an eclectic group of artisans artistes and athletes from kashmir were in kolkata recently for a multimedia event held at a city gallery over two days the guests interacted with eminent city personalities such as bickram ghosh tanusree shankar iman chakraborty dibyendu barua and others and shared glimpses of their artistic and professional journeysamong them was padma awardee ghulam mohammad zaz one of the last surviving santoor makers from the valley we have been making santoors for generations now earlier there used to be regular roohani mehfils where people irrespective of their faith used to come together to immerse in music and spirituality it was legends like pandit shiv kumar sharma and pandit shambhoo nath sopori who brought this ageold instrument to the limelight despite the evident lack of interest among youngsters zaz hopes talents will emerge again maybe from kashmir itselfsami ara the first kashmiri female commercial pilot spoke about being accepted more than just a pretty face i got my license in 1994 but it took me another decade to fly my first plane now people have grown to be more accepting towards female pilots she saidfootballer ishfaq ahmed has a special bond with kolkata he has played for all the major clubs i admire how the city shares my passion for football and absolutely love its food i am very fond of phuchka and i also recommend people to try the fish biryani when they are here apart from the famed kolkata biryani he said faisal ali dar a padmaaward winning martial arts expert was present at the event too i started in 2003 and i chose martial arts over other sports because football and cricket were the only sports people were aware of there he said adding how at his academy he hopes to train future olympians from the 27000 who have enrolled nuzhat gul secretary of the jk sports council and first woman turf manager of a golf course in srinagar hailed athletes such as mannat choudhary inshah bashir and aksa gulzar as the new national role modelsalso present at the event was naseem shafaie the first kashmiri woman to win the sahitya akademi award who was hopeful that tourism will help everyone from spice sellers craftspeople and shikara owners to local youth while focussing on the valleys rich cultural spiritual and culinary legacyguinness record holder cyclist adil teli was excited at bollywood film units returning to the valley to shoot with so many film units going to kashmir it will boost both the economy and the morale of the people he said adding how films could celebrate the unexplored parts of the valleythe event also saw the monarch of ladakh his excellency jigmed wangchuk namgyal renowned photographer raghu rai among others the idea is to put spotlight on the amazing human equity of the valley said kounetya sinha who is helming the project with vaibhav giani