Real life stories: A wedding is interrupted as the abrogation of Article 370 shuts down Kashmir

Fifth August 2019 was going to be a very special day for Mahak. There was a wedding in her family, and mind you, it wasn’t just any other ceremony. In a family full of daughters, it was the first time in twelve years that a boy had come of age. Mahak’s cousin, one of only three other boys in the family, was getting married. The girl was from Delhi. It was a union of love. The bride’s entire family had descended in Srinagar for the nuptials and were in the process of getting used to the culture and customs of the region and, of course, to Kashmiri zārè pār, emphatic Kashmiri hospitality sometimes bordering on goodnatured smothering.

Mahak was giddily ecstatic about meeting all her cousins who had landed in town just for this. They were all going to be under the same roof after a very long time.

In her early twenties, Mahak was pursuing a BA in English literature in Kashmir and was in her final year. In a few months, she would be graduating. She had lived in downtown Srinagar her whole life; she wasn’t sure if she was ready to leave the nest just yet.

Mahak had known a…

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