Quote by Agha Shahid Ali: “My memory is a land of ash, where nothing grows.”

This poignant line describes a memory so scarred by destruction and loss that it has become barren, incapable of nurturing new life or hope. It conveys a deep sense of despair over a ravaged past.

The 1990s saw severe curfews and violence in Kashmir, transforming the landscape and the collective memory into one of profound grief and trauma, which Ali powerfully articulated in his poetry.

Kashmiri-American poet, born in New Delhi in 1949 and raised in Kashmir, whose ghazals in English brought the classical Urdu form to American poetry. His collection The Country Without a Post Office lamented the violence in Kashmir with devastating lyricism, and he taught at many American universities before his death in 2001.