The ban on mobile SMSes in Kashmir has evoked a unique work of art, by a young artist from Australia. The work beautifully captures the banality of what has been barred in Kashmir in the name of security. After being exhibited in India and the world, the project, named ‘Paper txt msgs from Kashmir,’ has now been released on the internet as an e-book.

The idea was simple. Take a blank piece of paper and ask mobile phone users to write what they might have normally written in an SMS at that particular time had the facility been allowed. This was what the artist Alana Hunt called a “Paper Text Message.”

The cards were distributed in the southern and northern regions of the valley, apart from Srinagar. There were close to 1,000 paper text messages in total, which were divided into piles and distributed through friends, family and colleagues. “Close to 150 paper text messages made their way back to me in packages, in peoples’ pockets and individually in the post,” says Alana.

The project generated keen interest, both in India and abroad. Paper text messages went on display in exhibitions last year at Sarai in New Delhi and Fraser Studio in Sydney. In late March this year, the work was shown, among other places, in Berlin and in the Netherlands as part of the Memefest. – Text and photos by Nawaz Gul Qanungo

Nawaz Gul Qanungo is a Srinagar-based writer and journalist. He was formerly based in New Delhi with India’s major financial daily Business Standard. His work has appeared in some of India’s major publications including Business Standard, Tehelka, Down to Earth, the Tamil Dinamalar and Kashmir Times.