Of whispers in the shadows

Here's a common saying, "In Kashmir, the news can be wrong, but the rumors are always right," writes Mehak Jamal, in Lõal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land, her debut collection of 16 real-life love stories set in the Valley, against the backdrop of the unrelenting conflict.

- Saudamini Jain

Here's a common saying, "In Kashmir, the news can be wrong, but the rumors are always right," writes Mehak Jamal, in Lõal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land, her debut collection of 16 real-life love stories set in the Valley, against the backdrop of the unrelenting conflict. In this case, she is referring to a sense of foreboding in Kashmir in July 2019.

By the end of that month, locals had begun hoarding food, medicines and fuel, and generally sensed that something was afoot. But no one was prepared, after the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, for the total communication blackout imposed—certainly not young people in love.

Lõal is the Kashmiri word for love and longing. Like rumors, love here often exists in whispers and moves in the shadows. Jamal's book is a collection of the sweet, bittersweet, bitter—and often inventive—ways in which Kashmiris must navigate romantic relationships, with patience and restraint.

Jamal divides the accounts into three chronological sections: Otru (Day before Yesterday), which are tales from the 90s; Rath