Shameema Azad's video album launched in Kashmir

PTI/The Hindu - Chennai,India

Monday, February 5, 2007

To deliver the message of peace and harmony, Shameema Dev Azad, wife of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad released a video music album titled 'Nayi Subah' here.

Depicting scenes of return of peace in the State, where youth and students engaged in studies and trade rejecting gun culture, the album highlights the message of peace and reconciliation.

Amidst the beauty of the valley, Shameema's album highlights the theme of struggle of a Kashmiri in an era of turmoil and negation of gun for peace.

The album has been composed by Bhanjan Sopori, while the video was produced by a local television channel.

This is her fifth album in the past one year. Most of her work tries to recreate the feeling of Kashmiryat and restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

"She has filled the vacuum created during the past 17 years of militancy in Kashmir on the music front. Her songs are a mixture of Sufism and spirituality", Bhajan Sopori said.

Shameema, a Padmashree [civilian award given by the Gov of India] winner, released her first album 'Aao Kadam Badhayan' in April 2006. Her other albums are 'Kashmir Janat-e-Benazir', 'Aaluv' and a Dogri album.

[Dogri belongs to the Indo European family of languages in India and is derived from Sauraseni Prakrit. It is spoken by approx 1,500,000 -15 lacs/lakhs.

For more on Dogri, see: http://www.koshur.org/Linguistic/4.html

For more on lakhs, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh]