image © www.greaterkashmir.com
If ever a picture said a thousand words…
This photo is from today's edition of the Greater Kashmir online newspaper. I used contribute occasionally to Greater Kashmir a few years back but discontinued partly because I did not agree with some of their editorial policies.
There is no denying however that Greater Kashmir has matured enormously from its earlier days and I admire its vigorous championing of environmental and heritage issues. It is the leading English-language daily of the valley and also the main source of homeland news for the Kashmiri diaspora.
Besides, Greater Kashmir features the enormously talented Malik Sajjad . Malik Sajjad has a uncanny ability to sketch whatever is uppermost on the minds of his people, much like his senior Bashir Ahmed Bashir of the Urdu-language daily Srinagar Times.
It has been years since I read that paper, but I recall how one could instantly grasp the meaning behind the Srinagar Times cartoons even without reading the caption. A wag once commented that the artist should have been dubbed Bashir Ahmed 'Kashir'. Malik Sajjad is a worthy inheritor of that mantle.
With apologies to Ghalib:
Dekhna tasveer
Main ne yeh jaana ke goya yeh bhi mere dil mein hai
Malik Sajjad has his own website at www.maliksajad.com and it is well worth a visit.
