Follow us on

JUNAID QURESHI

Dressed in a pale green suit, adorned with a white dupatta and a tightly wrapped black scarf covering my hair, I looked at my face in the small mirror above the half-broken sink in our little bathroom before hearing my father calling my name for the third time from downstairs.

The mirror frightened me.

I was scared and did not want to go.

Noor Mohammed, Baba’s friend from Srinagar had come to pick me up. We lived in Chithi Bandi near Bandipora, and I had just passed Class 6. One of my elder brothers had also gone to Srinagar with Noor Mohammed a few years ago, working as a cleaner in an office. The other one stayed back and helped my father on our fields. Four of my sisters were younger than me, and after the death of my mother, I used to take care of them.

See Full Page