It’s a little house in a little alley somewhere in the old city of Srinagar. The family who live here have done the best they can with the meager collective earnings of the household. The father is a day labourer, the daughters bring in some extra income with embroidery work.
I’m led through the single downstairs room to a tiny cement stairway leading to the room that the most humble Kashmiri house must have – the reception parlour.
It is empty but for a threadbare carpet and a couple of simple cushions. And it has a window. In fact, it has the only window in the house. A simple wooden thing overlooking the street, with a piece of Hessian nailed to it acting as a curtain.
“They are too poor for windows” says my guide. So this one is the pride of the house. But now it will have bad memories for everyone who lives there. The window is the reason this family lost their daughter Fancy, just one of the statistics of the latest circle of violence between the Indian security forces and Kashmiri protestors.
