Anjum Khan

Anjum is from Srinagar. She makes paintings and sometimes writes poems about Kashmir aswell

She says, if you look at my paintings, perhaps you may not see them as stereotypical representations of Kashmir. But in every picture that I make, every word that comes along side it, you will see a glimpse of a Kashmiri girl. I live in Dubai now, but ever since I left Kashmir, I find myself writing about evenings spent under Chinar trees and about looming mountains I write about the Dal and the poetry of nature that you can only find in Kashmir.

I dont paint about trauma and bombs and blood. There is a normalcy in Kashmir aswell that people dont seem interested to see . Beyond the scenic beauty and the war, isn’t there the joy in a child who is going to school? What if i want to paint that smile.

People expect a person living outside India to voice the turmoil in Kashmir. But I am only an artist,not a revolutionary. I paint about love in Kashmir , between the young or the old, in the present or in our history.
I paint about personal remorse and of hope, about confidence and insecurities.

When people ask me to paint a picture of Kashmir, I would rather paint about the joy I feel when i finally get to go home and eat some noon chai and czoch-wor. Why not?