Notes From Kashmir

Kashmir for me was best defined when we were looking for Saida. A woman with three sons 'martyred' in the resistance movement and one who had disappeared, we'd assumed with cynical detachment, would be easy to find. Shopkeepers would say, "turn right... it's the fourth house on the left." Another would add, "no, no...that's the one who lost three sons... not four. The one you are looking for lives on the street to your left." In Kashmir, a Saida lives on every street.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Freedom, scribbled in grenade ash by a Lashkar fidayeen, moments before he died.

Muslim tenants in a former Pandit house, Ganpathyar, Srinagar

Saida, widow, mother to four sons. Three dead. One missing. Presumed dead.

Lone shikara on Dal.

Lone sofa set that survived the looters. Pandit house, Ganpathyar, Srinagar

Sher-e-Kashmir, the cricket stadium, Srinagar

After afternoon prayers, Ramzaan, Hazratbal, Srinagar

Freedom, scrawled in blood by a Lashkar Fidayeen moments before he died.

Sunset at Dal Lake.

Feeding the pigeons, Ramzaan, Jamia Masjid, Srinagar

Kabir Sheikh and family. His son Hamid was among the first to take to the gun.

Enroute to Shalimar Gardens

A boy runs through Ganpathyar, a ghost town.

Shikaras at the Dal

A dog stares out from the corrugated tin roof of an abandoned house in Ganpathyar, Srinagar

Busy days at the Dal.

A young boy runs through a graveyard for militants. Stops. Turns. Click.

Abandoned Pandit house in Ganpathyar, Srinagar

Jamia Masjid, Srinagar. A window catches the setting sun.