Bandipora, Oct 29: A Government School teacher from Kaloosa locality of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district is toiling hard to promote Kashmiri language and culture by writing Poems, Ghazals and short stories.
Bashir Ahmad, whose pen name is Bashir Rahat belongs to an artisan family of Kangiri makers and for the last one and a half year; he has been working hard to promote Kashmiri language and culture by writing poems and ghazals in Kashmiri.
While talking with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Bashir said that he has been writing poems, ghazals and short stories for the last one and a half year only to promote Kashmiri language and culture.
“Since I belong to a poor family, I have been finding it hard to publish my work that I have been doing for the last more than a year now. I don’t have resources to promote my work,” he said.
He said that he has so far written 10 ghazals, four poems and a short story in Kashmiri language and he is well versed in Kashmiri classical music as well.
Bashir said that renowned Kashmiri poets and writers-Dr Reyaz-ul Hassan and Shakir Shafi are guiding him and he has learnt a lot from them over the past year.
“I belong from a willow wicker family who makes traditional Kashmiri Kangris and my father is illiterate but he never stopped me from pursuing my own goals and get higher education. I am also trained in making Kangris,” he said.
Bashir has done a double MA in Education and History and is currently working in the education department as a teacher. He got a job in the education department in 2008 as ReT teacher and presently posted in Guzabal village of Bandipora.
He said that he has done his primary schooling from a local Madrassa, Taleem-ul-Quran and later on did his bachelor’s in arts from Sopore degree college and masters degree in Education and History from the University of Kashmir.
Bashir said that he is also well versed in Kashmiri classical music and has performed several stage performances on various occasions across Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that his dream is to restore the glory of Kashmiri culture and traditions through his pen and singing.
“I have won best actor appreciation award at the Kashmir University on the occasion of Teacher’s Day in 2010. I have also done several programmes on Radio Kashmir and recently during ‘My Town My Pride’ in Bandipora I also performed Ladishah, which I had myself written and composed in the Kashmiri language,” he said.
Bashir said that he has been toiling very hard to promote Kashmiri language and culture through his pen and singing, however, due to lack of resources he is finding it hard to promote his work—(KNO)
