The Shovel and the Soul

In Shareefo Ka Mohalla, Hussain Zafar turns the ordinary into the profound, using a village boy’s story to reflect Kashmir’s enduring struggle between tradition, modernity, and moral strength.

- Bashir Ahmad Dar

Hussain Zafar's Shareefo Ka Mohalla (The Clan of Decents) is a book that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Rooted in Kashmir's soil and shaped by its layered society, it captures what it means to live, strive, and stay grounded in one’s values while moving through a changing world.

Zafar writes with the calm assurance of someone who has seen both the simplicity of village life and the complexities of city living.

Born in Rantipora, Pulwama, and later moving to Srinagar, he uses this dual perspective to draw a picture that is vivid, layered, and hauntingly familiar to anyone from Kashmir.

The book opens with an unexpected grace. In his dedication, Zafar writes to “all those whom he may have hurt — intentionally or unintentionally.”