News Kashmir Magazine

As 2017 came to an end, people of Kashmir have pinned their hopes on a better and prosperous year 2018 especially speedy journey towards peace after witnessing much human killings in 2017 . Scores of families are still grappling to come to terms so as to deal with the havoc caused by unabated violence in Kashmir in 2017.

People of Kashmir are hoping that state and central government takes the concrete steps and takes restoration of peace process, dialogue  as priority number one.

Masses in Kashmir are also hoping that 2018 would see end to corruption prevalent in our society and system. The monster of corruption is as a matter of fact  one of the serious challenge to be faced by the new State government. Painfully enough , the power crisis in Kashmir in this harsh winter is reaching crippling proportions, with the supply-demand deficit reaching a record level. Every sector is facing problem due to frequent power cuts. The prolonged spells of load shedding has become a norm in Kashmir Valley. Ending power crisis in 2018 would be a big gift to people of Kashmir by the government.

On economic front the fiend of inflation continues to haunt a common Kashmiri, especially the rising food prices. The rise in the prices of vegetables and fruits, which shot up by two to three times in such a short time, is said to be the sharpest increase in recent nostalgia in the Valley of Kashmir.

Overall the hopes of having better 2018 are high.

As the year 2017 ends we are left with both sweet and painful memories. 2017 has been a long year. From incessant breaking news alerts to the collapse of the global terror outfit ISIS in terms of the area they hold  to a string of natural, manmade  disasters marked the year 2017.

The brutal campaign carried out against the Rohingyas in Burma by Burmese army hogged the limelight of global media. Following violence that broke out last year, more than 87,000Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from October 2016 to July 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration. At least 6,700 Rohingya were killed by Myanmar security forces in one month following a government-led crackdown in the country’s Rakhine state in late August, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Iran was struck by powerful earthquake in Mid November . At least 452 people were killed and thousands injured after a powerful earthquake struck near the border of Iran and Iraq .

The most heated news event of the year 2017 took place in month of December when defying the global outrage USA President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The angry reactions to move are still pouring from many parts of the world. The deadly and damaging Syrian Civil war tilted towards Bashar al Assad regime in year 2017 with Russian airpower propelling him to many victories.

2017 year in India saw the ruling BJP propelling to many electoral victories in the State Elections. On 9 June – India became full member of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. 20 July – Ram Nath Kovind won the 2017 Indian presidential election with 65.65% votes against Meira Kumar, the presidential candidate of the opposition. The year 2017 was a mix bag .

Drug  menace is among  the top burning  problem confronted by humanity in the present  era of progress and technology . This vice does only leads to social, medical and psychological problems, but also have an adverse effect on the world economy. Despite concerted efforts by the world  community to prevent misuse of drugs and its illegal trafficking, it continues to flourish in several parts of the globe.

Worryingly enough, Production of drugs and its trade has so far shown no signs of decline. Instead, the trade in illegal drugs has now become a multi-billion dollar global business. According to the UN estimates, more than 50 million people across the globe are regular users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs like Ecstasy. The UN report claims that millions of others are directly or indirectly involved in its production, trafficking or sale.

As a matter of great pain and shame  Thousands of  people especially youngsters n Kashmir are suffering from drug addiction. NGOs working on the subject and experts fear that if government authorities do not address the problem soon, it may assume disastrous proportions.

It is a known fact  Depression, drug addiction and suicide are all interconnected in Kashmir. The easy availability of prescription drugs for depression is a quick route to addiction, and also a potential method of overdosing. It’s not surprising, then, that alongside the drug addiction rate; the suicide rate in Kashmir is climbing.

The recent vision and tough steps  shown by the Government to curb  this menace is well come step but more needs to be done.

All  the worrying realities call for all the concerned stakeholders that we as a society need to put an end to this menace and crack down on poppy cultivators and drug traffickers everywhere.

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.