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Book Title: Farooq of Kashmir Authors: Ashwini Bhatnagar & R C Ganjoo Publisher: Fingerprint, New Delhi, 2023 Pages: 330 This book is much more than a biography of Farooq Abdullah. It is a short history of the trouble-torn Kashmir. Though Farooq remains at the centre of the history, his father Sheikh Abdullah is given ample space in the first few chapters. Towards the end of the book, Farooq’s son Omar gets due attention too. Kashmir went through a lot of pain and misery ever since India became independent. Its political leaders as well as their religious counterparts were mostly responsible for all that pain and misery. Add to that the nefarious role played by the neighbouring country of Pakistan. Pakistan has been a thorn in the very heart of Kashmir right from Independence. The political leaders and religious terrorists of that country have left no stone unturned to make Kashmir their own. Understanding Kashmir’s unique condition, independent India had given the st

Source Buridan’s Ass, named after 14 th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, is both hungry and thirsty.  It is placed midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water.  If the ass decides to exercise its free will, it will starve to death.  When it turns to the haystack, it can exercise its freedom to choose water first instead.  And when it turns to the water, its free will can interfere again.  Thus it can go on exercising its freedom of choice until it dies of starvation amid food and water. The current theme of Indispire, Love vs Freedom - what would you choose? ( If you land in a situation where you can get true love but not freedom of expression)   #freedom , reminded me of Buridan’s Ass.  Let’s take the example of Kashmir.  Indian patriots are supposedly in love with that piece of land.  Their love denies freedom to the people of the land to choose their own destiny.  Hence the civil war kind of situation in the state.  The question is whether the Indi

Vishal Bhardwaj has given us a monumental movie.  Haider keeps the audience glued to their seats from the beginning to the end.  Though the story is adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet , it takes on a fresh life of its own drawing its vitality from the complex situation that existed in Kashmir in the 1990s when militancy snowballed rending the whole social fabric of the state.  The Pandits were forced to flee in large numbers.  The Indian armed forces became a ubiquitous phantom amidst the dark shadows that hovered over the earthly paradise. In the movie, however, the armed forces appear briefly only. Shahid Kapoor mesmerises us with his enactment of the young idealistic poet’s dilemma as he is torn between his romantic idealism and the horrible reality that unfolds before his very eyes.  Terrorism and the evils it spawns are sidelined by the betrayal of the young poet’s dreams about love and relationships.  Is his mother guilty of marital infidelity?  Is his paternal uncle a

Book Review Title: Our Moon Has Blood Clots Author: Rahul Pandita Publisher: Random House India, 2013, 2014   ISBN: 978-81-8400-513-4 Pages: 257 Price: Rs 350 History has to be saved from the mediocre.  The mediocre rule the world.  And their vision extends little beyond their own noses.  Their memory goes as far as the comforts and wellbeing of themselves.  “… my memory must come in the way of this untrue history,” as Rahul Pandita paraphrases Agha Shahid Ali.  The memory of those who find it difficult to accept convenient truths that ensure the present wellbeing must come in the way if history is to be redeemed.  Rahul Pandita’s book is an endeavour to redeem the history of the Kashmiri Pandits who were driven out by the Muslim fundamentalists.  The book deserves to be read by every Indian, especially by the Muslims of India. Kashmir was a paradise where people belonging to two different religions, which later became bitter enemies, lived together in exe