News Kashmir Magazine

Kashmir is known all over the world for its beautiful  handicrafts products. One of the well known  handicraft products of the valley of Kashmir has been the Kani shawls. Kani Shawls are woven on a fame-loom using fine wooden sticks locally called ‘Tooj’i, which have coloured woolen threads attached to them. A Kani shawl takes about three months to a year for an artisan to complete depending on the embroidery and fetches from 20, 000 rupees) to 80,000 rupees .

As a matter of fact, The name kani shawl has a rich legacy  behind it. This shawl derives its name from Kanihama, a small village on Srinagar-Gulmarg road were this variety of popular shawls was first woven.

The technique of Kani Shawl weaving has rich legacy behind it. been termed as the ’twill tapestry weave by Sir John Irwin, keeper at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and a well known researcher on the subject, because of its similarity to the technique traditionally employed in Western Europe for tapestry weaving.

It is worth pointing out that the Kani shawl has been historically fashioned using fine hand spun Pashmina & Shahtoosh fibres which have further added to its affluence and earned it the name of ‘ring shawls’ meaning that it can pass through a ring.

. The Kani shawl is woven on based of talim which indicate the color and the number of warp threads to be covered.

Worryingly  the younger generation of Kashmiris is not very much interested in taking over Kani shawl weaving on account of economic uncertainty associated with it. Due to economic uncertainty and it is need of hour that the government takes all steps to promote it .

Padmavati movie is currently creating lot of heated debate and controversies .It is an upcoming Indian epic period drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, based on the epic poem Padmavat (1540) by Malik Muhammad JayasiThe film is also inspired by the Tamil film Chittoor Rani Padmini (1960).[4] The film features Deepika Padukone in the title role as Rani Padmavati, alongside Shahid Kapooras Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji, with Aditi Rao Hydari and Jim Sarbh in supporting roles. Initially scheduled for release on 1 December 2017, the film has been indefinitely postponed following numerous controversies.

The film became a subject of controversy during production and also before release . There were allegations from groups such as the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a Rajput caste organisation, claiming that the film is depicting inaccurate facts, portraying the Rajput queen Padmavati in a bad light, with activists vandalizing the sets of the film. However, a sting operation[69] conducted by an Indian news channel  showed that the activists had planted the controversies in order to extort money from the filmmakers.

The sets of the film were first vandalized in January 2017. Several historians responded to the vandalism, with The Times of India reporting, “Sufi poet Jayasi made up the story that later got legend status, so Bhansali can’t be threatened for taking creative licence with the tale, say historians

Following Shri Rajput Karni Sena’s threat to Deepika Padukone, the Chatriya Samaj in Uttar Pradesh recently announced a reward of Rs 5 crore to anyone beheading Padmavati’s director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the actress.

The emotions being flared up  by some corners over Padmavati are cause of concern and will not have good results for the society.

Roads are the face of every concerned area .The roads in Kashmir are in much poor condition. Roads are an indicator of development of any state. .Construction is often shoddy, and in no time, what appears as a beautiful job done turns out to be a big travesty with potholes opening every now and then .  It looks as if we have forgotten even the roads of summer Capital Srinagar.

Sane voices state  with concern the poor quality of some roads recently constructed in the state . It has become a vicious cycle of road repairs and deterioration; a wasteful cycle that has seen no solution over the years and decades. The apathy shown by some government officials entrusted with the duty of supervising government projects also abounds in the state to the extent that masses feel disheretned work of our administration.

Even common people on many a times have alleged that some contractors have in the past gotten away with very poor work, because no one seemed to be bothered by this and no vigil is maintained to keep a track of the efficiency of work done . They were accountable to themselves only.

We need to definitely give proper attention to the development of our overall road network otherwise we will remain always an underdeveloped economy because roads are lifeline of economy.

Peace is the need of every human who has sanity and wisdom. No sane human can afford to live in an atmosphere of bloodshed and violence continuously and it does not keep society in a healthy shape when it continues to lose its precious lives in mad cycle of violence. In the society of Kashmir conflict has ruined the taste of life. The lingering political violence is the root cause of violence.

Deaths, killings, injuries, blinding have over the past three decades became order of the day and thus the life has lost its real meaning in Kashmir. The people of Kashmir feel that they are caged in ever ugly cycle of violence.

At the current juncture of time, the violence graph with every passing moment is touching new ugly levels as a result we the people are ultimate sufferers. Every happiness has been replaced with tears and suffocating cries as a result the real charm of life is not at all felt in the pained valley of kashmir, where peace is the dream of each sane soul.

Violence from state or the non state actors can in no way solve the vexed issue of Kashmir but will only add to the count of dead.

On the positive note the people of the subcontinent  are beginning to abandon the mutually suicidal path of conflict and confrontation;  and reaffirm belief in exchanges with latest being  between schools of the two countries, which would yield positive results for sure .

It is high time that all the concerned stakeholders brainstorm and bring about the required changes for achieving peaceful kashmir.

Killings , killings and Killings are the only words and headings emanating  from the news landscape these days  in Kashmir. Although valley of Kashmir having witnessed bloodshed since past three decades the current times look more worse. Civilians, local militants, policeman, soldiers getting killed on regular basis is now no new thing in Kashmir as it has become almost hourly occurrence.

The Killings of  civilian and protestors due to varied reasons have become order of the day. Wailing Kashmiri mothers and sisters mourn the acts of the different violent sources  is order of day  and the images are seen in the print, online  media and in  the satellite television medium. These killings have refreshed the killings of more than one lac homosapiens  in Kashmir in past three decades .
Yesterday , was never  different in kashmir as bloodshed is  visible quiet clearly in every nook and corner of Kashmir as if  all stakeholders to conflict have license to kill Kashmiri.
The realities of ground zero  clearly point out that the choice in Kashmir is not between peace and war, but between no-peace and no-war stalemate. These realities bear testimony to the fact  current moratorium on brutalities in Kashmir done by different sources amounts the Roman peace, eloquently described by the Roman poet Virgil: “You, O Roman, remember to rule the nations with might. This will be your genius—to impose the way of peace, to spare the conquered and crush the proud.”

One hopes a peaceful solution is found soon and these killings come to end