A CALENDAR OF MEMORY, BELONGING AND CONTINUITY

                                     

A Calendar of Memory, Belonging and Continuity ( Released by KOA, USA)

Saw this calendar yesterday. This 2026-27 calendar released by KOA, USA is far more than a marker of time. It is an act of cultural preservation, a quiet resistance against erasure, and a deeply emotional bridge between a displaced community and its homeland. In the meticulous compilation of festivals, tithis, and observances from Chaitra to Phalguna, KOA has ensured that distance of thousands of kilometres does not translate into distance from Dharma. 

Special praise is due to the KOA team and to Uphaar Kotru, the present President, whose leadership has elevated a simple calendar into a work of community art. By carefully computing Panchaks, the Asta of stars, and the truncated treyah tithi dates according to US Time Zones, they have ensured that ritual life remains precise, authentic, and lived; not merely remembered from afar. This attention to detail means that prayers fall on the right day, festivals are observed with fidelity, and traditions continue without dilution, even thousands of miles from home. In this, scholarship becomes seva, and a calendar becomes continuity.

What makes this calendar singular is its heart: the inclusion of children. Each month is paired with a painting done by children from Kashmiri Pandit  families  living in the US. I could read their names as Zivak Kaul, Saanvi Kaul, Bella Kaul Dharmraj, Eva Kaul Sablok, Kavisha Kaul, Saahil Sumbly, Yuvaan Kaul, Advika Raina, Aarya Bazaz, Aadee Wattal, Aanav Sadhoo, Sharanya Kotru, Evania Dhar, Kavi Wali Patel, and Niharika Dhar. Through their brushstrokes, images of the Dal, the Chinar, the shrines, the hills, the Shikaras,  Shiva, Samavar, and the Sharda script alphabet reappear for all to see. These images are not imagined in isolation. They are the product of parents who narrate stories at bedtime, who name festivals, who keep language and food and memory alive in kitchens. To the parents: you are the first archivists. By inviting children to become co-creators, KOA has achieved something rare. It has moved culture from nostalgia to participation. A child who paints Kashmir learns to love it. A community that sees its children paint it learns to believe in its future. These quiet acts of Nishkaam are what keep a people from becoming footnotes in history. Like Arjuna, they have stepped into the field of action without desire for fruit, guided only by duty and faith that  Sri Krishna on the chariot is moving toward them to put an end to their Kurukshetra. By teaching children to paint what they have only heard in stories, and by serving tradition with such steadfastness, the KOA team, its President, the parents, and the young artists are not merely remembering a homeland; they are ensuring it continues to live. In calendars, in classrooms, in kitchens far from the valley, culture finds its continuity. And that, perhaps, is the greatest form of return.

This calendar, therefore, is not just paper. It is inheritance. It is proof that even in alien lands, tradition can be tended, time can be sanctified, and a homeland can be kept alive; one month, one painting, one story at a time. Kudos. Best wishes. Keep going. 

 

(Avtar Mota)

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CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

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