Most reports coming out of Kashmir, specifically Srinagar, have described and distilled the desolate, still and sieged state of the region as “curfew-like”. However, while all of Srinagar remains desolate, parts of it are more desolate than others.
In the area of the Kashmiri capital known as Downtown, the quietude can get so deafening that the morning breeze starts whistling in one’s ears. Here, old and shabby houses with sloped roofs line the lifeless road populated by CRPF personnel and the J&K police and their silver hoops of concertina wire. At regular distances, men, old and young, can be seen sitting by the road and chatting away the afternoon. Some take to a game of carrom outside shuttered shops that sell everyday consumer goods in times of normalcy. Many buildings have windows shattered—“We broke this one when Pakistan lost to India in the World Cup,” one local told me—and lazy dogs loiter outside and pick fights among themselves.
