On an Eid day in summer 2014, then 14-year-old Sahil Ahmad Lone was busy, like many children of his Barpora village in district Pulwoam (Pulwama), in playing games. Throughout the day, Sahil and his friends made merry and were excited in celebrating the festival of Eid. Sahil’s day had started with a bath and wearing his newly-bought dress, in which he offered the ritual Eid prayers. As the day progressed, Sahil relished various delicacies with his family and friends. When dusk fell, he started to realize that the cherished festive day was now nearing its end.
At night, Sahil lay in his bed, unable to sleep. At 1 a.m. in the middle of the night, he rose up and started crying, profusely.
Recalling that night, Sahil said that it was the images of people affected in the more than two-decade-old conflict of Kashmir that started to haunt him. “As I closed my eyes, I pictured mothers of my nation who had lost their sons to the conflict, mothers who had been waiting for years for their disappeared sons. I thought of mothers whose daughters were raped by Indian forces. I saw a mother who had refused to sit in shade because her son had lain on the ground for days in the scorching sun. I saw a mother whose son was languishing in an Indian jail for decades,” Sahil said.
As a child, Sahil said, he couldn’t bear to see a horse being flogged by its master. How, then, could he bear to see his people suffer? “I am very sensitive. I couldn’t bear to see the tonga-wallah beating his horse while on my way to school. The beatings to the horse would make me cry at night. You can imagine how much the suffering of my own people must affect me. But unlike many, I didn’t choose the gun; I picked up the pen.”
The story of a woman who had been waiting for her son for more than two decades moved Sahil to write one of his widely-read stories, “Laash” (Corpse). “It was 1:30 a.m. and I started writing, while tears were rolling down my face,” he recalled. The story was published in one of the leading Urdu dailies of Kashmir, Taemeeli Irshad. Sahil received accolades for it from near and far. “Tameeli Irshad has a huge readership in Kashmir. I was praised by many. I was very happy that my work was being appreciated,” he said with a sense of pride.
Among those who praised his story was the human rights activist Abhay Singh of Chandigarh. “It was a great moment for me to be praised by such a renowned human rights activist,” Sahil said. He recalled Abhay Singh’s words about the story: “Skilfully portrayed pain of Kashmiris.”
A story about Sahil in an Urdu daily Srinagar Times.
Sahil has more than 40 publications to his credit, most of them fictional Urdu stories, “some of which are columns that talk about social issues prevalent in the society, and I write Ghazals too,” he said. He has been published in leading Urdu dailies of Kashmir and in national and international magazines. One of his stories titled as “Gumnaam Qabr” or an unknown grave is about a woman whose husband is picked up by government forces, and is later disappeared. “Like thousands of other Kashmiris, he disappears too. The story is about the struggles of his wife how she searches for him and in the end finds an unnamed grave, and it is there she concludes the fate of her husband. And hence gives up the search, and that is why the title unknown grave,” he said.
The story was published in Pindar and Qaumi Tanzeem from Patna. Calling himself as someone whose writing stems from the surroundings, Sahil says he wrote “Khudkashi” or Suicide when there were student suicides taking place in valley, “The story was widely read and I received good feedback. It was about the discrepancies in the education system and how it was ruining lives of students,” he said.
Similarly, he has a story on the dowry system Known as “Jahez” translated in English as Dowry. The story talks about the prevalent social evil of domestic abuse due to non-payment of dowry, “During those day reports of domestic abuse by the
At night, Sahil lay in his bed, unable to sleep. At 1 a.m. in the middle of the night, he rose up and started crying, profusely.
Recalling that night, Sahil said that it was the images of people affected in the more than two-decade-old conflict of Kashmir that started to haunt him. “As I closed my eyes, I pictured mothers of my nation who had lost their sons to the conflict, mothers who had been waiting for years for their disappeared sons. I thought of mothers whose daughters were raped by Indian forces. I saw a mother who had refused to sit in shade because her son had lain on the ground for days in the scorching sun. I saw a mother whose son was languishing in an Indian jail for decades,” Sahil said.
As a child, Sahil said, he couldn’t bear to see a horse being flogged by its master. How, then, could he bear to see his people suffer? “I am very sensitive. I couldn’t bear to see the tonga-wallah beating his horse while on my way to school. The beatings to the horse would make me cry at night. You can imagine how much the suffering of my own people must affect me. But unlike many, I didn’t choose the gun; I picked up the pen.”
The story of a woman who had been waiting for her son for more than two decades moved Sahil to write one of his widely-read stories, “Laash” (Corpse). “It was 1:30 a.m. and I started writing, while tears were rolling down my face,” he recalled. The story was published in one of the leading Urdu dailies of Kashmir, Taemeeli Irshad. Sahil received accolades for it from near and far. “Tameeli Irshad has a huge readership in Kashmir. I was praised by many. I was very happy that my work was being appreciated,” he said with a sense of pride.
Among those who praised his story was the human rights activist Abhay Singh of Chandigarh. “It was a great moment for me to be praised by such a renowned human rights activist,” Sahil said. He recalled Abhay Singh’s words about the story: “Skilfully portrayed pain of Kashmiris.”
A story about Sahil in an Urdu daily Srinagar Times.
Sahil has more than 40 publications to his credit, most of them fictional Urdu stories, “some of which are columns that talk about social issues prevalent in the society, and I write Ghazals too,” he said. He has been published in leading Urdu dailies of Kashmir and in national and international magazines. One of his stories titled as “Gumnaam Qabr” or an unknown grave is about a woman whose husband is picked up by government forces, and is later disappeared. “Like thousands of other Kashmiris, he disappears too. The story is about the struggles of his wife how she searches for him and in the end finds an unnamed grave, and it is there she concludes the fate of her husband. And hence gives up the search, and that is why the title unknown grave,” he said.
The story was published in Pindar and Qaumi Tanzeem from Patna. Calling himself as someone whose writing stems from the surroundings, Sahil says he wrote “Khudkashi” or Suicide when there were student suicides taking place in valley, “The story was widely read and I received good feedback. It was about the discrepancies in the education system and how it was ruining lives of students,” he said.
Similarly, he has a story on the dowry system Known as “Jahez” translated in English as Dowry. The story talks about the prevalent social evil of domestic abuse due to non-payment of dowry, “During those day reports of domestic abuse by the
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