There was a fire on campus, but not an accidental one. Students had set it themselves, burning books, documents, and anything that could establish their association with the university. The year was 2021, and the city was Kabul.

“The situation continued to worsen. Markets were hardly operational; if people were seen on the roads, they were either fleeing to safety or were those who had come to Kabul trying to escape impending arrest from Taliban…” writes author Enakshi Sengupta in her latest book, Escape From Kabul: A True Story of Escape and Survival (HarperCollins Publishers). Escape, she writes, is a small word but contains “the meaning of emancipation, the possibilities of new horizons, and freedom from painful shackles, both physical and mental.”

After losing a loved one in 2019,

See Full Page