Why Am I Writing A Poem About Kashmir

One of my grandmothers have Kashmiri background. Her name was Iqbal, which means “Power“. I still remember her. She was a beautiful and gentle woman. She loved me a lot although she talked less because she was very old. Unfortunately, she passed away several years ago.

My grandmother shared her name with one of the founders of Pakistan, Allama Iqbal. Allama Iqbal is a very famous poet of Kashmiri background. I read some of his poems when I was a teenager. I fell in love with “Shikwa” and “Jiwab-e-Shikwa“.

My exposure to Kashmir is pretty limited for several reasons; but, destiny has created a path that I must walk. This path was created after I said a genuine prayer where I asked God to help me fight discrimination. Later, too many things happened that made sure that I ended up walking into the Human Rights industry. Read the full story about this special prayer here ‘Another “Silver Bullet” Prayer Came True‘.

When I decided to continue writing my poems while focusing only on Human Rights related issues, I felt compelled to work on a poem about Kashmir first. I started calling this poem, “my first poem related to Human Rights” because although I have written a couple of other Human Rights related poems before, I have worked on them without reading too much and while working on other types of poems like Romance Poems; however, now that I am writing while focusing “only on Human Rights related issues”, I am being really thorough and reading a lot of stuff before composing these works. So this poem about Kashmir is going to be the very first poem from this set of poems, which are going to be—hopefully—finalized in 2020. This decision was made after much thinking although it was just a gut feeling that made me decide.

I have finished a lot of work for this poem: taken lots of notes; composed some of my thoughts; and, attended webinars too. I say its destiny because ever since this prayer came true, things are happening that are ensuring that I end up writing Human Rights related poems. For instance, check out this webinar by “International Human Rights Commission“. I was just an attendee but the host, H.E Ambassador Malik Nadeem Abid, made sure to let me talk during the webinar. You know that I was thinking of leaving early before the end of this event; but, I actually decided to stay. Then I ended up being on camera. You can check out the video “72 Years of Indian Occupation of Kashmir“. I appear at the very end, at 2:30:24 (-5:43)

I will share my poem about Kashmir here. Make sure to read it.