The Legend Of Pann Festival
Explore the origins and transformation of the Pann Festival among Kashmiri Hindus, as Dr. Toshkhani traces how the festival’s ancient agricultural rituals honouring local goddesses Bhimaa and Garbhaa evolved into a modern tradition featuring roths. The article delves
Tamha ausum ghari be ghashae
After thirty-six years of forced exile, Dr. Jeewan Rawal returns — not just to a place, but to a question. In Ghari Whaepsi, he walks the streets he once knew, finds strangers living in his home, searches for soulmates and finds only a few, watches his community confi
Lotus Stems and Temple Bells
“Hāthī ghōṛā pālkī, jai Kanhaiyā Lāl kī!” For me, Janmashtami unfolds in two worlds. In my mother’s Kashmiri home, it is Zaram Satam—the scent of lotus stems, marigolds, and oil lamps; offerings of walnuts, almonds, and honey placed before Laddu Gopa
The Old House of Chaman Lal Pandit Speaks again
Thirty-five years after exile, Chaman Lal Pandit returns to his silent Kashmiri home. In a whispered dialogue with the house that remembers, he confronts loss, longing, and the night they fled. Through flashbacks of childhood, festival songs, and a shrine gone quiet, th
My First Day
A coming-of-age poem tracing belonging through vivid moments: lacing boots, first laps, panting after handball, laughing post-rugby, then collapsing into bed. Each “time” builds effort and relief, culminating in a quiet truth: after school, sport, and the train ride
ॐ नमो भगवते गोपीनाथाये
A tender Kashmiri bhakti poem written in the Lotus feet of her Guru, Bhagwaan Gopinath ji. The writer/devotee seeks grace, and finds the cosmos within her Guru’s feet.
Anantnag and River Vitasta
In Anantnag, an old schoolteacher named Dwarikanath planted trees whose shade he knew he might never enjoy. When a young businessman mocked him, Dwarikanath replied, “Most people plant only what they expect to harvest. I am trying to plant something whose fruit I may
At The Lotus Feet
Roop Kishen and Rupa discovered that devotion is not limited to prayer, ritual or a sacred photograph. Through four decades of family life, their bhakti became remembrance, duty and compassion. Their children carried the Guru’s values into public service, while their
The Quiet Death of the Deep Reader
Books once held a monopoly on knowledge. Today they compete with smartphones, algorithms and a sixty-second attention span, and they're losing ground. But this essay argues the decline isn't about worth, it's about environment. As speed replaces reflection and emotion o
The Day The Mist Swallowed My World
At twelve, I was handed a note left at our gate: my father had been marked for death by militants, and my family had one night to scatter. This is a memoir of the Kashmir I grew up in, the paradise that turned dangerous overnight and the childhood spent waiting, displac
Kailash and The Seven Chakras
On International Yoga Day, a multi-day Gyan Yoga session sparked an unexpected realisation: the seven chakras of yoga trace almost exactly onto the seven-layered architecture of the Kailash Temple. From the Gopuram’s grounding Muladhara to the Shikhar’s transcendent