Whispers of a Garden

When Mahjoor sang his call for renewal, Kashmir was not the basket case it is today.

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If the poet was animated by fervour for the future, he was also inspired by what he saw around himself — nature, largely unsullied and unspoilt. His words of hope and challenge must have sprung as much from his confidence in his compatriots as from the bounteous mother’s blessings the Valley boasted of. But now, and for a long time, there has been betrayal on both counts. Anyone visiting Kashmir untutored today would find it hard to believe that it had once moved the poet to sing walo ha baaghwano nau baharuk shaan paida kar. Where is the baagh, and where is the baghbaan? Even saints and rishis born and bred here have found inspiration from nature’s bequests and scaled great heights in their spiritual journeys, leaving behind timeless lessons for humanity on how to forge its relationship with the world. In a way, this intellectual debt has been acknowledged time and again in poetry and prose, with some going to the extent of attributing th