Memories of KAshmir
What is Memories of Kashmir ?
As time passes, some memories fade and some stay with us very vivid and clear. As generations come and go, the glory and pain also dwindle and leftovers are passed on through generations as stories. As we migrate, by force or by choice, it moves us away from our loved ones and our neighborhoods that ingrained in us our language and culture every single moment.
Would it not be nice to have a way for each one of us individually and the community collectively to not allow passage of time, generations and or migrations to fade our memories? Would it not be nice to be able to keep them alive, fresh and always accessible beyond the boundaries of time, generations and geographies?
iqwat is very pleased to launch “Memories of Kashmir” – an initiative aimed to document and digitize our experiences and memories of the past. You can submit your stories in video, audio or written format. Written stories will be compiled in an e-book and video & audio stories will get published on iqwat platform. There will be a separate section for kids stories.
Still wondering what to share?
Personal Stories
They can be memories of growing up, incidents of school days, visiting matamaal, walking among the bloom of Mughal gardens, warming hands over a kangdi in the winters or just sitting together and sharing gossip over a steaming cup of kehwa.
First time in Kashmir
Stories of your first visit to Kashmir or revisiting after a very long time.
Your Perception of Kashmir
Stories by individuals who have never lived in or visited Kashmir but would like to share their perception of Kashmir on the basis of what they have heard from others.
Stories that go long way
Stories passed on from grandparents, parents, family and friends about life in the valley, shikara rides on Dal Lake, social interactions with neighbours, stories about Gurus and Maharishis and other experiences in Kashmir. These are recounts of incidents that you may not have personally experienced.
Interesting Anecdotes
Interesting anecdotes about family incidents, celebrations, socializing at weddings, traveling, etc.
Walk Down the Memory Lane
Nostalgic recount of memories (eg. Gossip from youthful days; spooky stories that you heard as a child, hearsay stories).
We know you got questions..
The content must be clean and devoid of objectionable, offensive, vulgar or abusive language. There must not be any verbal or graphical depictions of violence, crime or political actions. Profanity or discrimination against any culture or religion must be avoided.
Format
A story can be submitted in the form of Written document, Video or Voice Recording.
Size
The size of submission should not exceed 100MB.
Eligibility
The activity is open to Kashmiri Pandits of all ages and locations across the globe.
Number of Entries
You can share one story per entry. The number of submissions per person is unlimited.
Entry Fee?
There is no Entry Fee.
Exclusiveness
The submissions must be exclusive to iqwat and will not be displayed/re-purposed for any other platform.
- Duration of video file should be less than 5 minutes.
- Video should be in mp4 format.
- Language used for story narration: Hindi, English, Kashmiri or a combination of all 3.
- Video can be shot as solo or in collaboration with other family members.
- Use of props, pictures, artwork, Kashmiri artifacts, etc. in creation of the video is encouraged.
- Duration of audio file should be less than 5 minutes.
- Audio should be in mp3 format.
- Language used for story narration: Hindi, English, Kashmiri or a combination of all 3.
- Audio narration can be by one or more people.
- Length of written story should be between 500-800 words.
- Language: Hindi or English.
- Content should be clear, crisp and easy to comprehend.
Tutorials
How to make a good video?
How to make a good audio story?
How to write a story?
Submit your Entry
In order to participate in Memories of Kashmir, you need to be a registered user.
Login/Register
Frequently Asked Questions
This contest is being run and managed by iqwat, an initiative to bring together Kashmiri Pandit community around the globe on to one platform. We will launch the iqwat app in January 2021 Until then we want to discover, support, and engage artists in many categories and age groups so that when iqwat goes live we can promote many of these artists within the community.
Contest goes live on Sep 19th, 2020 and will end on Oct 19th, at 5:00 p.m.
Any Kashmiri Pandit or their family member can participate. Children, teenagers, youngsters, adults and senior citizens are all encouraged to participate.
Yes, you can
The poet and the reciter both need to appear in the video.
You can participate in as many categories as you wish.
You can upload as many entries as you wish.
Winners will be announced within one week of the contest end day. Exact date and time of announcement will be updated on www.iqwat.com.
We will have the rights to use your content / clip on any social media platform or in any promotional platforms. You as an owner will also have the right to use your content where you deem fit.
All content will be maintained securely on our servers with restricted access.
For each category we have formed a Jury comprising of atleast three judges some of whom will have professional background in each of their areas.
Each winner finalized by judges will be reviewed by a 6 member executive team independently to ensure fairness and very strict process of selection of winner.
All prizes are digital cash coupons and we will distribute them through the email ID provided by you during the registration process.