No news can come

On Friday, the BBC reported that many Indians were celebrating the decision of the Indian government to abrogate certain provision of Article 370

As the Indian government clamped down on all modes of communication in Jammu and Kashmir last week, I was reminded constantly of Aga Shahid Ali’s poem, “I See Kashmir from New Delhi at Midnight”, especially the following lines: “One must wear jewelled ice in dry plains / to will the distant mountains to glass. / The city from where no news can come / Is now so visible in its curfewed nights.” The city from which no news can come, the city from which no news was coming, where no one was aware of what was afoot — Srinagar, the