Style, and Stories of 1960s Srinagar

I walked the lanes of my college years where small victories, stolen smiles, and carefully earned clothes carried a sense of pride and belonging unlike anything today.

- Syed Nissar H Gilani

I catch sight of Dress Corner these days, and it pulls me straight back to those sunlit afternoons of my college years, from 1963 right through to my postgraduate days in 1970.

Back then, we treated any shop with real branded men's clothes like a hidden treasure, something special that made our hearts race with possibility.

Srinagar pulsed with these spots we called corners, each one a magnet drawing us into the everyday adventures of growing up.

Book Corner sat right there by the grand old S.P. College and the lively Government College for Women along M.A. Road, and my circle of friends, including Saleem, Rauf Fazili, Syed Ahamed, and Mushtaq Buch, who left us far too soon, made it our regular haunt.

We wandered in for the newest shirts or jackets, sure, but mostly we soaked up the buzz of student chatter and dreams spilling out onto the pavement. That place wrapped us in the energy of lectures just ending and futures still unfolding.

Right next door stretched Love Lane, tucked away behind the Women's College, a narrow path alive with the silent excitement of young hearts stealing moments together or stealing quick peeks at faces that lit up their world.

We all knew the pull of those encounters, the way a shared smile could turn an ordinary walk into something electric. Even so, we shared those spaces with watchful guardians who shaped our world with firm hands.