“His brain had splattered across the entire car.” These words, uttered by Vihaan’s parents, shocked me to my core. Vihaan, a young schoolboy, an only child, had just entered the cusp of teenagehood when his entire life was forcefully snatched away. While his body was mortal, not much was left of the spirit of his parents’ lives either.
House after house, as the delegation moved forward, I witnessed the uprooting of lives and homes. Individuals from different religions — Sikh, Muslim, Hindu — all met a similar and most painful fate. We had the opportunity to converse with the families, and each of the martyred lives reflected definitive simplicity — people who had been faulted to death as collateral. The grieving families were promised compensation in return. They say money is a medium of exchange, but for the first time in my life, I witnessed it being exchanged for a life.
What unfolded over the five days of our visit were learnings that changed the entire course of my life, and all that had been taught to me. As a fairly educated individual from a reputed institution, everything I had been taught about Jammu and Kashmir seemed contradicted by what I saw. I saw madrasas housing tourists during the six-day war, helping Indian defence personnel to the best of their abilities as diligent citizens and, most importantly, showing undeterred allegiance to the ethos of the Indian subcontinent. My faith in the mainstream media eroded completely after this visit. These individuals are tainted as militants, anti-nationals — when the reality is completely the opposite.
In Deri Dhara, a village in Rajouri, I met a family with three adult daughters close to my age. All were smart and ambitious, but their eyes spoke silently of deep weariness and defeat, in contrast to their completely destroyed house during the cross-border firing.
As a 28-year-old who visited Kashmir as part of this delegation, I could suddenly and starkly see the life I had been granted the privilege to live, and how young Kashmiri women — just as capable — were deprived of the same. The urban areas echo the same agony, albeit hidden behind the touristy facade of Dal Lake, which allows outsiders to harbour a false illusion of modernity. Their education is disrupted by recurring curfews, unrest, and, most importantly, a constant and genuine threat to life — at any time, from anyone.
On our way to Poonch from Rajouri, our car was stopped by a group of army personnel inquiring about our commute, and at that moment, a strange fear crept into me. Anything could happen, and no one would ever know. Another instance occurred while driving to Shopian: while passing through a quarry, we heard a sudden blast from the stones. The Kashmiri with us remarked whether the shelling had started again. Another night, there was a thunderstorm in Srinagar, and I woke up in the middle of the night, from the depths of my sleep, thinking the war had begun again — a feeling I can only describe as “this is it.” All this in just the seven days I spent in Kashmir. That was my temporary reality there — and it terrifies me to think of those who continue to live with such uncertainty, every single day.
We were told that 31 innocent civilians had lost their lives. Thirty-one lives — each like any of us — who no longer live to see the day as we do. I reiterate: it could have been any of us, anywhere — in Baisaran, Rajouri, Poonch, Uri. It could very well have been the case that the thunderstorm I woke up to was, in fact, a full-fledged war. I write this piece today in the deepest gratitude that I was not a victim of such a war. But there are still those who live in Kashmir who can never say this with certainty.
A Kashmiri friend recently and rightfully mentioned that thousands of pages have been written about the Kashmir conflict, and they will never do complete justice to their lived realities. I agree. However, the weary eyes of the girls in Deri Dhara speak of a reality that can never be captured by multitudes of pages — yet convey the entirety of their truth.
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Rumaan Mecci was part of the Socialist Party (India) Kashmir Solidarity Mission, which visited the war-affected areas during 25–31 May, 2025, following the recent six-day war
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