Poets Soak In Kashmir’s Long Lament, Some Cling To Hope telegraphindia.com

Kashmir’s poets haven’t been completely silenced by the siege. While sharing the sense of hurt and humiliation felt by Kashmiris after the unilateral abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent lockdown and communications shutdown imposed in the valley by the government, they’ve spoken out through their poetry filled with rage and lament, but also hope. Huzaifa Pandit, a 31-year-old Kashmiri poet and research scholar, who published his first poetry collection “Green is the Colour of Memory” (Hawakal Publishers, Calcutta) last year, is no stranger to the military siege, having lived all his life in Kashmir.

On August 5, when he heard that Article 370 had been scrapped, he felt a sense of resignation and disbelief. Confined to his home in Srinagar, he spent the first day of the curfew in resigned silence, staring at the walls. Within days he got used to the imposed silence of the curfew amid the communications shutdown.