A DISTANT OBSERVATION
Kashmir Life|July 24, 2021
The novel that Speaking Tree published early this year is a good attempt to tell the Kashmir story but could have been told better, writes Khalid Bashir Gura
Khalid Bashir Gura
A DISTANT OBSERVATION

Journalist Shakoor Rather’s debut novel Life in the Clock Tower Valley skims through Kashmir’s uncertain life. It takes off with a 2008 love story, unspools in the city landscape and soon nosedives into the troubled history of the place, the plot is set in.

As the new generation, Kashmir has started telling their stories, they mostly revolve around the situations in which they grew up. Rather’s story is no different. It also offers mundane realities and emotions of life, records daily experiences and otherwise ignored observations. As the love story races through it, the plot stops the reckless lovers from the public display of passion.

The novel is elements of romance, indifference, loss, nostalgia, innocence, and politics. Narration is plain prose. It knits various characters with different stories, their individual joys and sorrows, dreams, and nightmares to the central theme. Outdated matadors, checkpoints manned by soldiers, urban and rural scenes offer details of the almost placid life of the protagonist.

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MÁS HISTORIAS DE KASHMIR LIFEVer todo
Before The Kabul Retreat
Kashmir Life

Before The Kabul Retreat

Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes

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10 minutos  |
August 22, 2021
FINGERS CROSSED
Kashmir Life

FINGERS CROSSED

Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch

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5 minutos  |
August 22, 2021
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
Kashmir Life

Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar

The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.

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1 min  |
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MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Kashmir Life

MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE

Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years

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7 minutos  |
August 22, 2021
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Kashmir Life

THE KABUL SPILLOVER?

Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani

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10+ minutos  |
August 22, 2021
Durga Bhawan At Katra
Kashmir Life

Durga Bhawan At Katra

To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.

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1 min  |
August 22, 2021
Women Empowerment
Kashmir Life

Women Empowerment

In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.

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1 min  |
August 22, 2021
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Kashmir Life

‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'

Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women

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9 minutos  |
August 22, 2021
Boredom Is Creative?
Kashmir Life

Boredom Is Creative?

Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain

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4 minutos  |
August 15, 2021
LG In Bangus
Kashmir Life

LG In Bangus

Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.

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1 min  |
August 15, 2021