A VIEW OF DAL LAKE AND A KASHMIRI POEM

The Traditional feed  being carried from Dal lake srinagar .

(Photo Autar Mota)

 I add my kashmiri Poem " Aiess Funkaar" ( We Artists ).The poem has been done to simple English as well                                                                          

(Aeiss Funkaar )

Burr Peuth Pokk Aessi Subhuk Vaavaa,

Graav Karaan Rooshithh Bezaar.

Burr Draav Saanie Taa Royee Badalovunn,

Chhakraan Guvv Shabanam Shehjaar.

Yee Guvv Deik Laaneuk Bazaar

Aeiss Funkaar Chhe Yaarunn Yaar

Teungaluvv Peiuth Nannavaarie Pakaan Aeiss

Zeivee Saeit Aeiss Chhaavaan Gulzaar

Burrgaameit Parachhein Armaanunn

Kuss Praatshei Tayee Kyaa Thhaavov Shumaar

Yaavunn Chhovv Naa Vuchh Lokachaar.

Aeiss Funkaar Chhe Yaarunn Yaar.

Tschaeti Ditaa Zakhamaa Chhokh Seenuss Peyath,

Akh Akh Hawuss Kar Missmaar.

Aessie Deuot Subhuk Gaash Zamanuss ,

Aessie Rott Siriyun Naar O Naar .

Maaguss deuot Soantukk Anahaar.

Aeiss Funkaar Chhe Yaarunn Yaar

( Avtar Mota )

(We Artists)

This morning Breeze moved past us ,

Complaining in a painfully unfriendly way.

Behold ! it changed its style while departing from us

To spread Dew and freshness elsewhere.

Lo! This is our luck in the worldly Bazaar

.We artists are friends to one and all.

With bare feet , we move on Burning Charcoal,

And Our words bring spring season in gardens everywhere.

Our desires! Yes exiled and cut off,

Who seeks to know ?

And why should wee keep count.

We who neither enjoyed youth nor lived the sweet childhood.

We artists are friends to one and all.

You too come and put this heart to injury,

You too inflict a wound .

Come demolish each and every hope and desire within,

We , who labour to give the world a beautiful Dawn,

Alas ! just receive fire and Fury in return.

We always granted spring like ambience even to intense cold seasons .

We artists are friends to one and all.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

NEDOU'S HOTEL SRINAGAR KASHMIR

The Nedou’s Hotel was founded by Michael Adam Nedou,  an architect by profession who had traveled to India from port city of Ragusa ( Dubrovnik) to construct a palace for the erstwhile Maharaja Of Gujarat .

Michael Adam Nedou built his first hotel in Lahore in 1880 and this Hotel was the flagship of the Nedou’s chain. It was Michael Adam Nedou’s dream to expand his hotel chain into the picturesque Valley of Kashmir. The Nedou’s Hotel Gulmarg and srinagar were built in 1888.

                                                                 

   ( Old Photo of Nedou's Hotel Lahore . Now AVARI HOTEL has come up at this site )

Incidentally 1933 ,Sheikh Mohd Abdullah married Akbar Jahan, the daughter of Michael Harry Nedou, the eldest son of Michael Adam Nedou.Michael Harry Nedou had married a local girl namely MIRJAN. Presently Nedou's Gulmarg is doing good business while a major portion of srinagar Nedou's is in bad shape needing extensive repairs and renovation.The picture of Srinagar Nedou's is prior to the present turmoil in Kashmir valley.  Tragic is the condition of  such  heritage buildings at the moment .  Only a  few in Srinagar are now aware of the  glorious  history of this Grand hotel  . I add that Nadim sahib Immortal Opera" Bombur Te Yemberzal "was first performed in this Hotel only. This opera was witnessed by a select VVIP gathering consisting of the Russian leaders like Marshal Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev.
                                                                     

( Autar Mota )         

                                                  

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

FREDA BEDI AND KASHMIR

THE GRAND WOMAN FREDA BEDI ((1911–1977) AND KASHMIR

She was Freda Houlston  from Derbyshire UK before She married BPL Bedi at OXFORD in 1934. Both returned to India and plunged into nationalistic politics .Both were later active in kashmir against Maharaja's rule . This family was very close to Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah . They  sided with National Conference openly. Freda is reported to have worn a Burqa  and carried messages for Kashmiri leaders who were imprisoned by Maharaja. At the insistence of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah, BPL Bedi ( a communist ) played a key role in drafting Naya Kashmir Document. Freda also taught English in Kashmir .

 Freda later joined Indian National Congress and served a six-month prison term for participating in a SATYAGRAHA organised by Gandhi Ji . Her husband BPL Bedi or Baba Bedi  is credited with being the main force behind the 'New Kashmir' manifesto" of 1944.

The "Naya Kashmir Draft Manifesto " was prepared in 1944 at  B P L Bedi’s Model Town residence in Lahore. Those who assisted Bedi Included his wife Freda Bedi, Danial Lateefi ( Grandson of Badar Ud Din Tyabji and a senior advocate of Supreme Court Of India ), Hafeez Jalandhari ( Urdu poet who wrote the national anthem of Pakistan ), M D Taseer (Ex Principal S P College Srinagar who moved to Pakistan later ) and Pandit Jia Lal Kilam ( Later Justice Kilam ).

The radical Agrarian reforms ( Land to the Tiller ) implemented in J&K State post 1947 were included in the " Naya kashmir manifesto " drafted by BP L Bedi . 

Bedis were equally loved in Kashmir and Lahore. Both of them took distinct spiritual paths in later years of their lives.Freda  turned to Buddhism  (Sister Palmo, or Gelongma Karma Kechog Palmo ) while in BABA"s case it was Sikhism .

                                                                       

                                                           ( Freda and B P L Bedi )

                                                  ( Freda and BPL Bedi  In Sikkim  )
                                                                       

                                                (   Freda and BPL Bedi 1933 )
                                                                     

Freda  Bedi converted to Buddhism and lived mostly  in Sikkim’s Rumtek  monastery thereafter  ..  In India , She also did enormous social  work for  refugees from  Tibet  In 1959 when Dalai Lama took refuge in India along with thousands of Tibetans, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru requested her to head the task force for support and settlement of these Hapless people. Shall i  tell you more ? Just hold on  !

Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi is their younger child..   Born in 1946, Kabir Bedi had his initial schooling in Kashmir only whereafter he moved to Sherwood College, Nainital.

So Long so much.

( Avtar Mota )                                                     

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

SUMMER VIEW OF PRESENTATION CONVENT SCHOOL SRINAGAR

       
 PRESENTATION CONVENT SCHOOL SRINAGAR AND A POEM BY ALI SARDAR JAFRI
Photo Autar Mota  .  


( My Journey )
A poem By Ali Sardar Jafri 

Such a day will arrive again
when the lamps of the eyes will get extinguished;
the lotus of the hands will get withered
and each butterfly of speech and voice
will flee from the leaf of the tongue.
All faces that blossom like buds,
chuckle like flowers,
the circling of blood, the beats of heart,
all such symphonies will go to sleep
on the bed of a dark ocean.
And, this grinning diamond particle,
this paradise of mine, this earth
that is laid out on the velvet of the blue environ,
its morns, its evenings
will, unwittingly, unconsciously,
pass on shedding the tears of dew
[on the demise of] a handful of dust of a man.
Everything will be forgotten;
everything will be removed
from the exquisite idol-house of memories.
Then no one will ask:
Where is Sardar in the congregation?

Yet, I'll come here again;
I will talk with the mouths of the tots;
will sing in the tongue of the birds.
When seeds will grin beneath earth
and the sapling, with its fingers,
will vex the crusts of earth,
I'll open my eyes
in leaves and buds;
will take, in [my] verdant palm,
the dew drops.
I'll turn into the colour of henna, the tune of ghazal
[and] the style of poetry.
[I], like the hue of the cheek of a bride,
will filter from every stole.
When the winds of winter
will bring along with them
the season of autumn'
my laughter will be heard
from the dry leaves that will
be trampled under the robust feet of the passerby.
All the golden rivers of the earth;
all the azure lakes of the sky
will get filled with my being.
And the world will see
that every tale is in fact my tale;
here every lover is Sardar
and every beloved is Sultaanaa

I'm a fleeting moment
in the enchanting-house of time;
I'm a restless drop
that travels
from the pitcher of the past
to the wine-cup of the future.
I sleep and get up
and again go to sleep.
I'm a play that's many centuries old.
I expire and become immortal.Such a day will arrive again      .
( Ali Sardar Jafri )                                    




CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.