All the calendars in our home in Srinagar stood frozen at October 1999, which isthe last month my parents lived in their house there. We feared great damage in the intervening years, butwere relieved to find only enormous volumes of dust, and the detritus of pigeons nesting in the attic and thebalcony, encouraged by the easy access provided by broken window-panes. As we cleaned — the hard work beingdone by two neighbourhood caretakers called Abdul Gaffar and Raghunath — it was tempting to think of therestoration of this home as a metaphor for a restored Srinagar, and a Kashmir, and a return to amulti-religious, syncretic culture.