WHEN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS AWED INDIANS
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an anguished Indian poet invoked the “Ma Nishada sloka,” the first verse (Adi Kavya) of Sanskrit literature, uttered spontaneously by Sage Valmiki in grief and rage after a hunter killed one of two mating sarus cranes (Krauncha). It curses the hunter to never be at peace for killing an […]
The Pen and the Plough: Remembering Kaifi Azmi’s Immortal Legacy
May 10 marks the 24th death anniversary of *Syed Athar Hussain Rizvi*, known to the world as *Kaifi Azmi*. He was not merely a poet or a lyricist; he was a storm of conscience, a bridge between the elitist Urdu tradition and the common man, and a romantic who never stopped dreaming of a more […]
