On 3rd August 2025, in the heart of Srinagar city, Twenty-One individuals - some from communications background, some from business, one from engineering,a few from media and others from arts - sat together, went through the text and photos, and embedded yourselves in the world that we were understanding. They ran their hands, hearts, and minds through people’s words and worlds. They came out with evocative, beautiful, heart-touching zines in the end. And more than that, understood what the world of mountains is, and what the violence of the LoC takes.

Participants from Poonch, Karnah, and Kargil who joined us, shared their experiences, and made the session more meaningful.

The idea of zines is to put your mind out there, to not follow rules, to be disobedient, and to reject the ones who reject and dehumanise you. And that was the topic of my zine-making workshop too; it was about the world of mountains, the realities of people, and a strange thing that doesn’t belong to them, that doesn’t define them: the LoC, yet they have to live with its everyday violence.

The Participants registered through an open call. The materials provided to them included excerpts of interview transcripts from my research on Border Coloniliaty, photographs I have clicked over the years, and some random stationary and magazines. The whole aim was to fill the information and knowledge gap between kashmir valley and the mountains, and the gap in discourse on the region.

Below are a few prompts given during the workshop, followed by videos and photos of the zines produced, alongwith some reflections from the participants. .