Parvez Dewan’s Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh

Pervez Dewan can send you to sleep about Kashmir. If anyone has the Ultimate Dossier on this region, it is he, after years of running about India’s northernmost state, administering and adventuring his way around its valleys, peaks and rivers. Along the way, he discovered that Kashmir had its own school of miniature painting, followed a hunch about a second Amarnath cave from a shepherd’s report, studied the bedtime habits of black bears, explored myths about Jesus and Kashmir’s Jewish connection, listened to the Sufis sing (and translated the haunting songs of Habba Khatoon), dodged the leopards of Zaberwan, lived through the bombs and grenades of militancy, trekked through snowstorms and learnt to tell between good and badsilk carpets, shahtoosh and pashmina. Some of this was in the course of work. Between whiles, he managed to consume vast quantities of wazwan and trout, took copious notes on almost everything and, in particular, discovered deep, enduring bonds between Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus; Shias and Sunnis: Dogras, Sikhs, Afghans and Kashmiris-even between Kashmir and the Seven Konkans. In this first-of-its-kind encyclopaedic three-volume set on Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, one on each region, Parvez Dewan shares in detail his interest and excitement in the fabled land that has been the arena of his adult life: an up-to-date yet timeless guide to the magical trinity of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that crowsn the sub-continent of India.