Cinema in Kashmir

I got this in an email.
An eye opener:

:|

Of all the things I lost
I miss my mind the most.

One million Du’aa campaign

One million Du’aa campaign

Let’s put our hands together and give one day for our Islamic nation (Ummah)

Dear Brothers & Sisters

If you really care about the Muslims’ Blood in Iraq , Palestine and
every where else so please contribute with us in the International
day for supporting the Muslims

The participation is very easy as follow:

Fasting Monday 2nd of July 2007 (For those
who can fast).

Du’aa after each prayer in that day and especially at the time of
Eftar. The Duaa is to ask Allah to unify Muslim Um’ah ,and to save
Muslims’ blood.

Participating in telling the other brothers and sister about this
day.

Dearest brothers and sisters

Please be positive and participate in this day. We are around 1.3
billion Muslim , can not we find one million whom will fast and make
Du’aa. May Allah accept one of them.

Send this letter and participate in that day.

Translate this letter to the language you now and send it to all
Muslims .

Be one of the Million Muslims on that day.

——————————-
Got this in an email. And why not…. lets ask the Almighty to help us out.
Nasrun min Allahi wa fathun qareeb.

The Greater Kashmir Problem.

What exactly is wrong with Greater Kashmir?
I am unable to understand. In spite of the fact that it is such a widely read Kashmiri newspaper, the standards they maintain really make one think — what is wrong with them.

I am not talking of the fact that the news paper is practically filled with pages and pages of advertisements, where you have to search for news. Fair enough, they want to make money. Make money.. but then maybe they could add a few pages for the ad’s so that there would be enough space for news. Any how…

I am not even talking of the very loud grammatical/english language errors that call attention to themselves. No no… people have talked of that. I don’t need to.

I am not even talking of the biased news items which are pro-this/that. That is a norm with all newspapers. There is no such thing as unbiased news.

What bothers me today more than on other days is what kind of ‘news’ are given front page priority. The news item on the food served in a golf course written in a lucid, story like manner with the menu at the end comes on front page… hello????? while news of people protesting against Rushdie is not important. And other news items are given coverage like this:

A Joint Director of Information (Government of India) drowned in river Jhelum on Thursday when he along with other senior officials was inspecting the Uri power project, a local news agency said.

Being the newspaper which is so widely read, it is sad to notice that things are very wrong some place.

Greater Kashmir should work towards improving its news coverage. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before somebody else comes with a newspaper that people would switch to. Afterall, news sells. And brings money.

Kill Rushdie.

Killing Rushdie is something that should have been done a long time back. Simple as that. He will die when he has to die. He can go and shoot himself and it would be perfect.

But Rushdie doesn’t bother me. He is a pathetic blob of protoplasm that should just evaporate from this planet.

What bothers me is the height of patheticness that entitles Rushdie to knighthood — and that too for Satanic verses – a book filled with filth. A book where everyone is abused and has no literary value.

Pathetic indeed. I am disgusted. The Queen of England has a gross taste in books. Yuck!

Enduring Freedom?

I find the idea of enduring freedom very confusing. Freedom isn’t anything that we ‘endure’ or bear with… it is supposed to be the one thing that we all wish for.

But then.. to think of it.. one would have to endure ‘freedom’ if the freedom is not your’s .. but someone else’s and .. it somehow infringes upon your rights.

Well maybe that’s what Operation Endure Freedom is all about. The Afghans bearing with American freedom to do just about anything….

The US-led coalition – under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom – is a counter-terrorism mission that involves mainly special forces.[bbc]

Passenger Shed.

The picture is enough. And i promise not to say another word.

This is exactly what I feel…

Khandar – The Kashmiri Wedding – part 2

One of the readers pointed out that the Kashmiri wedding is a lot more than just food, and I certainly agree. Actually the food is just a part of it – an interesting set of courses that interest the five senses in different forms.

But the fact remains that in Kashmir weddings are an elaborate affair that start with the elaborate and painstaking process of matchmaking. This involves middle-men(or sometimes women) called the ‘manzimyor‘ (or manzimyarin), who do their part to make the simple and beautiful concept of a nikah into an elaborate set of annoying rituals. But then the marraige rituals come much later – only after the kouri-mael (girl’s family) and the gobre’-mael (boy’s family) come to terms and agree that marriage should take place.

So without digging into so many things that would side-track me, I will dedicate this post to the manzimyors and their endless pursuit of finding happiness for their clients.

Anyways the process starts with the parents of the girl/guy [who they wish to get married] calling for manzimyors. Or, well, sometimes the manzimyor having sighted a potential client might just decide to walk into the house himself.

Anyhow, the manzimyor carries his ‘list’ of potential spouse-to-be for the client. The list is usually in terms of
Name
Date of Birth
Parentage
Caste
info on brothers/sisters (and if married a little on who they are married to)
Educational background
Job profile
Address

and once in a while, it comes with a photograph too.

The parents look at the list, shortlist candidates, do a background check. This checking process could mean a visit to the neighbor’s house, checking with colleagues of the prospective boy/girl, getting information about the parents from whatever sources possible.

The manzimyor arranges for the other to check if they would be interested as well. And then they too do their checkup routines.

Now that both sides are ready and satisfied with the ‘rest of the things’ comes the viewing/interviewing of the girl/boy. This can be done by the parents, cousins, or well whoever the family deems fit to take the interview (sometimes this is skipped going to next step). The boy and girl meet — meeting could range from seeing from far or talking for 2-20 mins.

And ta-da.

If they both say yes [well that's what it is supposed to be]… then, the next step is the ‘thap’ — literally meaning “catching” — which is nothing dramatic like it sounds. Its as simple as the parent’s of the boy giving a gift to the girl (which is almost ALWAYS gold). This is to symbolize the agreement of both sides in taking further steps to getting the two married.

huh! and now i am tired.
Actually the way i put it, it sounds rather simple. But well.. it can get annoyingly difficult… however… this is the traditional way of getting married in Kashmir … and the NORM.

Anyone who defies the norm is looked at with those strange eyes that stare without understanding.. but then…. that is a different issue…. will talk about it some other day..

In the meanwhile, you can stay fascinated with the way marriages are arranged in Kashmir!

Link to SakooterSpeaks!