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Netherfield Ball – Bolbosh Website Launch, Oxford Bookstore

The party secrets.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

One evening The Delhi Walla attended the launch of literary website Bolbosh at the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place.

Carefully unkempt writer Basharat Ali and painstakingly groomed Asiya Zahoor, the website’s founder member, chatted on the stage. Ms Zahoor was playful with her white headscarf – a feminine privilege denied to Mr Ali. These two young people spoke awkwardly, sincerely, optimistically about the new online enterprise, “an archive of aesthetically rich and culturally significant literature from the Baramulla region (of Kashmir) written in languages such as Balti, Pahari, Ladakhi, Shina and Dorgi, Gujri and Kashmiri.”

Since the focus was on conflict-ridden Kashmir, one had prepared oneself to hear stories of custodial deaths and disappeared sons, but these hopeful language enthusiasts dealt with “a Kashmir that is beyond politics.” They talked of farmers who were poets, and poets who were shopkeepers.

Only one celebrity was spotted among the attendees – author Rahul Pandita outwitted the city traffic just in time for the dainty samosas.

Party with a difference

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7. (Rahul Pandita)

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