When Kashmir Went Offline

When the network died, so did our routines. The valley has lived through the world’s longest shutdowns, and each fresh blackout revives old fears.

- Sana Gul Khurshid

The day began like any other in Srinagar. People were scrolling reels, scanning QR codes, booking cabs, attending online classes, and streaming meetings. I was one of them, phone in hand, watching the small dots circle on the screen while my cab app refused to load. The internet had stopped. Pages froze. Calls would not connect.

At first, it looked temporary. We Kashmiris have been trained to expect sudden gaps in service. Yet when minutes stretched into hours, I felt the old anxiety return: no calls, no payments, and no work.

I left my cabin and found others restless too. Some kept pacing between desks, redialing numbers from their contact list. Friends called each other with nothing to say, only to check if lines were open. The usual noise of typing and tapping was gone, replaced by a single topic: the blackout.