note: This review, in homage to the indigeneity of the novel, employs “Kasheer” in lieu of “Kashmir,” and “Koshur” in place of “Kashmiri.” This linguistic choice aims to respect the language’s roots...
Book Review of Alejandro Zambra’s “Chilean Poet” (Granta Books, 2022) — by Dr. Chaandreyi Mukherjee
lejandro Zambra’s works have consistently brought contemporary Latin American writing to the forefront of critical thinking. He belongs to a new group of Chilean writers who have been born and brought up during the harrowing dictatorial regime of...
Hospital — An Excerpt from Freny Manecksha’s “Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley” (Speaking Tiger, 2022)
Sarkari Militants Target Medical Communityhe process of directly targeting the medical community began in the latter half of the 1990s with the Indian State deploying Ikhwanis, the ‘sarkari’ militants, to unleash unparalleled savagery. There was no...
Tending a Bonsai or How to Read a Translated Text without Knowing the Original — by Mubashir Karim
n the end Julio meanders frantically in a taxi that moves through places, while Emilia, this time true to her character as dead, continues to remain dead, probably as a dismembered body, probably in a coffin-shaped automobile that scoots through...
When the Light Dawned by Somnath Zutshi — A Book Excerpt from The Greatest Kashmiri Short Stories Ever Told (trans. Neerja Mattoo, Aleph, 2022)
When the Light Dawned Somnath Zutshihowers of snow had been falling for two days now, with no break at all. If one looked up to the sky one could see nothing but insect-like small flakes descending, dancing, and twirling to the ground. But if one...
Academia
Introduction – Dilemmas of Ideology: A Critical Social Psychological Study of Maududi’s Educational Thought in the Kashmir Context — by Waseem Malik
IntroductionDilemmas of Ideology: A Critical Social Psychological Study of Maududi’s Educational Thought in the Kashmir ContextWaseem MalikMaster of Philosophy ‘That we disavow reflection is...
Cervantes, Lizardi, and the Literary Construction of The Mexican Rogue in Don Catrín de la fachenda — by Patricia Vilches
Research ArticlePatricia Vilches* Cervantes, Lizardi, and the Literary Construction of The Mexican Rogue in Don Catrín de la fachenda https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2017-0040 Received August 10, 2017; accepted December 5, 2017 Abstract: This study explores the...
Fluid Transgressions and Skeptical Dislocations of the Human/Animal Binary in Montaigne’s “Man is no better than the animals” — by Sakhi Thirani
Abstract: This essay focuses on the manner in which Montaigne posits a fluid view of parity between humans and animals by disrupting, destabilising, and dislocating the supremacy of hegemonic human institutions of intelligence, reason as well as language via his...
“Post-Modernism and The Theory of Episteme” by Ahmad Javaid — An Urdu to English Translation by Faizan Rashid
Editor’s Introduction Faizan Rashid presents an English translation of Ahmad Javaid’s “Ma-baad Jadidiyat: Kya Anarchy Hai”—“Post-Modernism and The Theory of Episteme”—originally published in Urdu by Rekhta.org. A translation such as Faizan’s reveals, among other...
Tending a Bonsai or How to Read a Translated Text without Knowing the Original — by Mubashir Karim
n the end Julio meanders frantically in a taxi that moves through places, while Emilia, this time true to her character as dead, continues to remain dead, probably as a dismembered body, probably in a coffin-shaped automobile that scoots through...
Acquaintance
On the Conversion of the Canonical into the Popular — A Commentary by Hurmat Altaf
n older times, literature was simply defined as everything that is in written form, but with the evolution of everything around us, the definition of literature also evolved....
On the Women’s Uprising in Iran: An Interview with Inshah Malik — by Lia Dekanadze
ia Dekanadze: Hello Inshah, thank you for taking the time to converse with us about a pressing issue that has captivated the attention of so many people around the world. Can you please provide a brief summary of your academic background and work...
On the Appropriation and Depoliticisation of the Pheran — by A. Makbool and Neelofar Gooroo
n a cold December night, we saw a Pheran roaming—at an intriguing distance—around one of the canteens on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus. A quintessential symbol of our Kashmiri identity, a moment of joy couldn’t hold us back, and we...
Opinion: Reflecting on the Karnataka Hijab Row in India@75 — by Adwaith PB
rom the Bulli Bai controversy to the open calls for genocide, the India @75 express is now in Karnataka. “Clothes”, which are anathema to “equality, integrity, and public law and order should not be worn”, according to a statement issued by the...
TORTURERS R US — An Essay by Christopher Hirschmann Brandt
e don’t torture people in America, and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country.” – George W. Bush, 2003. (On the other hand, in 2014 Dick Cheney said there was no doubt the Shrub was fully aware of it, an "integral part" of its...