A close up image of a resident of Srinagar holding a black-and-white photograph of his grandfather on his houseboat

A resident of Srinagar holds an old photograph of his grandfather on his houseboat. In the absence of formal memorialisation and gaps in the written records on Srinagar, the only access residents have to their past is through personal and collective memories.IMAGO / Le Pictorium

Sadaf Wani on the lifeworlds of Srinagar: Southasia Review of Books podcast #14

In her biography of the city, the Kashmiri writer highlights the complications of Srinagar’s identity and recentres the everyday lives of its people, particularly women

Published on:

07 Jan 2025, 3:52 pm

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the Kashmiri writer Sadaf Wani about her new book City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar (Aleph Book Company, June 2024).

Srinagar, in its changing forms, has been the centre of political and cultural activity in Kashmir for centuries. The city has a rich history that has been overshadowed by its turbulent political past and present, which has shaped all readings and accounts of the place.

Without losing sight of the ongoing political conflict and militarisation in India-administered Kashmir, Wani offers a corrective. In her biography of the city, she explores the collective historical, cultural and personal memories of Srinagar. From its cultures of leisure to the manufactured “normalcy” of life in Srinagar today, Wani unpacks how the city’s people, and its women in particular, are reclaiming their narratives.

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This episode is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.

Episode notes:

City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar (Aleph Book Company, June 2024)

Gobyaer: A short story - Sadaf Wani (Himal Southasian, June 2021)

No place for picnics: Kashmiri women tell their stories of the conflict - Freny Manecksha (Himal Southasian, May 2013)

Against forgetting. Against erasure: On meaning, storytelling, and memory-making in Kashmir - Shivangi Mariam Raj (Himal Southasian, November 2021)

As normal as it gets: A Kashmiri family tries to talk (Himal Southasian, October 20219)

Quiet and on the edge: A first-time visitor’s observations of present-day Kashmir - Aritra Bhattacharya (Himal Southasian, September 2019)

Shards of memory: The harsh light of Kashmir reflected in new fiction - Freny Manecksha (Himal Southasian, October 2018)

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