Lets definitely talk about food

Yet again, Nayeem posts something and I am inspired to follow up. No wonder he is the owner of this blog and I, a contributor. Before i forget what i wanted to write about - ahh yeah food. What could be a better topic? Only 'lots of food', i guess. Before i go ahead and mention anything, i would like to clarify something for those that might be a little rusty on their geography.
South Asian food is not just Indo-Pak or Bengladeshi food (in short Desi). It also includes top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, best-of-class, best-in-breed Kashmiri cuisine, and no, it tastes nothing like desi food, somewhat persian-o-arab yes, but definitely not desi. Whereas the marchewangan-korme, meeth and the rogan-josh would surely titillate your palette, the kabab, riste and degi-kokur are there to fill you up. While you would drool over the tabak-maaz and the aabe-gosh, the yakhen and the haakh are there to pep it up. Then there is the omnipresent batte and the logical period goshtaabe. With everything so calculated, kashmiri cuisine is grammatically, scientifically and mathematically sound and perfect - and yea did i mention how great it tastes? Our cuisine is very elaborate, with everything logically placed and each spice and condiment added to perfection. Add to it the Kashmiri hospitality and you are in a food heaven. I have often asked elders about the origin of Wazwan and all seem to point vaguely towards Persian and Mughal history. With abundant use of saffron and yoghurt, Persian seems logical. Marinated, grilled and not 'spicy hot' would make it somewhat Arab. Well, this reminds me of Newton, only that it being the Wazwan i would be more interested in eating the apple than thinking why it fell down.

The only thing that has turned me off always about the wazwan is the extravagance and the amount of food being wasted. It is a pity, rather a shame. But wazwan is one of the few things from our heritage that still exists and fortunately i dont see it dying off so soon, at least not before the kashmiri language itself - so eat up guys. wosta yath trawakh na demni racha ti...

let us talk about food

I told my fiance the other day that kashmiri food is better than the American food. Most of my American friends here relish south asian (minus the spices) and middle eastern food. One of them is going to the extent of making a tandoor at his home. My fiance thought I was being emotional since I don't live in Kashmir. She may be right but I don't think I agree with that. I think Kashmiri food is really awesome. Consider harisa, I can't find anything close to that in the whole world. Some say the hyderabadi haleem is close enough. I would respond, not quite. It may be close to "Abdul Haleem" but not harisa.
No matter what people say about wazwaan, I really miss it man. How could you not like it and I don't find any place which has something even remotely similar. And then talk about 'tsochwore'(I hope you understand what I am talking about), the bagel like bakery with sesame seeds that we eat with our evening tea. Remove the extra flour from inside it and replace it with butter( forget about cholesterol), it is wonderful. And now that I talked about this thing which we can't even write in any other language ('tsochwore'), how can I not say a few words about my all time favorite 'nunne chai' (tea with milk and salt. Yes I mean salt. It is not a typo). I travel 50 miles ( one-way) to get a cup of nunne chai sometimes, at a wonderful kashmiri family's home here. And then, shirmaal, kulcha, bagerkhaen. These are all so great with this relishing pink drink, 'nunne chai'.
Even the regular food we eat usually in our homes in Kashmir is really a treat. I have not covered every kind of food and bakery of Kashmir because I want others to add to it. And now that I wrote about food, I guess I am feeling hungry. I am off of this computer to go grab my lunch.
However, before I do that I want to add, Kashmiri food rocks. Go Kashmir.

The truth is bitter

I rendered this website in my browser today and realized something.
None of us had written anything in the month of October except Aamir's comment about a previous post. I started thinking, isn't that what we are missing in Kashmir. Some attention to what is happening around us. A person is killed in cold blood, we cry for a few days and everything is normal again, our forests catch fire every now and then these days and it hardly matters to us. It takes a forest decades to recover the damage. Aamir is right, we should look at positives too. One of the positives is this blog where we can express ourselves without fear. So today I want to write about something that I noticed a few weeks ago.
It was on Eid and two of our leaders who claim to represent people could not even pray together in one place. It is shameful. Both claim to be the representatives of the people. I wonder at times, who is really leading Kashmiris. Is it, the abdullah's the mufti's, the Azad's, the Hurriyat's and several other organizations or they are all misleading us. Each one of them consider themselves to be peoples representatives and now I am talking about the people who want to get freedom for Kashmir. Honestly, who gave them the right to negotiate on behalf of the Kashmiris. We don't even know their plans, for GOD's sake. Let me say this, how about we have a referendum. Each person who thinks he/she could negotiate on behalf of the Kashmiris and bring the ever elusive peace to our Kashmir, run in the referendum. People will choose from amongst them a group of people based on their plans. This group could represent Kashmiris and then we don't have these hundreds of organizations who keep popping up more than the flowers on our saffron fields. This would also give credibility to the group representing the people. However, one important thing, they need to divulge their plans before the people ahead of the referendum and it should be open to all and one of the condition for their representation would be that they stick to the plan. We should have another referendum at an appropriate time before the final solution to see if people still trust them and to check whether they stuck to the promised plan.
Let us behave like civilized people to find solutions to our problems and stop wasting our time.

Wife of Abdus Samad Bhat

When Sara passed away, we buried her in our family's graveyard in the foothills of the "Suleman Teng" or "Shankaracharya Hill" in Srinagar, Kashmir. We marked the grave with white marble. At the head, below the bismillah, the caligraphy reads "Wafaate Ahleya Abdus Samad Bhat"; It marks the death of the "Wife of Abdus Samad Bhat". She was my grandmother, had been a proud and loving wife to the wonderful Abdus Samad Bhat, and her name was Sara.

Quite likely the omission of her given name was a manifestation of what-was-done and what-was-proper in the collective psyche. When i looked at it this September the marking struck me as a symbol of our, for want of a better word, male chauvinism.

This "our" identity seems to be defined by our nationality and culture and religion and history and the list can be longer. The "we" it constitutes puts women on a pedestal that seeks to grant respect but comes with a denial and suppression of feminine individuality. Apparently, it did not want to acknowledge Sara directly.

Kashur Islam

Islam may be on the tongues of kashmiris, it is not in their hearts,
it may be associated to the kashmiris, it is not characteristic to them,
it may be in their names, but not in their lives,
it may be on their streets, but not in their homes,
it may be on their faces, but not in their limbs,
it may be on their outsides, but not their insides,
it may be in their past, but not the present,
it may be in their books, but not their deeds,

they may die for it, but not live it...

Who says Pundits left Kasheer?

In one of my off late khazer-sochta-hai-wular-ke-kinare or the musings-of-aristotle moments, i was thinking of the big deal that everybody has made out of the fact that the pundits have left or were forced out of kasheer. This is so not true. The kashmiris still worship their bootte-mein-tarashan-zi-sange-mazare lord, you will still find people lining outside the tombs and graveyards. You will still find aastaans more crowded than mosques. They still sing hymns in the early mornings, only at a different rendezvous. The caste system is still as water tight as it used to be - there still are so called upper caste brahmins that have taken our religion hostage, marriages are still performed by matching horoscopes minus the stars. A new born is still greeted with charms and talismans that sometimes look like the suicide capsules worn by LTTE in Sri Lanka. Every other person, male or female, wears a talisman or a charm. Birth of a girl is still frowned upon and usually an occasion of distress. We still wail and whine on a death and even observe the chooryium (fourth) and the chatjehum (fourtieth). We have more holidays and auspicious occasions than probably any other place on the face of the earth. Some animals are still considered pheshal (bring misfortune) and yet others phrooch (lucky).

Kashmir is still so full of pundits, i fail to understand who fled.....

Next step to share a smile

Salaam alaikum (May peace be upon you all)!!

I want to thank all those who commented about our initiative and expressed the willingness to take it forward. Firoz, Abid, Asif, Shah-Naaz, Manzoor and Imran thankyou very much. Your views and opinions are very helpful. I also hope that others who did not express their opinions about it will soon share their views and guide us.

Before we actually initiate this I want to remind everybody that it is not going to be easy. I am not saying this to discourage anybody out there, but to be prepared. Imran, I agree with you. Thankyou. InshaALLAH, with the help of ALLAH for whose pleasure we undertake this service, we will be able to put smiles across some peoples' faces.

Here is the initial plan:

1. First things first. We need to set up a non-profit. Manzoor has found some information about it and we have a reference in the office where we could register our organization. I will be arriving in Kashmir on July 18th and Manzoor and I have planned to visit the office for registering the non-profits. Thanks Manzoor. If anyone wants to join us to the office please let us know.
Oh Yeah, Please suggest a name for our non-profit organization. Something cool :) .

This is important because that way it will be easy for the donors to donate and for us to provide information to the auditors.
Here I want to mention that we would like to keep a low profile because humility and modesty brings in the pleasure of ALLAH.

2. We will set up a bank account in the name of the non-profit, so that donors could transfer the money. Overseas donors will be able to donate on time by transferring it to this account. Abid will help us in getting the information about the bank account. Thanks Abid.


Let us get started and then we could search for donors. I suggest that we take it a step a time. Small goals make it easier to measure progress.

Any suggestion/comments are greatly appreciated. Thankyou all for stepping forward.

Barakallahu Fik.

-Nayeem