A Poet Comes Home

In a hall packed with bards, scholars and schoolchildren, Dr. Rafiq Masoodi’s new poetry collection was a homecoming, a tribute, and a celebration of Kashmiri language and memory.

- Rayees Ahmad Kumar

I: was a Thursday afternoon in Srinagar, but inside Tagore Hall, time moved at its own rhythm. Outside, the city held its breath under May's tender sun. Inside, verses floated through the air.

People filled every seat. Teachers, poets, bureaucrats, even lawmakers. All had gathered for the release of a book. But it wasn't just any book.

It was Bey Pai Talash, a Kashmiri poetry collection by Dr. Rafiq Masoodi, former Additional Director General of Doordarshan Srinagar and a respected name in Kashmir's cultural memory.

The event was warm, loud, and deeply personal. The hall opened with a prayer—Ya Rasool-e-Hashimi—sung in a voice that silenced the room.

Then came words of welcome, thoughtful and firm, from Mohammad Amin Bhat, president of Adbi Markaz Kamraz, the group that hosted the event. He reminded the audience of the group's decades-long work in preserving Kashmiri literature and called for school trips to Meeras Mahal, Sopore’s small but rich museum of culture.