KASHMIR CALLING

Kashmir Calling is a delightful collection of essays on a variety of topics - literary, cultural, religious - related to Kashmir. It includes short stories, folktales, lyrics, devotional poems, with an exclusive article on Nehru's long love affair with Kashmir, the land of beauty and songs. A number of interesting stories from Kashmiri Somadeva's KATHA SARIT SAGARA (ocean of the stream of stories), world's largest collection of tales in Sanskrit are part of the volume.
There are well researched essays on Central Asian and other external influences on Kashmir - religion, language, cuisine, dress, ornaments and way of living. The interaction between love lyrics in Kashmiri language and Urdu to show cementing of cultural syncretism has been dealt with in detail, with beautiful selections from a large number of famous poets in both languages. The stories selected are somewhat uncommon such as: a low caste man marrying a princess - a woman of virtue fooling four husbands at the same time; a slave staking his life to ensure continuous flow of water for cascades of the Nishat, the world's largest terrace garden of the time; and a thief being rewarded instead of being punished for his crime. There is a chapter on the less-visited Ladakh - Kargil area highlighting its ethnic mix, cuisine and co-existence between Buddhism and Islam.
To add to reading pleasure is a folio of beautiful colour photographs included in the book.