Kashmir is poor, un-peaceful, and antiquated –
\nA sigh of nature, a tapestry of time.<\/p>\n
But Kashmir has a lover\u2019s twinkle in her eyes,
\nA mother\u2019s womb,
\nA friend\u2019s unalloyed candor.<\/p>\n
Long time ago I made a tryst to visit her,
\nAfter a period of infernal turmoil among its people.
\nWhen neighbor lynched neighbor,
\nWhen women were compromised,
\nAnd religion became a weapon of attack.
\nBut the majestically mystic scenery of Kashmir stood silent.<\/p>\n
Why did gods stand in inaction when Kashmir was disrobed
\nAnd subjected to crass humiliation?<\/p>\n
I walked the street in front of the home I was born in.
\nIt looked deserted and forlorn and also changed.
\nI flashbacked to my maternal grandfather with his
\nPagdi and cane, his rotund mid-section giving him dignity.
\nMy childhood was a mixture of adoration and torture.
\nThe former went up to the age of eight, the latter from eight to fourteen.
\nI felt tortured because I was living away from my parents.<\/p>\n
I went to see my home where I was raised.
\nThe neighbors swarmed around me with love-laden arms,
\nImploring me to have tea at their places.
\nPeople say there is hatred between Muslims and Hindus.
\nBut I never saw it.
\nI went into the home room by room.
\nI saw the rooms I used to study in and sleep in.
\nSeventy percent of the house remained unchanged.
\nI walked the streets which lead to my school.<\/p>\n
Time seemed to remain standstill at the moment,
\nThe backward journey to my past seemed a chimera,
\nA return trip to my mother\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n
Kashmir is on one hand one of the richest places on earth
\nDue to its magnificent natural beauty,
\nOn the other a backward place, forever cursed
\nWith vindictive politics and foreign-assisted militancy.<\/p>\n
In spite of Kashmir\u2019s stupendous problems
\nIt looks serenely sublime,
\nA mosaic of enigma and endurance.<\/p>\n
The soul of Kashmir is not connected to this world
\nBut to an ethereality above it,
\nKashmir may be poor in the worldly sense
\nBut it is very rich in its conception of the cosmos
\nAnd man\u2019s place in it.<\/p>\n
It is a place that gave birth to
\nAbhinavagupta, Lalleshwari, and Rupa Bhavani.<\/p>\n
The cycle of time will bring Kashmir again
\nTo its worldly prominence,
\nIts tormented people will rise again
\nTo meet their God and heritage.<\/p>\n
Suffern,
New York,
May 5, 2013
\nwww.kaulscorner.com
\nmaharaj.kaul@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kashmir is poor, un-peaceful, and antiquated – A sigh of nature, a tapestry of time. But Kashmir has a lover\u2019s twinkle in her eyes, A mother\u2019s womb, A friend\u2019s unalloyed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-poems"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}