The Players

It has been brought to my attention that the Kashmiris with whom I regularly come into contact have received short shrift in these pages, and I’ve decided to remedy this oversight. From the very first day, it has seemed to me as if every one of my friends, colleagues, and regular acquaintances came direct from central casting. They each have such strong, explicit and endearingly their own personality traits, from Iftikhar and his lordly Kashmiri nose, to Farooq, the perfect work buddy and would-be wingman, to the reserved, always in control, never flustered ship’s rudder that is Kashmir Observer’s editor-in-chief Sajjad Haider Ansari. It is high time these and other great gents took their turn in this spotlight, for Kashmir 2006 is no more than an elaborately staged socio-political battleground, and all we merely players.

Below are two, more to come.