For Prof S.M. Wijeyaratne from Sri Lanka, Srinagar is like any other place. He was here for the World Health Congress along with his wife, Prof C.N. Wejaratne. “If there is any news about Kashmir, it is on violence. But I know it is just one incident somewhere,” says Wijeyaratne. “Sri Lanka was worse. We had suicide bombers.”
As they say, life never stops. One of the consequences of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir is a smokescreen especially around the Valley, through which all that is visible is the conflict, subsuming every aspect of everyday life. So what does the raging violence hide about life in Kashmir?