A TALE OF TWO LOCKDOWNS
“Be kind to others. Because, the world is dealing with three pandemics same time: Greed, Corruption and Corona Virus.” De philosopher, DJ Kyos “H ello Sir, how’re you? This is my new number; please save. Please do get in touch with me whenever you plan to visit our beautiful land.” Who was this man, and which beautiful land was he referring to? Both, my wife and I, had a desire to visit beautiful Kashmir – which was, always, hailed as ‘The Heaven on Earth’ - for a long time. But, for a very long time, our desire was crushed under the painful reality of endless insurgency on the one side and the merciless deluge on the other. It took decades for the people of Kashmir – whose main livelihood depended on tourism – to limp their way back to normalcy. So, in the summer of 2016, when our 25 th wedding anniversary was approaching, we both decided to fulfil one of our long-cherished-but-buried wishes. By then, tourism was substantially back. A couple of our family...