Cups of nun chai is an evolving body of work, brewed for over a decade by Alana Hunt as a requiem to the killing of over 118 people during pro-freedom protests in Indian controlled Kashmir in 2010. It unfolded over two years of tea and conversation, accumulated progressively online, appeared as a newspaper serial in the Kashmir Reader from June 2016 – April 2017, and has most recently been published by Yaarbal Books, New Delhi. For 4A Digital contributing writers read excerpts of their work, which photographer Sharafat Ali has responded to visually.

A search for meaning in the face of something so brutal it appears absurd.
Alana Hunt

Indifferent. Unaware. Elsewhere.
Alana Hunt

Except ten million people do not go gentle into that good night.
Arif Ayaz Parrey

I had seen stones fill the surface of an almost empty street.
Alana Hunt

a platoon of samavars work tirelessly
Arif Ayaz Parrey

“So when did Australia become free from the British?”
Alana Hunt

daring to look at the forest beyond the fog
Parvaiz Bukhari

When you want to make a dream real, it suddenly gathers weight.
Alana Hunt

“Your generation saw nothing; just ruins and debris.”
Uzma Falak

To learn more about the work visit: www.cupsofnunchai.com

Sharafat Ali is an award-winning photographer whose work focuses on conflict, politics, faith and daily life in war-torn Kashmir.

Alana Hunt is an artist and writer living on Miriwoong country in the North-west of Australia. She has been working on evolving iterations of Cups of nun chai since 2010, most recently published by Yaarbal Books.

Arif Ayaz Parrey is a Kashmiri writer infused with nun chai.

Parvaiz Bukhari is a journalist based in Srinagar, Kashmir. In 2016 when Cups of nun chai was serialised in the Kashmir Reader, he was an editor with the daily newspaper.

Uzma Falak is a poet, essayist and filmmaker from Kashmir. She is currently a DAAD Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Heidelberg.

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