KASHMIR : MEN, MATTERS AND MEMORIES...
By Avtar Mota
Not politics ,not controversies but certainly a Kashmir that lives deep in the heart of an exile like me . As child , I grew up with my mother humming below lines while performing her daily chores:-
"Dodh kya zaane yas no banney
Gham ke jaamai valith tanney
Pheeris ghar ghar peyam kanney
Deuthum kaanh no paninne kanney
( Dressed in the attire of sorrow,
For help, I moved from door to door,
Alas! Only stones were hurled at me ,
Alas ! I found none by my side .
He who has not experienced suffering,
How does he know what pain is ? )
It is only an exiled person who knows what exile means. The haunting memories of men and life lived in recent-past keeps visiting one's mind. The mind is overwhelmed and writing gives momentary relief. Hence this compilation. These are stories of sweet memories of some ordinary looking men who were for inclusiveness and shared living . For them, culture and heritage were the rallying issues. These men find mention with heart warming anecdotes in Part I of this book. I mean men like Ghulam Hassan Sofi, Hriday Kaul Bharati, Umesh Kaul, Bansi Kaul, Avtar Kaul, Vijay Malla, Chaman Lal Chaman, Pushkar Nath BA, Ali Mohammad Lone, Sadiq Ali, Shantiveer Kaul, Arvind Gigoo, Muhammad Ashraf , Mohan Nirash, Bansi Nirdosh, Moti Lal Saqi and many more. Read to know some interesting anecdotes about these men and their art.
In Part II , you find nostalgic stories about social life in Kashmir through some essays like , Winter without Rain or Snow, Mir Paan House, Srinagar Coffee House, Cricket In Kashmir , Bangladeshi clothes in Kashmir, Tobacco And Kashmiris, Kawa Yenivol( Evening Time Assembly of Crows) , Gross Neglect at Burzahom , Haanjis of Kashmir, Journey of A Kashmiri ( From Complacent Onlooker to a Global Competitor ) and many more .
I am sure the book is going to amuse , enthuse and engage the reader constructively. The review published by The Greater Kashmir newspaper on 31st October is also uploaded in JPG format .
Presently the book is available worldwide on Amazon and Flipkart apart from Notion Press Chennai on below links:-
https://notionpress.com/read/kashmir-men-matters-and-memories
https://www.flipkart.com/kashmir/p/itm5d171938b80d4?pid=9798895888681&affid=editornoti
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DL5FBPLV
Very soon it shall be available with Rohit Pandita( 9596976373) pan India distributor .
( 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\.
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