The lockdown may have put a break on common man’s movement, but there seems to be no break on the movement of beggars in our localities. What I have concluded after acutely observing this class of population, who have turned begging into a livelihood profession, is that there is no check on these people at […]
In our Indian subcontinent, innumerable persons of all age groups do suffer from cough at various stages of their lives. Sometimes the frequency of cough suddenly increases with the onset of winter and dry cough gets converted into wet one with white secretions. Sometimes change of weather heralds the onset of episodes of incessant and […]
Dr Sayid Ruqayya, HOD Persian Department, University of Kashmir, translated the Persian book, Tuhfa Ashrafiah, authored by Hafiz Mohammad Hasan bin Hafiz Wali-ul-lah, into Urdu in 2003. She intended to write about the author in the introduction, but she found little mention about him in the history books. When I met her in her office, […]
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not new and dates back to 1948 when the state of Israel was established on Arab land. The conflict has been one of the most dangerous and devastating conflicts in the world and yet there is no amicable solution that has been found so far, nor is there any hope of […]
All attempts at understanding the Quran as a whole would be successful only if its coherence is taken care of, which seeks to bring the attention of the reader to one and only one thing, that is, to read the Quran for seeking guidance The meaning of the word Quran in Arabic is to read […]
The Plague Upon Us breaks new ground in creative writing about Kashmir and comes up with fresh insight into the trauma and chaos caused by its occupation. It provides compelling insight into collective trauma and also puts to debate the question of collective truth brought forth by a false narrative. This book employs the style […]
Heart of a lion, mind of a champion, a towering personality in academia, Padma Shri Prof K L Chopra is no more. Never afraid to debate on controversial issues, fearless even if it meant ruffling a few feathers, Prof Chopra was unique in his qualities and capabilities. In academic circles, he was the rarest of […]
What is Prayer? How can Prayer transform us into purified beings? Allow me to share a few reflections from Iris Murdoch’s “The Sovereignty of Good”. Mary Warnock writes about her that “the project of founding morality not on changing human needs or wishes but on an immutable and absolute idea of goodness has been critical […]
Theories of evolution of the phenomenon called religion are still being debated in various corners of the globe. A considerable number of men (E.B. Tylor, James Farzer, Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, Herbert Spencer, August Comte, Friedrich Nietzsche, Grant Allen, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, R N Bellah, etc.) belonging to diverse fields […]
The latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas has once again brought focus of the world on one of the longest outstanding feuds in the post-world war era. The flare-up has come up at a time when Israel is undergoing its politically most destabilising phase, after four back-to-back inconclusive general elections that have failed to throw […]